You’ve been in the room.
The meeting where someone rambles on for 30 minutes and nobody remembers what they said. The town hall where your VP motors through slides using mumbo-jumbo industry jargon, and the audience tunes out halfway through.
The frustrating truth is that:
In corporate life, it’s not the hardest worker or the smartest person who gets noticed. It’s the one who knows how to communicate with presence.
During my tenure at Google and at other Fortune 500 companies prior to that, I’ve seen brilliant professionals getting sidelined not because they lacked talent, but because they couldn’t get leaders to actually listen to them. Their ideas were buried under over-explanation and usage of filler words, such as:
"Maybe we could..."
"Sort of..."
"Does that make sense?"
"In my opinion..."
"You know..."
"Like..."
Let’s be honest, we are all guilty of using those words ourselves. To me, what matters more is what we are doing about it, and that is exactly what I wanted to cover in this article.
On the flip side, I’ve also seen people with average ideas that command insane attention because they packaged them with authority, clarity, and confidence.
That’s the real gap.
Not knowledge. Not skills. But communication.
And until you close that gap, your work won’t speak for itself, because the corporate world doesn’t work that way.
Most careers don’t stall because of “lack of skill,” but because of “lack of impactful communication”. You can be the sharpest operator in the room, but if you can’t make your leaders listen to what you have to say, your ideas die in silence.
And yet, too many smart professionals keep tripping over the same myths about communication over and over again. Myths that keep them invisible, overlooked, and frustrated.
“My work should speak for itself.”
“Speaking up means talking more.”
“If I sound smart, they’ll listen.”
“I need to have all the answers.”
And here’s the problem:
These limiting beliefs don’t just sound harmless; they can quietly destroy your career.
Believing them comes with a cost. A cost most mid-career professionals don’t realize until it’s too late.
Great leaders & executives can sniff “lack of conviction” from a mile away, and if you don’t learn to articulate your thoughts, you can never make meaningful progress in your career.
When you avoid conflict and never challenge weak ideas, you blend into the noise.
Your colleagues may find you agreeable, but no one sees you as “indispensable”.
In the end,
↳ Promotions pass you by.
↳ Leaders overlook you for bigger opportunities.
↳ Your career plateaus while less talented peers move ahead.
Not because you weren’t capable. But because your communication never matched your competence.
But I have good news for you:
Communication isn’t some mysterious gift the “top 1%” were born with.
It’s a set of skills. Skills you can learn, practice, and refine, just like coding, design, or strategy.
And once you do, everything changes. Literally, EVERYTHING!
When you speak with clarity and conviction, leaders start “leaning in” instead of checking their phones.
When you ask sharp questions, you stop being “just another voice in the room” and start being the one who “moves conversations forward”.
When you know how to frame instead of explain, you stop sounding like a “contributor” and start being seen as a “leader”.
Here are the top 5 communication skills that the elite 1% use:
1. Stop speaking to impress. Start speaking to lead.
Don’t water down your point with “I think” or “maybe.” Leaders state their view with clarity and conviction.
2. Respond with composure, not reaction.
Emotion clouds judgment. Leaders anchor their words in data, logic, and calm confidence, even under pressure.
3. Clarity is your credibility.
Authority isn’t about speaking more; it’s about speaking with intent. Step into every meeting knowing why you’re there and what impact you want to make*.*
4. Questions are your power move.
You don’t need all the answers. The leaders who stand out are the ones who ask sharp, strategic questions that cut through noise & drive the room forward.
5. Land the plane.
Over-explaining signals doubt. Say what needs to be said, clearly and directly, and then stop talking.
Most mid-career professionals hit a ceiling not because they lack skill, but because they haven’t upgraded the way they communicate. They over-explain. They play it safe. They let their emotions or self-doubt creep in.
And in doing so, they unintentionally keep themselves in the “contributor” box.
But the leap to leadership isn’t about adding more bullet points to your resume.
It’s about shifting how you show up in every conversation.
When you speak with clarity, ask sharper questions, and land your point with confidence…
That’s when people stop seeing you as one of many — and start seeing you as the one to follow.
So the next time you’re in a meeting, remember:
Your words are more than filler.
They’re signals.
And the right signals can completely change the trajectory of your career.
Hope this was useful.
And what’s one communication habit you know you need to upgrade — but haven’t yet?
Until next time,
-Raghav.B