Leading Greats #176

I've had a version of the same conversation with three clients this year. Different industries, different titles. All of them about to stand in front of their team with markets moving against them and no clean answer to give.

Every one of them wanted to manage the message. Wait for something solid before saying anything at all.

I gave each of them the same four moves. Not a script. A sequence I've come back to for years, because it works when nothing else does.

Tell what you actually know. Not the polished version. The real one.

Explain what you don't know yet, without apologizing for the gap.

Lay out when you'll know more, even if the answer is "I'm not sure, and I'll tell you the moment that changes."

Listen to what comes back. Not to manage the reaction. To hear it.

This year asks for that sequence more than most. AI has changed how people see the ground under their own careers, at the same moment the numbers are shaking too. Your team feels both. They're reading you closely to see how you handle it.

One of my clients used all four moves at a recent team meeting. She told them the market was uncertain. She admitted she didn't know what the numbers would look like by year end. She gave them a date she'd update them next. Then she stopped talking and let them ask what they wanted to ask.

Her team wrote back afterward. Not about the numbers. About her.

What she gave them wasn't certainty. It was a sequence they could see her follow, in front of them, without flinching.

I keep coming back to this with every client this year. The hard part of leading right now isn't holding a steady expression in a hard meeting. It's following four simple moves when the easier option is to skip straight to reassurance.

Try T.E.L.L. the next time you're standing in front of people with more questions than answers. Tell. Explain. Lay out the timeline. Listen.

What would the first move cost you, the next time you don't have the answer?

I have been there. I can help.

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