5 Communication Shifts That Separate Good and Great Leaders

Every idea starts its life unformed. First drafts, demo recordings, and prototypes are all examples of creations finding a path toward completion. Some of the greatest contributions to art, science, and business first entered the world on a Post-it note or napkin, taking their first breaths in fits and starts. It’s through refining, editing, and testing that creators home in on the vision within that initial spark. With enough patience, diligence, and iteration, groundbreaking works emerge.

Skills are the same way.

Whether it’s 10,000 hours or dogged perseverance, evolving a talent into a proficiency requires the same process. It’s why artists rehearse, rising chefs stage at established restaurants, and businesses offer internships to recent graduates. Even certified lawyers and doctors are practicing their professions. That’s because growth is messy and requires ongoing maintenance to ensure skills gained remain intact.

For leaders looking to fine-tune their abilities, embracing the strain of new muscles, approaches, and ways of thinking can fast-track that progression. And it starts with acknowledging untapped potential.

In a recent conversation with Forbes, Duarte CEO, Nancy Duarte, identified key areas in presenting and storytelling where leaders struggle to reach their pinnacle. Below are five communication shifts that Nancy highlighted as separating good leaders from great ones, and how to start the process.

1. From Polish to Presence

“Most leaders aren’t short on polish. They’re short on presence.”

Anyone can look the part. But commanding a room takes an array of skills that fly under a single banner: presence. At Duarte, we define presence as the ability to connect, influence, and stay composed, no matter the room or the moment. Where a power outfit can go a long way toward helping appearance, presence is what lights up an audience and leaves a lasting impression. It’s speakers who read and respond to non-verbal cues with adaptive listening and in their responses. It’s thoughtful messages infused with empathy that inspires real action, and responding to audience needs in real-time in any setting.

As a basket of tangible and intangible qualities, building presence can require a unique learning journey to gain the right combination of skills. That’s the difference between just looking the part and projecting trust, authority, and composure across written and spoken mediums. To this end, committing to presentation training, speaker coaching, cultivating an eye for design, and connecting regularly with key audiences will help make sure any executive sheen is road ready. Stepping on stage, in front of a camera, or agreeing to a town hall-style Q&As can all serve as incentives to develop a presence regimen to meet the moment.

But true leaders know that high-stakes moments are far from isolated incidents. Rather, they’re links in a chain that tethers a leader’s presence to the impressions formed by audiences, customers, clients, and employees. Without this acknowledgement and dedication to see presence as a continuous on-going process, leaders risk just playing dress-up.

2. From Star Player to Team Player 

“If the only way the story works is when you’re the one telling it, it’s too fragile.”

During the height of the Space Race, President John F. Kennedy visited Cape Canaveral to track progress on the Apollo Program. Among NASA personnel, Kennedy paused to speak with a janitor who perfectly encapsulated the spirit of the organization. When asked about his role, the janitor replied, “Well Mr. President, I’m helping put a man on the moon.” What began with Kennedy’s “We choose to go to the Moon” speech aligned a mop and broom with rocket science to achieve something uncharted. JFK captured a universal sentiment by not making the goal of a moon landing about himself as a leader, but as a challenge to rise and meet as a nation. His message touched the bedrock of America’s collective consciousness and remains a high watermark of visionary leadership.

This is just one example of how great leaders package their ideas as inclusive stories of struggle and perseverance to frame the world as it is and imagine how it could be. This tension, and the glory of moving from a current state into a new reality, allows audiences to see their contributions as working to achieve that vision. From colleagues in the C-suite to employees bringing roadmaps to life, a shared story inspires coordination and alignment by allowing everyone to see themselves as part of a whole. This is the threshold at which leaders stop just leading and start unifying toward a defining mission.

3. From Informing to Moving 

“If you can’t connect to it emotionally, your audience won’t either.”

Dry, data-heavy presentations can be eye-watering. Even worse, they can mean a dead-end for brilliant ideas. That’s because audiences of all stripes crave emotional connection and check out during moments of information overload. At Duarte, we have a saying: Never give a presentation you wouldn’t want to sit through. For leaders, bundling ideas into stories that strike the right emotional resonance is essential to move audiences toward a desired action.

