From Expert to Change Maker: How Your Words Position You in Meetings

By Stephanie Bickel

Ideas aren’t scarce anymore. Follow-through is.

That’s the shift I can’t stop seeing in executive rooms: leaders are no longer rewarded simply for having a sharp point of view. They’re rewarded for making the work move, either by owning outcomes (change maker) or by making adoption real (change agent).

A recent Forbes piece by Cheryl Robinson lit this up for me and inspired several of the practical language moves below.

The real difference isn’t personality. It’s responsibility.

Here’s the cleanest way to separate the roles:

• Change Makers sit at the intersection of vision and execution and own the outcome.

• Change Agents translate strategy into action inside the organization, often without formal authority, and own the adoption path.

Both are high-status roles. Both are desperately needed. And in meetings, your role is communicated less by your job title and more by your language.

Robinson captures the directional contrast in one line:

“Thought leaders talk in possibilities. Change makers speak in decisions.”

So the question becomes: How do you position yourself, on purpose, in the next meeting?

The Speak by Design “Positioning Dial”

Before you speak, set your dial to one of two lanes. Then let your words do the work.

Lane 1: Position as a Change Agent (the Adoption Architect)

Your core message: “I’ll help this land.”

eWhat you sound like (language cues)

• You talk in pilots, process, risks, friction, enablement

• You name who is impacted and what will be hard to adopt

• You offer a path, not a proclamation

Sentence starters you can steal

• “If we want this to stick, the smallest pilot is ___ and success looks like ___.”

• “Here are the top two adoption risks and how we’ll remove them.”

• “Who owns delivery, and who owns adoption? I can run the adoption plan.”

Your meeting superpower

You turn a vague initiative into a workable rollout.

Lane 2: Position as a Change Maker (the Outcome Owner)

Your core message: “I own what happens next.”

What you sound like (language cues)

• You speak in decisions, commitments, resources, dates

• You reduce open loops

• You name tradeoffs and choose

Robinson’s article puts teeth on the move from “smart commentary” to “owned execution”:

“Move from commentary to commitment. Tie every insight to a decision, action or experiment you are personally responsible for advancing.”

Sentence starters you can steal

• “Here’s the decision I’m making, and the tradeoff I’m accepting.”

• “I’m resourcing this with ___, and we’ll know if it’s working by ___.”

• “I own the outcome. You own ___. First checkpoint is ___.”

Your meeting superpower

You turn discussion into a clear call with visible accountability.

The quickest way to “tell” the room who you are: verbs + ownership

If you want to sound like a…

• Change Agent: pilot, implement, train, map, measure, remove blockers

• Change Maker: decide, resource, commit, own, approve, hold accountable

And if you want to upgrade your positioning instantly, swap one phrase:

• Instead of: “We should…”

• Try: “We are…” / “I’m committing to…” / “I’ll own…”

Choose your role deliberately

In high-stakes meetings, you don’t get credit for intent, you get credit for movement.

So decide who you are being in that meeting:

• If the group needs adoption, clarity, and traction → be the Change Agent.

• If the group needs a call, resourcing, and accountability → be the Change Maker.

Either way, your language can do more than sound smart.

It can make change happen.

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