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Why Smart Leaders Lose the Room · Speak In Flow

• 0:02
  Melinda Lee: Welcome to the Speak and Flow podcast, a legacy growth series. Today, we're on our fifth episode, and I'm excited to dive in because it's a solo one where I just get to have a conversation with you.
• 0:15
  Melinda Lee: In our last discussion, we talked about the hidden cost of founder dependency.
• 0:21
  Melinda Lee: When all the decisions and the strategy, everything routes back to the CEO, it becomes a bottleneck. And the importance of empowering your leadership team so that they rise, not just in responsibility, but in also how they show up.
• 0:39
  Melinda Lee: Because at the end of the day, when you want your company to grow fast and effectively, you've got to answer this question. The question that we're going to answer today is, can your leadership team
• 0:54
  Melinda Lee: Effectively represent you when you are not in the room.
• 1:00
  Melinda Lee: And here is where I see most people get wrong about credibility and the way that they show up.
• 1:07
  Melinda Lee: They think that it's about a title, Knowledge or experience.
• 1:14
  Melinda Lee: You can have an incredibly smart person in the room who knows the business, who has a lot of experience, and yet the leader speaks, and yet the audience scratches their head.
• 1:30
  Melinda Lee: They don't understand, unclear, and worse off, they're unmotivated to do anything.
• 1:40
  Melinda Lee: Think about all the times that you've been in a meeting, and you're listening to this smart person talk, and they're sharing, and then you think, wow, that sounds pretty good. And yet, I'm not quite sure I understand or I trust what this person is saying.
• 1:57
  Melinda Lee: That's because the person is busy trying to impress, or they're focused on what they're saying. The more important thing is how you make people feel. Do they want to act afterwards?
• 2:10
  Melinda Lee: So… It's not just about how you look, what you're saying, how polished you sound.
• 2:17
  Melinda Lee: The more important thing is Can your audience understand you?
• 2:23
  Melinda Lee: Can they trust you? And are they going to do anything about it?
• 2:31
  Melinda Lee: So that is a shift that I'd like for you to remember, because people get stuck in the delivery. They get… they start thinking about, what am I going to say, how much can I include, all the details.
• 2:47
  Melinda Lee: And especially smart people. I see this a lot with people that have built their entire profession and all the achievements, all the accolades, and they want to include everything, every detail. They don't want to miss anything, so then they start to speak really fast, because they don't want to run out of time, and then when they talk so fast, you start to see
• 3:09
  Melinda Lee: The people, the room, zoning out.
• 3:13
  Melinda Lee: And then what happens is a leader's credibility weakens.
• 3:19
  Melinda Lee: And that's a shift that I want you to remember.
• 3:22
  Melinda Lee: It's not just about what you say, or even how much you know.
• 3:26
  Melinda Lee: It's more about… Can your message get carried forward?
• 3:33
  Melinda Lee: Here is a simple exercise. If you're a leader, or a leader with a team, CEO, here's an exercise that I'd like for you to
• 3:44
  Melinda Lee: Just… give to your leadership team.
• 3:47
  Melinda Lee: And it's going to test their presence. So ask them these 4 questions that they should be able to answer.
• 3:54
  Melinda Lee: Why does this company exist?
• 3:56
  Melinda Lee: What is our unique value proposition?
• 4:00
  Melinda Lee: What are the problems we solve, and what are our solutions?
• 4:04
  Melinda Lee: And then ask yourself, As they're speaking, how do I feel?
• 4:11
  Melinda Lee: When they are uncertain, you probably are feeling the uncertainty.
• 4:18
  Melinda Lee: Let's say your leader is confident.
• 4:21
  Melinda Lee: Ask yourself, Can I trust this person? Because that's what your client is asking.
• 4:27
  Melinda Lee: If not, then the message, unfortunately, did not land.
• 4:33
  Melinda Lee: And that, to me, is the shift.
• 4:37
  Melinda Lee: That executive presence and credibility, all of this is not just a nice-to-have. It's not just a soft skill.
• 4:46
  Melinda Lee: It's how your business moves forward.
• 4:50
  Melinda Lee: Because when your leaders are speaking, they are either
• 4:56
  Melinda Lee: Bringing clarity to your clients, or they're just bringing noise.
• 5:02
  Melinda Lee: They are building trust.
• 5:05
  Melinda Lee: Or, they're eroding it.
• 5:09
  Melinda Lee: And here is what I'd like to close with you today on.
• 5:14
  Melinda Lee: Executive presence is not just about how much you know.
• 5:19
  Melinda Lee: how much you're saying. It's about What people carry forward.
• 5:26
  Melinda Lee: The message that carries forward, because what people remember, how people feel.
• 5:32
  Melinda Lee: What they repeat is what they will act on.
• 5:36
  Melinda Lee: So your company, I don't want it just to be with smart people. That is just one aspect of it. We have to have smart people, but we also want to have people that can create a clarity and a presence that moves people.
• 5:54
  Melinda Lee: So, remember that, and…
• 5:56
  Melinda Lee: If you would like this message, if you want to join me on the next one, I hope you do, it's with Rebecca Gordon. We are actually going to dive into the exact conversations, the high-pressure ones, that build your leadership team's reputation.
• 6:11
  Melinda Lee: And how to navigate that.
• 6:13
  Melinda Lee: So I hope you join me for that one. Until next time, remember, keep speaking what matters most so that your people move forward together.
• 6:24
  Melinda Lee: Take care.