In practice, this means balancing technical and analytical language with clever narratives that center the audience’s hopes and concerns. Think car commercials rattling off product features while the latest model weaves through snow covered pines; Or a new pharmaceutical listing side effects while people enjoy a day at the beach. In these cases, freedom of movement, leisure, and ease form associations with these products and cures. The more audiences are prone to resonate with those messages, the more profound the connection.

For leaders, coupling information with stories that inspire emotional attachment can help ensure audience’s stay engaged throughout a presentation. A three-act story structure can help organize talks and assess how each part contributes to a cohesive, impactful narrative. With a clear beginning, middle, and end, it’s easier to track the story’s movements, and create S.T.A.R. Moments to make the message memorable.

4. From Platitude to Virtue

“Your values should be able to endure pressure. Otherwise they’re just slogans.”

Put the customer first. People over process. Don’t be evil. Great leaders articulate company values early and often. But repetition alone doesn’t put them into practice. It takes dedication, vision, and accountability to keep organizations aligned toward living their values. As major focal points, leaders are tasked with embodying company or brand values and making sure they’re reflected in company actions. Equal parts mouthpiece and lightning rod, leaders are amplifiers of success during boom times, and the first to see accountability if progress veers off course.

That’s why leaders who walk the walk tend to avoid PR crises and social media pile-ons, not to mention clampdowns from regulatory agencies. Much like knowing one’s audience before a talk, companies tend to attract customers and workers that align with their values, and vice versa. This chicken and egg problem works in both directions; and like the latter, can be just as fragile when company or leadership conduct breaks with professed values. For leaders, this can mean everything from staunching bad press to avoid having to ride a yolk-colored parachute back into the job market.

Instead, values should be opportunities, not liabilities. At Duarte, commitments to Belong, Lead, Innovate, and Serve help synchronize our watches as an organization. They provide a map during moments of crisis and guide Nancy in making difficult decisions. As a cornerstone of Duarte’s ethos, our BLIS values nurture company culture and inspire efforts to give back. This led naturally to funding giraffe conservation, an animal that serves as a symbol of strength, community, and refuge at Duarte. For leaders, embracing charitable contributions, sponsoring organizations, and demonstrating authentic belief in professed values can help keep the conversation focused on results and telling more empathetic stories.

5. From Performative to Passionate

“When leaders find the story they can’t help but tell, everything changes.”

Along with staying value-aligned, audiences respond to passionate leaders who give off an electric excitement. Recognizable by their relentless energy, these leaders use every opportunity as a soap box to stay on message and connect through story. More than sharing vision, it’s having a palpable drive that lends momentum to talks and presentations. On the flip side, it’s obvious to audiences when leaders struggle to tap into that depth of feeling. Once doubt creeps in, a leader’s belief and commitment can get called into question.

To avoid the appearance of just going through the motions, leaders need to understand their true motivations. Audiences can sense when a leader speaks from the heart. Their purpose, passion, and perspective are clear in the emphasis, diction, and rhetorical choices used to put beliefs into words. Thoughtful reflection can uncover the roots of inspiration, and present pathways to share feelings with audiences, customers, and direct reports. This process nurtures the ability to invite and inspire others toward a shared passion: a crucial means of cohesion at any organization.

How Duarte Can Help Leaders Reach Their Full Potential

Looking to start making the shift toward becoming a great leader? Duarte offers a suite of educational and professional development offerings to improve presence and evolve a leadership skillset:

• Captivate training workshops can help build confident delivery for every presentation. 
• Speaker Coaching for personalized, 1:1 guidance on communicating with clear, engaging authority in every setting.
• Resonate training workshops unpack the connection between storytelling and persuasion to help learners distill and communicate complex ideas with clarity.
• Illuminate training workshops teach leaders how to dig deeper into empathetic storytelling, utilize strategic communication to inspire, sustain action, and navigate change.
• Adaptive Listening training workshops introduce novel approaches for leaders to meet a variety of speaker needs for deeper connections and alignment with every interaction.

In turn, Slide:ology, DataStory, and Presenting Virtually can all serve to round out a leadership skillset and enhance presence. There are plenty of way points en route to becoming a great leader. Building a strong knowledge base, practicing regularly, and not shying away from earning hard-won experience will help turn high-stakes moments into launchpads for success.

To learn more about how Duarte can help shift from good to great leadership, book a call with a training concierge. Explore workshop packages for teams, organizations, and C-suites to accommodate in-person and remote-first environments. With bespoke and custom options available, we can help kickstart any leader’s learning journey into high gear.