Become a better communicator: Specific frameworks to improve your clarity, influence, and impact | Wes Kao (coach, entrepreneur, advisor)

1. Take Agency for Communication

If you’re not getting the desired reaction from your communication, reflect on how you might be contributing to the confusion or skepticism and how you can explain things more clearly, compellingly, and anticipate questions.

2. Anticipate Most Obvious Objection

Before communicating, spend a few minutes thinking about the ‘Most Obvious Objection’ (MOO) your audience might have; prepare your counter-arguments or proactively address them to avoid being blindsided and strengthen your pitch.

3. Lead with Sales, Then Logistics

Before detailing the ‘how-to’ or logistics of something, first ‘sell’ your audience on the ‘why’ and get them excited and bought into the idea, even if concisely, to avoid slow or no response.

4. Be Concise Through Preparation

Conciseness is about economy of words and density of insight, not just brevity; the most consistent way to achieve it is through preparation, even just a few minutes, to clarify your core point before communicating.

5. Share POV When Managing Up

Reduce your manager’s cognitive load by proactively sharing your point of view and recommendations, backed by observations, rather than just asking ‘what should we do,’ demonstrating strategic thinking.

6. Feedback for Behavior Change

When giving feedback, focus on ‘strategy, not self-expression’; trim emotional venting and only share what will motivate the person to change their behavior, keeping the goal of behavior change in mind.

7. Use CEDAF for Delegation

When delegating, use the CEDAF framework: ensure Comprehension (all info needed), build Excitement (explain why), De-risk (anticipate and mitigate issues), Align (ensure mutual understanding), and establish a fast Feedback loop.

8. Speak with Accurate Confidence

Avoid overstating hypotheses as facts or diminishing strong recommendations; speak accurately about your level of conviction and the evidence you have to prevent problems and ensure responsible decision-making.

9. Practice Like It’s Game Day

Treat every stakeholder as important and practice your best communication behavior consistently, not just with executives, to get enough repetitions and improve your skills across all interactions.

10. Review Written Communication

Take a few extra moments to review your written messages (emails, Slack) for clarity and completeness; a poorly written message can cause significant back-and-forth and waste many people’s time.

11. Avoid ‘Single-Minded Martyr’

When advocating for an idea, avoid being a ‘single-minded martyr’ by considering the broader organizational context and current priorities, and be willing to right-size your proposal or accept that ’not right now’ might be the best decision for the company.

12. Use Signposting

Employ specific words (e.g., ‘for example,’ ‘because,’ ‘as a next step,’ ‘first, second, third’) and structure to guide your audience, signal upcoming information, and grab attention in both written and verbal communication.

13. Frame ‘Why’ Concisely

Briefly remind people why you are discussing something and why it matters (1-2 minutes or a couple of sentences) at the beginning of a conversation or presentation to ensure everyone is on the same page and listening intently.

14. Prepare for Meetings

Before a meeting, take 30 seconds to one minute to ground yourself on why you are there, what you want to share, and what you want to get across, to be more focused and concise during the discussion.

15. State Your Needs Upfront

Clearly articulate what you need from the other person at the beginning of a conversation or presentation, such as ‘what I’m looking for from you is feedback on the changes,’ to set clear expectations.

16. Trim ‘Cog and Float’

When writing, ask yourself how you might be adding unnecessary ‘cog and float’ and actively look for tighter, clearer, and cleaner ways to phrase your questions, information, or recommendations.

17. Use Complete Sentences

Avoid overusing bulleted sentence fragments; instead, use complete sentences to clearly show the logical flow and connective tissue between ideas, ensuring your reader doesn’t have to decipher your meaning.

18. Use Formatting Sparingly

Avoid excessive formatting like bolding too much text, as it negates the purpose of highlighting; use formatting more sparingly than you think necessary to ensure emphasis is effective.

19. Avoid Biased Framing

Present information without biasing data towards your agenda, as people will notice and discount your message if they perceive a clear bias, eroding trust.

20. Address Question Behind Question

If you don’t know an exact answer, instead of just saying ‘I’ll get back to you,’ try to answer a similar question in the direction you think the person is asking, and probe to understand the deeper ‘question behind the question’ to continue the conversation.

21. Reflect Back Questions

When unsure how to respond, reflect back the question to the speaker to clarify understanding and buy yourself time to formulate a thoughtful answer.

22. Speak Up About Problems

As a junior person, leverage your proximity to problems and customer interactions by actively speaking up and sharing your observations and insights with your manager, who may lack that visibility.

23. Vent Before Giving Feedback

Before giving constructive feedback, vent your frustrations to a trusted third party (therapist, partner, friend) to release emotional energy and ensure you approach the conversation grounded and focused on the desired outcome.

24. Create a ‘Swipe File’

Maintain a ‘swipe file’ (e.g., an Apple Notes file) to collect well-articulated phrases, strategic insights, or effective communication examples from others, training yourself to notice what works well and borrow from it.

25. Use AI as Thought Partner

Utilize AI tools like Claude for initial drafts of communications or to brainstorm responses, providing your point of view for better output, and then iterate by asking the AI for improvements on your edits.

26. Expect Longer Timelines

Adopt the motto ’everything takes longer than you think’ and build in buffers for tasks, errands, career development, and project launches to reduce stress and manage expectations effectively.

27. Always Be Selling

Embrace the motto ‘Always Be Selling,’ which means consistently putting forth effort to convincingly present and advocate for your recommendations and ideas to others, not just pawning wares.

28. Craft Work Around Strengths

Intentionally craft your work to focus on your core strengths and the areas where you excel and add significant value, even if it’s a narrow slice, to maximize impact and personal satisfaction.

29. Measure Speed to Reaction

Track how quickly and enthusiastically you get the desired reaction from your audience; if there’s a lot of friction, practice communication skills to speed up the process and reduce back-and-forth.

30. Focus on One Habit

When improving communication, pick one tactic to focus on and practice it in various settings until it becomes a habit, rather than trying to implement too many changes at once and feeling overwhelmed.