The Quantified Communications Blog

Think back to your last important communication event. Maybe it was a presentation to five hundred key stakeholders, or maybe it was an innovative product pitch for the CEO and her team. You had your message down pat—you’d prepared your data points, supporting stories, and visual supports using audience-first methodology—and you’d rehearsed until you knew your key points like the back of your hand. Your content was on point. You were talking like a leader.

But did you look like a leader?

“Why would I invest in developing my employees when they’re just going to leave and use those new skills to help some other company?”

If you’ve been following our research and our blog, you know that, here at Quantified, we’re big believers in the power of storytelling. We know that storytelling language and structure make communication significantly more memorable, and we know they have a distinct neurological and chemical effect on our audience’s brains.

But what does it take to actually incorporate storytelling into your next big communication event? After all, it’s one thing to tell stories in a TED Talk or a commencement speech or a wedding toast, but a team meeting? A financial presentation?

Recently, I had the opportunity to speak on the State Bar of Texas Podcast, with Laurence Colletti of the Legal Talk Network. He was interested in how Quantified Communications approaches leadership communication, and especially what lawyers should keep in mind when they’re speaking with clients, judges, or juries, or when they’re drafting briefs and other documents.

For years, researchers, school districts, and policymakers have been focusing on ways to enhance elementary school learning through personalized learning plans. Harvard University released a report earlier this year, finding that while personalized learning plans are powerful for elementary students, they are largely underutilized in schools, according to Education Dive.

Once upon a time, artificial intelligence was just a vague, futuristic possibility. But today, it’s a real player in business, and it’s already transforming the way we work. For example, The World Economic Forum reports that AI handled about 29 percent of the tasks across twelve industries last year and LinkedIn predicts that 62 percent of search and data processing tasks will be managed by machines in the next three years.

Are your organizations newest managers struggling to in their new roles? You’re not alone. Management coach Victor Lipman recently wrote in Forbes that the transition to a first-time management role may be the most difficult in business ,  and it’s certainly tougher than the move to the C-Suite. That’s because, he says, new managers are frequently sent into the ring with little training or preparation, uncertain what the new role requires.

If you’ve been following our blog, you’ve seen us talk about how, with today’s tight job market and even tighter margins, AI-driven leadership development programs are the solution businesses need to identify, nurture, and retain top talent. While traditional coaching is too expensive and too subjective, and while traditional leadership development programs are too generic and suffer from the forgetting curve, AI-driven programs offer a “goldilocks solution” providing personalized training and quantifiable, lasting results without breaking the bank. In other words, it’s just right.

Though they were once considered “nice to haves,” we now know soft skills are critical predictors of workplace performance. Though they were once considered entirely subjective, we now know they can be quantified. And though soft skills were once considered traits you were either born with or not, we now know they can be taught and improved. 

How does your organization approach leadership development? Through workshops, mentorships, and online courses? Through trial by fire? Some combination of the above?