Start with your next slide deck. Spend extra time focusing on symbols and shapes instead of colors.

Before entering the room, take a moment to reset. Acknowledge your own feelings, then set them aside. As the conversation unfolds, resist the temptation to plan your response while others are speaking.

Certain patterns emerged that reflect the FINESSE Fishbone Diagram®: Frame, Illustrate, Noise Reduction, Empathy, Structure, Synergy, and Ethics.

Effective communication is about listening to the decision makers’ needs and meeting them in a way they understand.

The best communicators aren’t defined by how much they say, but by how well they listen.

Your goal isn’t to simplify the data—it’s to simplify the path to understanding.

So how do you do that? Start with empathy. Understand your audience’s concerns, hopes, and values.

I promised myself I would never step into a meeting again without being able to explain who I was and what I wanted in three sentences or less.

Sending your visuals early gives senior leadership more time to understand the material.

Commit to being a person that executive leadership wants to hear from when the chips are down.

Executives do care about the details. However, initially, they simply don't have the time to wade through them all.

Senior management and boards of directors don’t need all the technical details.

Connecting the material to executives doesn’t mean dumbing down the work.

When something is obvious, it does not require embellishment.

The things you do to make your presentation and reports more accessible to people with impairments make your work more understandable to all

A well-prepared communicator demonstrates competence naturally through clarity, relevance, and precision.

When you communicate evenly, you foster collaboration and show respect for the collective wisdom in the room.

It’s a subtle shift that makes a world of difference.

The Fins of FINESSE provide some helpful associations. The bottom fin of FINESSE, the audience, provides us with our balance.

Career growth depends on using proven communication approaches in addition to hard skills.