Vernon Roberts

Today’s business teams bring together people with very different experiences, expectations, and communication styles. In many organizations, it’s not uncommon to have four generations working side by side. That diversity can be a strength. But it can also create misalignment especially in how people communicate. When you have Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z all sitting around the same table (or the same Zoom square), you aren't just looking at different age groups, you’re looking...

In many business conversations, what’s being discussed on the surface isn’t the real issue. A client asks about pricing. A colleague pushes back on your recommendation. A meeting slows down without a clear reason. It’s easy to respond to what’s being said. It’s more effective to understand what’s driving it. In most important business conversations, there are really two conversations happening at the same time. There is the surface conversation: the words, the facts, the questions, the data....

You’ve seen this leader before. Smart. Prepared. Confident. Also somehow capable of turning a 30-minute meeting into a hostage situation. That’s the problem. A lot of new leaders step into management believing their job is to prove they still know the most. So they over-explain. They answer too quickly. They fill every gap in the conversation because silence feels risky. It backfires. The more you feel compelled to be the answer person, the more your team learns to wait. They stop testing...