One of the things we hear from clients all the time is, “We’re promoting smart people into leadership roles before they’ve learned how to communicate like leaders.” As companies grow leaner and move faster, that problem becomes harder to ignore.

A lot of emerging leaders know their work, but they have never been trained to speak to executives in a way that is clear, credible, and easy to follow.

Most leadership programs do not solve that problem. They teach ideas people can understand, but not behaviors people can actually use. So leaders leave with useful concepts, then go back to work and communicate the same way they always have.

If your next generation of leaders cannot speak in a way executives understand and make clear why it matters to the business, their technical ability will only take them so far.