Welcome back to the Look and Sound of Leadership, an ongoing series of

executive coaching tips designed to help you be perceived in the workplace

the way you want to be perceived.

I'm Tom Henschel, your executive coach, and today we're talking about three little phrases that have big impact.

Anna walked me through the slides. that have big impact.

Anna walked me through the slides she'd prepared for her upcoming All Hands meeting. A new group, including people in China and India, had joined her team

and she wanted the meeting to be meaningful for everyone.

An energetic and articulate woman, Anna had no trouble explaining the content on her slides.

What I couldn't understand was the context. At first I thought I didn't get the

context because as an outside consultant I had no frame of reference, but every time I'd

ask her to explain the context, she'd answer by adding information that seemed

vital.

Oh, that's good, she'd say to herself.

I should say that.

And then she'd make a note of what she'd just said. The reason I wasn't understanding Anna's context was that she

wasn't explaining it. Was she explaining the data itself? Yes, quite clearly, but she wasn't explaining why she felt the data was important to her people

or how it fit into the big picture.

The little phrase I wanted Anna to speak was I'm telling you this because.

These days with overwhelming amounts of information bombarding all of us

I think we listen to each other with unconscious filters.

They ask, why should I listen to this?

Why is this important to me?

...