poseycorp helps innovators become great communicators. (Sometimes by sending out helpful stuff in a newsletter.)
ISSUE 138
Avengers assemble!
“Don't be ashamed of needing help. You have a duty to fulfill just like a soldier on the wall of battle.”
-- Marcus Aurelius
CHAPTER EIGHT
Four days after the debacle of Jones freelancing on WidgetCo’s AI strategy at an industry conference, Monica and Hector were feeling better. They’d held 32 customer meetings to pivot away from Jones’ deck. They presented Clara, Marcus, and Emily’s beautifully simple and compelling strategy deck. April had threaded the needle on their positioning message, Justine’s team was on fire. They were both so relieved to have a good story to tell.
“Monica, I really appreciate your commitment. It takes a ton of discipline to tell the same story over and over again to everyone with the same energy,” said Hector. He was grateful for Monica’s maturity and grace. He’d become an even more committed Monica partisan.
“We can’t leave our customers in an information vacuum. We did what we had to do! I’m glad we were able to get to everyone, and to be able to do it together” said Monica, exhausted but relieved that she was leading the company properly through its first major crisis.
Just as she reached for her iced coffee, there was a gentle knock at the door. It was Arun, who asked, in an uncharacteristically respectful and non-intrusive way, “Is this a good time?”
“Sure,” Monica said. “Hector and I are just taking a breather.” Arun was tan but otherwise, there was no evidence that he’d been clubbing nonstop in Ibiza for 30 days.
Before Arun sat down, Hector got a text. “Oh no,” he said. “Chevron’s going with Zilthru. I’m going to see if I can rescue the relationship, but if I can’t, I’ll ping Gary. This’ll impact our number this quarter.”
“Let me call my line of business contact first and see where I get,” said Hector. “But thanks!”
After Hector left, Arun said to Monica, “So you’ve been in it.”
“Uh yeah. We all are. All hands on deck. Justine’s hair is on fire, like I’ve never seen before.” She stopped to give Arun, her irresponsible, egotistical, absent
co-founder a skeptical look. “Why are you being so chill?”
“I think I’m finally learning that leadership really is service. Just tell me what you and WidgetCo need and I’ll do it,” said Arun, with more sincerity than Monica had seen before. “Oh. And I’m done with improvising in public on company strategy. I’m sorry about that.”
“Well, that’s a relief,” said Monica. She saw the olive branch Arun was offering and she was SO grabbing it. “The next chapter of WidgetCo is about to begin. I’ll address strategy, customer success,
and culture in the next all hands. Want to join me?”
Every leader is a Chief Repeating Officer. Monica and Hector both embrace this essential truth of effective communication and leadership. We only have two chapters left in the story of WidgetCo. How will it all turn out for our heroes? You’ll find out in September! [Need to catch up? Chapter One, Chapter Two, Chapter Three, Chapter Four, Chapter Five, Chapter Six, Chapter Seven. You can also find extra tidbits of WidgetCo backstory on poseycorp’s blog.]
On poseyblog
We're continuing to learn extra details about WidgetCo:
“I was dreading this but I really enjoyed it!” said a happy media training client.
If you’d like great results, schedule a conversation with me! It’s easy! Reach me at inquiries@poseycorp.com.
Not sure how to crush your next presentation? Persuade that difficult customer or team member? Navigate tough questions from regulators, press, your boss? How about some pragmatic, actionable communications advice?
If you are a startup founder, an intrapreneur at a company, or a leader looking to grow, click here to sign up for Office Hours with Lisa. Because your business must scale and you must scale with it. Because it’s the great communicators who create change!
