plain and simple Archive - This Moment Counts

“I need to sound professional.”

That might be the single most expensive sentence in business.

It‘s the reason strategies die in inboxes. It’s the reason teams nod in meetings and do nothing afterward. It’s the reason smart leaders sound like interchangeable corporate bots.

Because “sounding professional” usually means:
→ Adding syllables where none are needed.
→ Using “utilize” instead of “use.”
→ Talking about “synergies” instead of “working together.”
→ Hiding the actual instruction behind a wall of context.

We do this because we are afraid.
We are afraid that if we speak plainly, we won’t look smart enough.
We are afraid that if we say “Stop doing X,” we sound too blunt.
So we say, “We need to re-evaluate our prioritization frameworks regarding X.”

And then we wonder why X is still happening on Tuesday.

There is nothing professional about being misunderstood.

There is no badge of honor for complexity.
There is no ROI on confusion.

Real professionalism is the courage to be plain and simple.
To say exactly what you mean, even if it feels “too easy.”
To strip away the armor of jargon and just speak.

Stop trying to sound like a professional.
Start sounding like a human who wants to get things done.

(And watch how much faster they actually get done.)

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

What if I’m not a charismatic speaker?

“I’m not a charismatic speaker. Really. I’m an operator.”
Well, I don’t believe that matters.

I hear this “apology” all the time. Usually from the people who actually run the business.

They say things like “I’m too quiet. I’m not funny enough. I hate the spotlight.”

Good!, I say.

Because your team doesn’t need another entertainer. They have Netflix for that.

Don’t forget that you aren’t doing a TED Talk. You are doing Leadership.

A TED Talk is designed to entertain strangers for 18 minutes.
Leadership is designed to guide your people for 18 months.

These are two completely different sports.

And if you care about your business … if you truly give a damn about getting this right, you have the only “fire” that matters.

You are an operator? Perfect.

That means you know how the machine works. You know what matters to your team, your customers, your partners. That means you aren’t selling a dream; you are engineering a reality.

A quiet person speaking the plain and simple truth is infinitely more powerful than a funny speaker shouting a fancy slogan.

An operator explaining why we need to change is more inspiring than a motivator saying that we can do it.

For example, regarding your strategy what your team needs to know is:

Where are we going?
Why there?
Why us?

No theater necessary to explain this.

You don’t need to light up the room. You just need to light the path.

Keep doing that,
Michael

Isn’t this obvious?

This might disappoint some of you: The strongest strategy in 2026 will sound boring in the boardroom and obvious in the field.

Yup. You’ve read that right. Boring and obvious. Not grand or clever.

Why? Because the only measure of a strategy is whether it shapes the choices that actually have to be made in the field. Not how clever it sounds and how impressive the slide deck looks. Simply whether it leads to action.

Now, guess when people are most likely to act? Exactly! When the action is obvious.

When people in the field say “yes, of course” after hearing your strategy, you’ve nailed it. If you’ve ever seen it in action, you know that an “of course effect” is so much stronger than any “wow effect”.

The only problem is that “of course” sounds boring. Which is why people avoid it.

Which, in turn, is why it might be your biggest advantage to embrace it.

Leaders who light the path don’t try to impress. They choose words that make the path impossible to miss.

Even if that sounds boring and obvious.

What’s your take? Does a strategy need to sound “exciting”?

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

Ridiculously effective communication

Perhaps the most underrated habit in communication is to look for the plain and simple words.

People think that fancy words will persuade better.

Others think that jargon will make them appear more professional.

Some are simply careless and never really bother translating the boardroom jargon.

And some, believe it or not, still consider it a badge of honor when half the room can’t follow because they juggle heavy words and complex sentences.

But.

When you think about it, what makes your communication ridiculously effective is something very different:

→ Make it easy for people to understand you.

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

The Eloquence Trap

Let’s talk about a dangerous skill: Eloquence.

Dangerous, you ask?
Yes, because it can seduce you into making three terrible mistakes.

We usually think of eloquence as a superpower, but in my experience, for many leaders, it is actually a liability.

I’d argue that most leaders don’t lack the ability to speak. They lack a point and their eloquence allows them to hide that fact. They can talk for five minutes without stumbling, and yet, say absolutely nothing.

This shows up in …

Mistake 1: They start writing before they know what they want to say.

Because they are articulate, they trust they can just start typing or start talking and the brilliance will appear. It usually doesn’t. They produce three pages of beautifully phrased confusion.

Nice to listen to, but impossible to act on. Their team is left to figure out the point for them. Which they probably won’t.

They’ll simply forget what you said.

Mistake 2: They try to cover too much.

In other words, they use eloquence to mask a lack of priority. I mean, a clumsy speaker would just sound overwhelmed. But a skilled speaker can explain why everything is a priority. They weave a complex tapestry of 15 different goals, making them all sound interconnected and vital.

It really does sound impressive. Strategic. But it’s actually a disaster.

They are basically describing chaos, but beautifully.

And mistake 3: They worry more about sounding smart than being understood.

They use big words. Polished metaphors. And eloquently sprinkle in some humor. And sure, the team says, that sounded smart. But then everyone walks away thinking, “I have no idea what the actual point was”. (btw, that’s true for many keynote speakers too). In other words, you’ve made a nice performance for them, but didn’t light the path.

What the best leaders say is often surprisingly unpolished. Sometimes even blunt. They sacrifice the applause for impact by saying what’s true in the most plain and simple words.

