COMMUNICATION IS KING
the advanced rewards of basic skills
A while back we were filling an executive role for one of our clients. The top two candidates were neck-in-neck when it came to all the obvious stuff: Highly calibrated approach to the specific brand, good creative taste, strong leadership.
But one of them showed some red flags. Not with his vision or high-level creative acumen… but with his ability to get basic things done. Like, send an email.
From our first conversation, he was suspiciously incompetent when it came to communication. He could not scroll up the email chain (or use google) to find the answer to his question. Every phone call took a half-day and 4 emails to schedule.
He was one of those guys who, instead of typing one bullet with his availability to meet, would rather type 3 sentences explaining why he’s so busy. There was always a story, usually relating back to his own self-importance. Even for my team, who is accustomed to white-glove-ing every candidate experience, this was hard to ignore.
Long story short, he was eliminated him from the running. Communication is the most fundamental part of leading a team, and this guy’s comms skills would have not served him (or anyone) well in his new role.
The surprising thing here is not that a creative person would be a little disorganized. That’s forgivable. The mind blower is that this complete organizational incompetence exists at the leadership level .
The more senior and pivotal the role, the higher the importance of communication. The fundamental kind.
Forget the hand gestures and strategic pauses and eye contact and being dramatic and memorable… if you can’t do basic back-and-forth conversation in an efficient manner, you won’t ever have a chance at any of that other stuff.
This is not me complaining about an annoying candidate. This is me bringing you good news: Master basic communication at a 12-year old level, and you’ll have a leg up on most senior leaders.
Here’s how to be in the top 5% of communicators:
Distill. Process the mess, summarize it in two sentences. Always be moving toward a conclusion. Do this in writing, people will love you. Do this verbally in a meeting, you’re a hero.
Be resourceful. Be the person providing information, not the person constantly asking for it.
Solutions only. Framing the problem is not enough. And asking an open-ended “what should I do?” is simply giving homework to your recipient. Instead, ask “would you prefer I do X or Y?” Or better yet, “unless you tell me otherwise, I’ll do Z.”
Cut out steps. Setting up a call should take two emails or a text, maximum. Not sure if you should ask for their avails or provide your own? Do both. Tempted to add a whole background story about why your schedule is so hectic? Resist.
Keep it short. In a cold email, your only job is to get a response. In a professional email, your job is to get something you want, or to give someone else something they want. In any of these 3 situations, shorter is better. Frame the issue, make the ask, double-check, send.
We love charisma and sprezzatura, we love 15 years of experience, we love a big personality or an immaculate reference check or a strong co-sign or an elaborate portfolio. But communication is king.
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confucius
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The most interesting point here is that communication often reveals leadership before any formal responsibility does. Efficiency, clarity, and resourcefulness may look like small habits, but they show whether someone reduces confusion for others or quietly multiplies it.