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“Got a Minute?” has quietly turned into a 45-minute therapy session for too many leaders. You walk in ready to talk strategy and performance, and walk out carrying everyone’s childhood wounds and workplace pain. In this tip sheet, Stephanie shows you how to say “I’m not your therapist” with gravitas and grace, while still being the leader people trust.

AI can analyze patterns, but it cannot read the room — and that’s where most leaders lose influence without realizing it. There’s one mistake people make in high-stakes meetings that instantly weakens their impact. This short read breaks it down, and once you see it, you won’t unsee it.

Leaders tell me all the time that “speaking up and voicing the truth that others hesitate to say” is the hardest thing to do. They’re not struggling with honesty. They’re struggling with risk management, emotion management, and power dynamics all at once. This is where gravitas is really tested. Not in a keynote, not in a town hall, but in that one quiet conversation where you tell someone above you that they are wrong, off, or becoming part of the problem.

What are the Communications Skills Every Professional should MASTER for Career Growth? To stand out, you must learn to communicate in a way that inspires action, sparks emotion, and creates lasting impact. Creativity is the answer.

Every team develops a tone over time. It’s shaped by what gets celebrated, how meetings feel, and how people respond when things go wrong. That tone is culture. And communication is what shapes it. Every single day. You need Creative Communications.

Most teams aren’t struggling because they lack information. They’re struggling because they’re uninspired by how it’s communicated. In 2025, the best leaders won’t just be clear. They’ll be compelling. Here are 7 Creative Communications techniques you can start using right away to lead with greater impact.

By: Stephanie Bickel Executive presence used to mean polish. Today, it means connection. People want leaders who feel clear, grounded, and emotionally in sync with the room, whether that room is a boardroom, Zoom window, or town hall stage. But here’s the problem: presence doesn’t always scale. When your calendar fills, your team grows, or your communication becomes more public, it’s harder to maintain that sense of connection. That’s where Creative Communications come in. Th

One of the greatest leadership skills is clarity. But in high-stakes environments, the ideas leaders need to communicate are rarely simple. You’re sharing vision, strategy, risk, transformation. These aren’t bullet points. They’re layered, abstract, evolving. The mistake most leaders make? They respond to complexity with more complexity, more slides, more caveats, more context.

Teams don’t remember your standard updates. They remember how you made them feel. If you want to shift the tone at the top, or reshape your team culture, you need more than new words or a better slide deck. You need a Creative Communication, or better yet, a series of Creative Communications: peak experiences that signal change, create momentum, and leave people saying, “We’re moving forward. Things are getting better.” This is where Creative Communications make all the diff

In high-stakes environments, good communication is no longer enough. People want to feel something. They want to know change is happening, and that they’re part of it. This is where Creative Communications come in. Leaders who rely on updates, dashboards ...