I’d say, don’t worry about saying things better unless you say better things.

Keep lighting the path,
Michael

PS: If you want to say better things, a Clarity Lab is the place where we work on that. I’ve just opened a few slots for January.

Do your words need more bang?

If you feel your words need more bang, the words are almost certainly not your problem.

It’s much more likely that you yourself don’t trust the idea yet.

Because if you would, you wouldn’t need to push so hard.

You’d just say what needs to be said.
Plain and simple.

But when you’re unsure, that doesn’t work.
The simple words feel a little awkward and sound slightly off.

So you add more words. Fancier words. And invest more energy.
Not to improve the idea, but to fix how it sounds.

And that’s a trap. You think you need fancier words.
But fancy words won’t fix an unfinished idea.

The path to a better idea runs straight through the search for plain and simple words.

If it doesn’t feel right saying it simply, it’s a clear signal that there’s work to do on the thinking behind them.

Sure, the simple words maybe aren’t themselves the fix.
But they’ll certainly show you where to look.

Keep lighting the path!

Sounding professional

Somewhere between “value proposition” and “north star” the thing that really needed to be said got lost.

This has nothing to do with bad intentions.
Most leaders want to bring clarity.

But somehow, the meeting got stuck in the performance of sounding professional. Eloquent. Ambitious.

And so the one statement that would’ve made everything click never made it into the room.

It didn’t sound “eloquent” enough.

Plain and simple words rarely do.
But they are the ones that bring clarity.

If someone finds the courage to surface them in all of that alignment talk, synergy talk, roadmap talk …

It’s usually someone who’s not looking to impress,
but to create an impact.

Keep lighting the path!

Didn’t we just agree on it?

“So… what are we doing again?”
That’s the question no Scrum Master wants to hear after a planning session.

But if you’re honest, it’s more common than you’d like.

It makes you want to bang your head on the table every single time. (I mean, didn’t we just agree on it?)

For my keynote at Scrum Day in June, I’m having many conversations with Scrum Masters, and when we dig deeper on this problem, it often comes down to two missing pieces:
→ Plain and simple language. And …
→ Empathy for how your message is heard on the other side.

Notably, it’s not more frameworks.
More process.
Or meetings.

But better communication.

Good communicators speak in a way that’s clear for the others.

The default is different, though.
“I’ll just explain everything again. I’m sure, you’ll get it then.”

But we all know how that usually ends: nodding heads, confused hearts, stuck teams.

Let’s change that.

I’m hosting a live session on May 8th to help you become the kind of communicator who doesn’t just facilitate meetings but progress.

Thursday, May 8th at 1pm Eastern time (New York) | 7pm CEST (Berlin)
Includes my new PDF: The Clarity Cheat Sheet for Scrum Leaders

Would love to see you there. Click here for details and registration.

Keep lighting the path!

Do you struggle to impress people?

Simple beats fancy.

This is what so many communicators get wrong. They overthink communication.

They search for a more “eloquent” way to express an idea.
Or something more “impressive”.
With extra polish to make it “shine”.

When the opposite is what often works best.

Think about the last time you were truly captivated by a message. Was it the fancy words? I bet it wasn’t. I bet you simply saw yourself in the message. As if they had expressed your thoughts … only better than you ever could.

Here’s how that works:

1. Steal their words.

Stop searching for the perfect words.
Your audience already uses them (if you care to listen).
Listen. Steal. Use them better than they do.

2. Find the slope.

Persuasion feels like pushing a boulder uphill.
Resonance feels like gravity doing the work for you.
Find where they’re already headed. And meet them there.

3. Make it plain and simple.

No fluff. No buzzwords. No ‘important sounding’ nonsense.
If you wouldn’t say it to a friend, don’t say it here.
Clarity wins. Every. Single. Time.

**4. Make them feel it.**

People don’t act on what makes sense.
They act on what feels true.
And when that happens your words don’t just sound good, they’ll change things.

5. Watch their reaction.

Watch where people lean in: that’s your signal.
Watch where they tune out: that’s noise.
Adapt. Refine. Until only signal remains.

In other words, great communicators understand something that anyone who aims to “impress” simply overlooks:
It’s not about you.

So, how does great communication work?
You don’t persuade harder.
You resonate stronger.

Plain and simple …

Keep lighting the path!

If in doubt, choose plain and simple

If you challenge the status quo but can’t explain how, you’re not transforming anything. You’re just making noise.

If people need a dictionary to understand their next steps, they’ll default to what’s familiar instead.

Plain and simple is the first of the four PATH principles.

It’s pretty, well, simple: If in doubt, choose the simpler words, use the plainer language.

It’s the foundation for everything else.

Isn’t it kind of crazy that it still has such a bad rep in business?

It baffles me that people still wear it as a badge of honor when they are able to juggle complex statements that sound fancy but no-one understands.

Confusion is a much bigger issue than complexity. Even a difficult plan can be followed if it’s clear, but a confusing one will paralyze action.

When you find plain and simple words:
→ A vague vision becomes a future I can clearly see.
→ The logical next step becomes the obvious next step.

This is what I’d award the badge of honor for.

How about you?

Keep lighting the path!

Posts in Tag: plain and simple

1. Steal their words.

2. Find the slope.

3. Make it plain and simple.

4. Make them feel it.

5. Watch their reaction.

**4. Make them feel it.**