Blog

Hidden Cost of Poor Leadership Tone: A poor leadership tone silently erodes trust, engagement, and performance even when the message itself is correct. When tone communicates frustration, disinterest, or sarcasm, teams feel unsafe and uncertain, leading to misalignment and disengagement. The real cost isn’t just emotional, it’s in lost influence, clarity, and momentum.

Tone Culture: Creates the unspoken culture of a team—it shapes how messages are received and how people feel about their work. Even well-chosen words can lose impact if delivered with the wrong tone. Leaders who align their words with intentional delivery foster a culture of clarity, trust, and engagement.

The words you choose shape how others perceive your confidence, clarity, and authority. To sound more credible and impactful, eliminate weak qualifiers, filler words, and defensive or overly casual language. Speak with intention, using concise, confident phrasing that reflects clear thinking and leadership.

Dealing with high-maintenance team members can be challenging, when their emotions run high and venting becomes a frequent occurrence.

Physical Presence That Speaks Before You Do: Starts before you speak, it's about physical presence and nonverbal cues that shape how others perceive your confidence, trustworthiness, and authority. Great leaders use posture, gestures, eye contact, stillness, and facial expression to project executive presence. By mastering these elements and experimenting with contrast, you can dramatically increase your impact and influence in any setting.

A Guide for High-Context Communicators: High-context communicators often over-explain to ensure clarity and connection—but in fast-paced settings, too much detail can dilute your message and lose your audience. To be more effective, lead with your main point, ask clarifying questions to gauge what’s needed, and align your message to your audience’s goals. Clarity and brevity don’t sacrifice depth—they sharpen your impact.

Represent Your Company with Credibility and Authenticity: Every time you speak externally on LinkedIn, in interviews, or at events, you represent both yourself and your company. How you communicate either reinforces or undermines your organization’s credibility. The key is to show the company’s values and impact through authentic stories, customer focus, and clear alignment between your voice and your brand without sounding scripted.

Why Stories Work Better Than Data: If your pitch is packed with data but not driving action, you may be leading with information instead of inspiration. Storytelling builds emotional connection, urgency, and trust helping people feel the why behind your message. Lead with a person, show the tension, and end with transformation, then let the data support the story.

As a mid-level executive leading major client projects, you’re often joined by more senior colleagues. And despite owning the strategy and execution, it’s easy to feel overshadowed by their titles. How do you shift your mindset and your presence to become a trusted advisor?

How to Prepare for a High-Stakes Talk : You’ve got a big moment ahead—and the fear of sounding stiff or going blank is real. But intentional rehearsal doesn’t kill spontaneity; it unlocks it.

In high-stakes moments, your inner critic whispers doubt “Don’t mess this up.” But your inner coach is there too, reminding you: “You’ve prepared. You belong. Lead with clarity.”

Great speakers aren’t born—they’re built. Stage presence comes from clarity, control, and consistent practice, not charisma.

July 9, 2025 | Birmingham, MI with Stephanie Bickel At Speak by Design, we believe leadership communication is a skillset that’s always evolving, because leadership itself is never static. That’s why we created Sharpen & Elevate : a one-day intensive experience designed to help leaders break through their current limits and rise to the next level of clarity, presence, and influence. This isn’t a lecture, nor a seminar. It’s an interactive workshop. On July 9th in Detroit , we

Practice together to ensure seamless transitions between CEO and CFO, Get feedback and Polish your delivery

How to Talk Compensation: It seems innocent enough. But answering it too early can limit your options, diminish your leverage, or anchor you too low.

Practicing Public Speaking: The goal is not to soften the truth, but to package it for impact—so it lands and leads to change.

When You’re the One Holding Yourself Back. Your mindset is the strongest lever you have—and the hardest one to manage at times.

Building new communication habits is one of the most transformative steps you can take as a leader. Yet, one of the most challenging

Senior leaders operate at the intersection of vision and execution. Mastering these skills enables leaders to connect with their audience.

Pet peeves are not just personal quirks—they’re a leadership opportunity.