Helping corporate professionals think
and communicate like senior executives

Read time: 2.5 minutes

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Dan here 👋 I've made some changes to the format of this newsletter. If you have any feedback on this version or you want me to bring back anything from the old version, just reply and let me know!

Hey Reader,

Have you ever needed to think and speak on your feet, and then just froze?

It almost happened to me when I was a junior consultant.

The project was to review the mortgage portfolio of a large bank. Profitability had declined over the last 12 months and we were tasked with determining why.

The project was wrapping up and the project leader was walking the client through our findings. We were halfway through the discussion when the client’s Divisional CFO turned to me and said:

“Dan, what do you think is really driving the drop in mortgage profitability?”

That split second between the question and my answer felt like an eternity. I wasn’t expecting it. This wasn’t my section. But all eyes were suddenly on me.

My first instinct was panic. Then, the mental playbook kicked in.

Speaking clearly is all about structure

Most people think that speaking clearly is about confidence or perfectly delivering your lines. But that's not quite right.

Speaking clearly is about giving your audience structure.

There are two reasons why structure is important:

Firstly, when you communicate without structure, it’s easy to lose track of your own point. You end up rambling, even when you know the answer.

Secondly, structure helps your audience make sense of what you’re saying. They’re coming in cold, so it's hard for them to both listen to your words and figure out how everything fits together at the same time.

The challenge is that when you’re thinking on your feet, structure is the first thing to disappear. You don’t have time to map out what you’ll say and how you’ll say it.

That’s why I’ve found signposting to be the quickest way to bring structure into what you're saying (even as you’re still thinking).

Signposting is a simple way to quickly apply structure to what you're saying

Signposting is the process of using specific words and phrases to communicate a structure or information hierarchy to your audience. It helps them keep track of what you’re saying.

There are two components to signposting:

1. Setup: A short preview that tells your audience what’s coming and how it’s structured.
2. Signpost: The specific words and phrases you use along the way to guide the audience through the structure.

Examples of signposting:

Back to my story...

When I was sitting in the room with the Divisional CFO (and once the panic passed), I simply recalled the top three findings from the analysis and said:

There are three reasons why mortgage profitability has dropped:

Firstly, funding costs have risen because stronger competition for deposits has driven up savings interest rates.

Secondly, more customers are purchasing through the broker channel, which is a lower margin channel than direct-to-bank.

And thirdly, credit losses have increased as more customers are struggling to meet their monthly payments.

Then I stopped talking. Clear answer, well structured, and no rambling.

As you can see, the great thing about signposting is that it's simple and flexible. You don’t need a script or a complex structure, you just need a few framing phrases in your back pocket.

Hope that helps!

Cheers,

Dan