Does having a message make a difference? Absolutely!

I once coached the head of sales for a large telecommunications firm. He was in the final stages of competing for a major contract—supplying an aerospace company with a communications system. The stakes were high—with hundreds of millions of dollars to be awarded to the winner. Competition was fierce.

After weeks of technical discussions, the aerospace firm asked each of the bidders one final question: “In ten words or less, why should we choose you?” Most of the suppliers couldn't answer the question. They fumbled, saying, “It's really impossible to state our value equation in so few words.” They explained that with twenty‐five components to the bid, it would take much longer to describe their offering.

But my client was ready with a message. He said: “We are the sole provider of peace of mind.” He assured the executives they could sleep at night knowing that all the components would be in place and working well. That was what they needed to hear and they chose his company. That's the power of a single, clear, compelling message. At the heart of the Leader's Script is a point—your point. It is the idea you want to get across.

Why Have a Message?

I came across a funny but all‐too‐true cartoon recently in which a disgruntled boss was sitting behind a large desk shouting at a stressed‐out employee. The caption revealed the boss's frustration: “You make a good argument, but I'm still missing the point.”¹ The bottom line of speaking is to have a point, and make it clearly. You shouldn't expect your audience to know what you're saying if you don't know what you're saying.

Your message gives you a reason for speaking and others a reason for listening. As Mary Vitug, a managing director in a large financial institution, said in an interview for this book, “Demonstrating that you have a point of view is critical. There are lots of words exchanged in any meeting, so whoever delivers a clear message stands out.”

Without a message, conversations become information‐based rather than idea‐based. Listeners are not sure what point you're suggesting or why you're proposing a certain action. Put bluntly, an update without a message wastes everyone's time. People who speak without a message have language filled with jargon, “corporate speak,” and filler words. It's not the language that's the primary problem. It's the confused thinking behind the language. So be sure your side of the conversation always has a point. That way you're telling others, “Here's what I believe. Here's what I want you to buy into.” Your listeners will appreciate your clarity.

The best leaders foster the sharing of ideas by encouraging others to express their views with strong, clear messages. Steve Jobs is a good example of such an executive. As one account notes: “The more mature and confident [Jobs] became, the more he surrounded himself with strong, opinionated executives who felt comfortable arguing with him.”² Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO, similarly encourages the flow of ideas. In a half‐hour meeting, according to a Fast Company article, he and staffers discussed “the power of artificial intelligence, the value of integrating Google Photos with other products such as Google Drive, [and] the importance of creating an emotional bond with the users of an app.” Pichai was enthusiastic and responsive. When the team showed him a rough cut of a promotional video, his response was a “heartfelt: ‘That's awesome!’”³ Compelling messages will create “aha” moments for the whole room. Without those messages, exchanges can get bogged down in operational, technical, or tactical concerns.

Simply put, leaders lead with messages. And these don't just come to mind in the moment you're speaking. You need to have “back pocket” messages: clear leadership thoughts stored in your mind, ready for any one of your impromptu conversations.

Characteristics of a Message

The best speakers know the qualities of a good message. With a bit of practice, you'll be able to embed these must‐have qualities into all your impromptu messages. Here are the six characteristics to keep in mind.

First, a message is one idea. Streamline your thinking down to one essential idea—the point you want your audience to buy into. Keep that focus as you're speaking. Sometimes speakers have too many ideas…or they have no idea what they're trying to say. Too many ideas—or no idea—both produce the same thing: confusion in the minds of the audience.

Second, it's a single, clear sentence. Why? Because if your message is more than one sentence, or is a long, convoluted sentence, the audience will not “get it.” For example, if you say to a client, “We're here for you, we can deliver. And of course we want to work with you on this next opportunity, which sounds very exciting,” you'll be leaving the client with multiple messages. A simpler, one‐sentence client pitch message might be: “We're confident we can deliver for you.” In an internal meeting your single sentence message might be: “Let's explore that plan.” Or, “To succeed as a team we need to work more collaboratively.” Just think of the messages we've heard from well‐known leaders. Jeff Bezos, for example, sums up the power of risk taking when he says, “That's actually a very liberating expectation, expecting to fail.”⁴

Third, it is engaging. Your message should engage the hearts and minds of your listeners. You want your audience to buy into your main idea. Design it so your listeners hear it, believe it, and want to follow it. This means knowing what will move your audience. I once asked a director of strategy who had just joined a firm, “What would your message be if your boss asks you, ‘How do you see your job?’” He replied, “I'd say, ‘My goal is to get the company to live the strategy.’” That would have been music to the ears of the VP of strategy.

