5 Tiny Communication Habits That Turn Employees Into Executives Fast

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]There's a set of communication habits that fasttrack people into senior roles and almost never covered in leadership training. After years of coaching and sitting in the decision-making rooms, I've seen exactly what works. So, I'm going to show you the five habits that'll help you communicate like a leader so you can finally be noticed by the people above you. Stop being passed over for people who are no more qualified than you and start getting credit for the thinking that you're already doing. So, habit one. Now, habit one will show you how to avoid the mistake even smart professionals make.

[00:00:30]It results in them walking out of executive meetings without a decision, even though they turned up fully prepared. Now, if you've ever finished a meeting without a decision and been asked to bring more detail, then the problem wasn't your preparation. Most professionals do exactly what they were trained to do. They build analysis, they gather data, they prepare thoroughly, and then they show their work. But unless you do what I'm about to show you, most of these meetings will end the same way. The executive stalls, they ask for more and no actions ever get taken.

[00:01:00]And over time, this begins to signal that you can't get work done. The reason that this keeps happening is that executives don't decide on data. They decide on what that data means for their priorities, their risk, and a lot of other influences in the decision-m that you just can't see. So, when you present information and leave the interpretation open, you're gambling that they'll draw the same conclusion that you did. And most of the time they're not going to because they're looking at the business from a completely different vantage point than you are. The professionals who consistently get decisions made understand this. So they lead with the narrative instead. They decide the single point they need the executive to take away and then they only use data that proves that point and everything else gets cut. So habit one is to lead with the narrative and not data. Instead of opening with something like the quarterly sales report shows a 5% decrease in customers, which is data led. You say there's three recoverable factors that are driving a drop in sales, I'm going to show you what they are, why they've not got anything to do with our market conditions, and how we're going to recover the position without touching the budget, which is a narrativeled approach to the same information. Just follow this simple rule. Tell them what you're about to show them. Show them, then tell them why you showed them, right? So have it too is something simple, but it will change how senior people read you and how they think of you when opportunities come up.

[00:02:19]So early in my career, I was pretty good at most things revolving around the job.

[00:02:24]I could turn my hand to a lot of different activities required. I could deliver consistently and I never had any performance issues, but I kept getting passed over for more senior roles. And whenever I did get any feedback, it was some version of you're really great, but in this one occasion, we just needed someone who could do X. And every time I heard that, I assumed that it meant I had some sort of skill gap that needed closing. So I'd go and develop that skill and then the same thing would happen. Only this time it would be a different X. The problem was that nobody knew what I stood for. You see, senior positions don't go to people who are good on paper. They go to the people who are positioned to solve a specific problem. For example, take a marketing director role. That doesn't go to someone who is just very good at marketing. It goes to a person who is known for something. For example, the person who is known for maximizing returns on tight budgets with innovative approaches whilst building a brand that holds. One of those is a description you put on a CV. The other is a person with a clear identity. Now, once I built my own positioning statement, that's when things change. So, habit two is to build your positioning. The formula is simple.

[00:03:33]Create this sentence. I'm the person who gets X result by doing Y in a way that Z. That one sentence tells people not just what you do, but why you're the specific person they should be thinking of when the right opportunity comes up because they can picture exactly the type of person you are and how you'd be valuable in a new role instead of just guessing that based on a list of skills that you would write on a CV. Right? So habit 3 will change how executives perceive your judgment almost instantly, which is how you build credibility with them and signal that you're ready for more senior opportunities. So I was in a session once where a senior leader turned to the room and asked, "What is the issue with our employee churn problem right now?" And there was this eager professional looking to showcase their capabilities and they jumped in.

[00:04:18]They talked about year-on-year trends, the cohort data, regional variances, the employee satisfaction scores, and how the numbers compared to the previous quarters. It was thorough, yes, and yet it said almost nothing useful. This person then turned to another person in the room and asked the same question, and they said, "Well, there's three factors that are driving a 15% increase in churn this year. We know what they are, and we have a mitigation plan in place ready to go, and we're going to find out in 90 days if it's effective or not." The first person probably knew more about the situation, but they answered the question that was being asked directly, whereas the other person answered the question that was sitting behind the question. When executives ask questions, they're rarely asking for the data. They're asking, "Do you have this under control, and do I need to worry about it?" So, habit three is to answer the question behind the question. Before you respond to anything in a senior meeting, take a second to ask yourself what the person actually needs to know and then lead with that. To know the difference, you need to identify if they ask for a specific number or not. When they ask for broad questions, there's usually a hidden question behind it.

[00:05:23]When they ask for a specific number, like, what is the percent increase on this year's churn? That's when they want data. When answering any question, follow these three steps. Give them a conclusion, the implication, and then the next step. The detail is still available if they want to go deeper, but let them ask for it. Right? Habit four will change how senior leaders evaluate your contributions and it will show why the professionals who move the fastest are rarely the ones who simply do the most work. Most professionals go into performance review thinking that beating their target is enough to justify that they exceeded their expectations. If the goal was 8% increase in clients and they hit 10% then they make the case that they exceeded because they did more than the number required. And that makes sense but it almost never works the way you expect it to. The reason is that hitting a number harder than expected just means you did the job well. You're doing your job well doesn't mean that you exceeded the expectations and it's difficult to frame it that way. The professionals who consistently get rated higher understand that the framing matters as much as the result which means that it isn't about hitting the number. You need to explain the additional benefits that you brought beyond what was written in the performance expectation. Now there are two ways to do this. The first is to attach an avoided cost to the risk or the result. You didn't just hit 10% client growth, you did it without additional budget, which means the business got more without spending more.

[00:06:48]Now that's a different conversation to you just did more than was expected. And the second way is to follow the consequence of your result forward because you brought in those extra clients. Now the sales team hit their revenue target 30% faster than projected. And now you're not just talking about the goal, you're talking about the downstream impact that you created. So habit four is to never present a result on its own. Always attach either what it saved, what it unlocked, because that's what turns a number into a case for exceeded expectations. Now, habit five will show you why the professionals they communicate most clearly aren't the ones with the most information. They're the ones who know how to structure it. Now, most professionals hear the word storytelling and think that it means softening information, adding flourish and color and taking people on a journey before ever getting to the point. So, they tend to ignore it entirely in professional settings because they're not trying to come across as indirect.

[00:07:42]They want to sound sharp and to the point. The problem is that storytelling in a business context has nothing to do with any of that. It's actually a structured approach to presenting information in an order that makes it really easy for people to understand and then act on. And getting action from meetings is what signals you're ready for more senior opportunities. The simplest version of this is known as SCR, which stands for situation, complication, and then resolution. You open with the context that everyone already agrees on. You introduce the problem or tension that makes some kind of action necessary, and then you deliver the recommendation or conclusion. Now, that structure works whether you're building a 20 slide business case or just writing a three sentence reply to an email. And once you have it, you'll start seeing how much of your communication has been missing it.

[00:08:28]So, habit number five is to use storytelling in everything that you communicate professionally. And every single habit in this video relies on it.

[00:08:35]Leading with the narrative, answering the question behind the question, and framing your performance, building on your positioning statement. None of it works without knowing how to structure what you say effectively so people can understand and act on it. So before you go and try to apply any of this, go and watch this video next because it will show you how to avoid the biggest mistake that most smart professionals fall into when they start trying to do storytelling and it ruins their credibility with senior leaders. This