Over the past two days, I facilitated a new business area kickoff and walked away reflecting on something I see more often than we talk about.
We dedicate valuable time to bringing leaders together, yet many of those moments are still used to present information rather than create alignment, dialogue, and shared ownership.
In this case, we spent a significant portion of time with senior leaders walking through slides, reading content that could have been consumed in advance. Not because of lack of capability, but because we have not consistently evolved how we expect leaders to show up in these settings.
It made me pause.
In a world where time together is limited and increasingly valuable, the role of a leader in these moments is shifting. It is less about presenting to inform and more about facilitating to influence, engaging others, and building something collectively in the room.
There is a real opportunity here to better equip leaders with the skills to:
tell a compelling story
create interaction and dialogue
use presence to inspire alignment and action
This is not about critique. It is about recognizing a shift in what great leadership communication looks like today.
I am increasingly thinking about how we, in HR, can intentionally support this evolution and make “presenting to influence” a core leadership capability.
Curious how others are approaching this.
Are you actively upskilling leaders in how they communicate and facilitate, not just what they present?