Fourth, it carries your convictions. Make sure your message is an idea you believe in. When Lou Gehrig got up in front of fans at Yankee Stadium to announce that he was ailing, he delivered a deeply felt message. He could have expressed regrets, but instead his message was, “I feel like the luckiest guy in the world.” Don't undercut yourself or your company with half‐hearted statements. One CEO told analysts, “I'm pleased to say we turned in some pretty decent numbers,” when he could have said, “I'm delighted to announce that our performance this quarter was the best ever.”

Fifth, it is positive. Your message should move the room, so be sure it embodies hope, aspirational goals, possibilities, and accomplishments. For example: “I'm thrilled by your performance as a team.” Or “We closed the deal, and you all made it happen.”

This doesn't mean you sugarcoat reality. You might have a message that begins with a negative and ends with a positive, like this: “While we face unprecedented challenges, I am confident we can remain the provider of choice in our industry.” When there are both negative and positive elements in your message, make sure the positive comes last—always move from negatives to positives. Or you can build a sense of urgency (or concern) in your audience, then move to your high-ground message.

Such was the approach of a forest industry CEO who needed to get management and the union at a sawmill to work together during a very challenging time for the industry. He got up in front of employees and said, “Some have urged me to dismantle this mill, put it on a barge, and reassemble it in China.” He then told them—and this was his message—that he believed they could come up with a joint plan to make the mill succeed and he'd give them ninety days to do just that. And they did! That message—and the urgency behind it—drove a huge cultural shift that ensured the mill's survival.

Sixth, it's recognizable. Make sure everyone can identify your message when they hear it. Often expressing it as a strong, clear, declaratory statement (with a tone of conviction) is enough to flag it as your main idea. But if you want to ensure that your audience gets it as your message, begin it with words like, “My point is,” “My message is,” “My view is,” “As I see it,” “I believe that,” or even “Here's the thing.”

The Power of a Message: An Example

No single sentence in the Leader's Script has such power as your message. It changes the character of your remarks. It focuses your thinking, and lifts your audience to higher ground.

When you don't have a message, your listeners are left to sort through the details and figure out what you're trying to say. They may be frustrated by your lack of clarity. Here's an actual example—sans message. James, an operations director in an oil and gas company, is sharing bad news with his CEO, Glen. You can hear the CEO's frustration as he tries to puzzle out the situation.

JAMES: Glen, I'm here because we have a situation that's kind of out of the ordinary, and it's not one we're very happy about. The situation is that during the drilling of one of our wells, we unfortunately cemented the drill pipe in the hole. The well bore is junked and has to be abandoned. We need to redrill the well. We have 11 million dollars in the well, and that is money spent with no recoverable reserves.

The good news is that the last casing, which we set, is well positioned and we can get down to that point.

GLEN: How the hell did this happen?

JAMES: It was human error. Instead of putting 15 cases of cement down the hole, we put 70 cases down. We will do a full postmortem on it and will come back to you with a report.

This is a script without a message. No single sentence stands out as the defining idea. There's a lot of information, but no focused argument. And in the absence of a positive message, negativity takes over. Just look at the number of sentences that carry bad news. No wonder the CEO came forward with a “how the hell” interjection.

How might the speaker have delivered this news? What would a message‐based script look like? The following reframes the script with an up‐front message (in bold):

JAMES: Glen, do you have a moment? There's something I'd like to speak to you about urgently. We've lost well #240, but we have a solution to the problem.

We inadvertently put too much cement down the hole, and cemented the drill pipe into the hole. We've done our best to fix the situation over the past two days, and have come up with a solution. We can still use the good casing in it and drill a new hole from the bottom of the casing past the cemented drill pipe. We're ready to go. All we need is your agreement.

GLEN: Sure, let's get this thing fixed.

The revised message‐based script does a number of things: It immediately alerts the CEO to the speaker's message. It is more focused and shorter. It is positive (the negative, defensive detail is gone). And it is well structured (with a grabber, message, structure, and call to action).

Message‐based speaking allows you to lead, influence, and inspire by getting to your point early, and shaping your script around that idea. It makes you look a lot more confident and persuasive. We in The Humphrey Group have taught tens of thousands of leaders to speak with a message, and they often tell us how doing so has transformed their speaking immeasurably.

With practice, coming up with a message each and every time you speak spontaneously will become second nature to you. You'll think message. But developing your message can take courage—particularly if you're speaking upward in an organization. Realize that your listeners, even your superiors, want you to be clear. They want you to get to the point and not waste their time. Speaking with a message is a powerful strategy if you want to be heard in today's knowledge economy.