“The more senior the job, the more important communication skills are.”- Arne Sorenson
Last week I was on stage in front of 400+ leaders at the Museum of the Future in Dubai.
I was with the brilliant Samira Cutts, a leading cognitive neuroscientist and PPL’s Head of Brain Health and Performance, talking about how to train as a cognitive athlete.
A confession: I find speaking in this format challenging. I love the intimacy and intensity of workshops and small groups, where you can get deep into the work.
It’s harder to create a connection with a crowd. The pressure to perform rather than collaborate hits hard.
But I’m going to do more of these keynotes. Why? Because growth only happens if you seek out discomfort and adversity. I try to practise what I preach.
Communication is a critical skill in leadership and life. It takes many forms, verbal and non-verbal.
I define it as the ability to express your vision, plans and actions with clarity and conviction.
If you can’t do that effectively, how can you expect anyone to follow you?
THE PROOF
Arne Sorenson, who was CEO of Marriott International from 2012 until his death in 2021, was by any definition a great leader.
Marriott was a client of mine when I was running a communications agency in Dubai, and I met Arne in 2013 when he flew in for the launch of the JW Marriott Marquis hotel.
I saw first-hand what a world-class communicator looks like.
The Marriott leadership team I worked with then had some real A-stars who I respected immensely, and they confirmed he was an exceptional leader.
Further proof of that came in March 2020, when Arne recorded a video for Marriott’s team across the globe as Covid-19 was devastating their business.
It is a masterclass in expressing your vision, plans and actions with clarity and conviction. Four lessons stand out to me.
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Vulnerability is not weakness - Arne had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer the year before and stayed in the role through treatment. In the video he immediately addressed his appearance (most notably his lack of hair due to chemotherapy). He said it was the most difficult video message his team had ever pulled together, and let his emotions show. Let them see you.
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We’re in it together - He shared the hard facts and numbers, and put the scale of the crisis in context. Your team will follow you in a crisis if you’ve given them a sense of shared ownership and purpose.
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Actions over intentions - Arne announced he and Bill Marriott Jr., the executive chairman, were taking no salary for the rest of 2020, and the rest of the executive team were accepting a 50% pay cut. That message of inclusion was a powerful one.
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Calm is contagious - He finished by stating clearly and concisely that as tough as the crisis was, he was confident they would navigate it. A degree of psychological safety in just a few lines.
The video is just under six minutes long so I’d urge you to watch it in full here. No theatrics, just substance.
THE SCIENCE
Our brains are prediction machines and your team’s brains are constantly reading you.
In a brain-imaging study using meaningless speech, an angry tone alone drove a stronger response in a region that processes voices, separately from any effect of attention. In another study, judges watching silent clips of university teachers, each under 30 seconds long, were able to predict the ratings those teachers later got from their students. No words needed.
Then the state you’re in matters. In one experiment, around a quarter of people who simply watched someone else under stress showed a rise in the stress hormone cortisol themselves, even when they watched on video.
That helps explain why Arne’s video landed. It’s never just about the words. Tone, body language and presence all carry, and Arne used all three to tell the associates he was with them.
Their brains read all of it.
THE APPLICATION
Communication is one of the most tangible, measurable skills of the cognitive athlete.
Yet too many of us run on autopilot and bank on picking it up organically.
My provocation is this: if you truly want to honour your duty of care to those you lead, you have to train it with intention.
I think Arne’s masterclass holds the best lessons for any of us.
We are all works in progress, and if it helps, I’ll share here what I’m doing.
Last Thursday was the first time I’ve spoken to an audience of that size in years. It required me to practise what I preach: to choose to be an explorer instead of hiding behind the expert label.
Samira and I approached this with a singular focus on one question: what does everyone in that room need from us?
It always has to be about the audience. We could have focused on looking slick on stage and made it about what we wanted out of it, but if the audience didn’t get what they needed, we’d have failed.
I prepared, I drilled, I refined. I sought out those better than me in this arena.
Staying cognitively flexible meant I could change some of our messaging based on their feedback, and it just flowed.
The physiological sigh, popularised by Huberman, calmed my nervous system before I stepped on stage.
And I’d give myself a solid B.
I had a couple of beers on Thursday night with colleagues and friends. There’s nothing wrong with stopping to smell the roses after you’ve put in the work.
But now comes the most important part: analysing where I can improve. I know watching the video will be deeply uncomfortable. Growth comes from discomfort.
Then I’m going to get more reps in. Progressive overload.
Communication is how the cognitive athlete’s presence turns into influence.
Go get the reps in.
Go well.
J
P.S. I know some brilliant communication coaches, so message me on jason@primeperformancelabs.com. I’d be happy to help.
LIVE BETTER, LEAD BETTER
The best content I researched this week:
- Preparation beats planning, says Sahil Bloom. This is cognitive flexibility in action and he uses public speaking to make his point. Find out why if you prepare for chaos, you’ll thrive in any condition.
- Finally, something a bit different this week: a test for you. I shared Arne Sorenson’s video with a friend and something fascinating happened. They struggled to sit through it. It’s under six minutes, but in a world where we’ve been wired for distraction, they found it incredibly challenging to watch it.
If you haven’t already, I want you to do it as a test of your attentional control - as I said in a recent newsletter, your ability to protect your focus deliberately and direct it where it matters can be transformational to your performance.
If you struggle to watch this with focus and intention, be curious about what that is telling you. What else could you be missing?