Become a better communicator: Specific frameworks to improve your clarity, influence, and impact

Executive overview

Communication is a skill that determines how quickly you get the outcomes you want. When people don't understand you, it's rarely their fault — you can improve your message to be clearer and more compelling. By treating every stakeholder interaction as a high-stakes opportunity and practicing deliberate communication, you dramatically increase buy-in and accelerate decision-making.

Core insight: Take responsibility for how you communicate, not just what you communicate.

Sales before logistics

Lead with why you're doing something before explaining the how. People need to buy into the idea before they care about the details of execution.

• Start every pitch with a brief why (30 seconds to 2 minutes max)
• Explain the problem you're solving and the benefit to them
• Only then share the logistics, process, or next steps
• If you already have buy-in from someone, stop talking — you might talk them out of agreeing

Being concise without being brief

Concision is about word density and clarity of thought, not absolute brevity. The real bottleneck is knowing your core point.

• Preparation is the only consistent solution to concision (even 30 seconds before a meeting helps)
• Decide beforehand why you're in a meeting and what you want to say
• Trim 20% of what you write by asking: How might I be adding cognitive load?
• Read what you wrote at least once before sharing it

Signposting: Guide your reader with power words

Use specific words and structure to signal what's coming next and help readers navigate longer documents.

• Example phrases: "For example," "Because," "As a next step," "First/second/third"
• These phrases grab attention back if a reader has drifted
• Works for verbal communication too ("The most important part to note," "The part customers are most surprised by")
• Use formatting sparingly — 30% bolded text negates the entire point of bolding

Complete sentences vs. fragments

Fragments feel faster but force readers to interpret your meaning. Full sentences show logical flow and reveal gaps in your thinking.

• Turn bullet fragments into complete sentences as a test of whether you actually know what you mean
• Avoid overusing bullets; use prose when logical connective tissue matters
• This applies to memos, Slack messages, and strategy docs

Finding the right level of confidence

Speak accurately about your conviction level. Overconfidence wastes resources; underconfidence fails to mobilize the team.

• Use "could," "might," or "will increase the likelihood of" instead of stating hypotheses as fact
• Present a point of view and back it with evidence, logic, examples, or data
• Share your thinking process when you lack data (first principles)
• Frame uncertain ideas clearly: "My initial thinking is…" or "Based on what we know, my hunch is…"
• Avoid single-minded martyr syndrome: don't overload evidence to push a predetermined outcome

Most Obvious Objection (MOO)

Before you communicate anything, spend 30 seconds thinking about what objections someone will raise.

• Are you going to anticipate every objection? No. But you'll catch the obvious ones.
• Use this to volunteer information upfront or reframe your pitch to reduce pushback
• Trains you to think strategically and empathize with your audience
• Use daily for Slack messages, presentations, and strategy docs

Writing that creates leverage

The blast radius of a poorly written memo is huge. Investing 30 more seconds in clarity unlocks work for everyone who reads it.

• One unclear Slack message to 15 people creates multiple rounds of back-and-forth
• Unblock your team's work by taking time to be clear and specific
• Think about everyone who will read, reread, and refer back to your message
• Re-reading your own work catches low-hanging fruit (typos, redundant words, unnecessary details)

Staying calm in high-stakes conversations

Don't put pressure on yourself to have the perfect answer immediately.

• If you don't know something, don't just say "I'll get back to you" — share what you do know
• Use "the question behind the question" to probe deeper and continue the conversation
• Reflect back their question to buy time and show you're listening
• Example: "I don't have that specific number. Here's the quarterly data and the trend…"

Managing up: Share your point of view

The single highest-leverage way to manage up is to bring recommendations and thinking, not just questions.

• Instead of "What should we do?" ask "Here's what I think we should do. How does that sound?"
• Reduce cognitive load on your manager by coming with a starting point
• Share observations and insights from your proximity to work your manager doesn't have
• This shows strategic thinking and accelerates promotion

Giving feedback: Strategy, not self-expression

The goal of feedback is behavior change. Trim everything else from what you want to say.

• Vent to someone else first (therapist, partner, friend) to get energy out
• Go into the conversation clear and grounded
• Focus only on what will motivate the behavior change you want
• Most of what you want to say doesn't contribute to that goal — cut it ruthlessly

Delegating with high standards: CEDAF

Use this framework to delegate effectively while maintaining quality.

• C is comprehension: Do they have everything needed? Logins, clarity on the end result?
• E is excitement: Explain the why to make it as motivating as possible
• D is de-risk: Spot obvious risks and mitigate them upfront (show 10 rows before 100, call out potential misunderstandings)
• A is align: Give the person a chance to ask questions and confirm understanding
• F is feedback: Shorten the feedback loop as much as possible (check in daily, even within the same conversation)

Building a swipe file

Collect inspiration, phrases, strategy, and tactics you notice working well around you.

• Keep a simple notes file (Apple Notes, Google Keep) of things people said that sounded smart or strategic
• The act of adding it trains you to notice what works
• Analyze why something was effective and whether you can borrow the approach
• Doesn't need organization — messy systems work fine

The upfront investment

All this advice compounds to massive leverage because:

• Most people think individual communications (emails, Slack) aren't worth extra time
• But your entire work output is made up of these individual pieces
• Small improvements in clarity, structure, and thinking compound across thousands of messages
• People claim diminishing returns too early; there's usually more juice to squeeze

Picking where to start

Pick one or two tactics and build the habit before moving to the next:

• MOO (Most Obvious Objection) — Ask this before anything you say or write
• Framing upfront — Use 1–2 minutes to remind people why you're talking about something
• Once these become muscle memory, layer in concision, signposting, and other tactics