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Communication matters.
Communication matters.
It’s central to how we learn, make a case, pitch an idea, explain data, and inspire others. Good communication rests on research, analysis—and the ability to connect.
People communicate in different ways, and all of us tend to lean into our strengths and avoid areas where we are less confident. This weakens the delivery of our message and lowers the impact of our work. Someone skilled at deep data analysis, for example, may feel more comfortable in technical jargon and struggle to explain their findings to a broader audience.
When we coach innovation teams on how to present, we help people understand their strengths and weaknesses so they can improve both. We use a tool that we developed, presenter archetypes, to help open a discussion about the trade-offs of our strengths. We’ve identified five archetypes. They’re not definitive, but they resonate in the technical environments where we work. You may recognize yourself—or your audience—in one or more of them.
The Engineer
The Engineer
The Engineer loves technology and is confident that they can build anything. Less-intelligent people struggle to keep up with their avalanche of facts or technical explanations.
The Listener
The Listener
The Listaner cares about people and worries about how to take care of them and how to please them. With these skills, they may work in the HR department, but they are also valued by the marketing department and in operations. They may have trouble conveying the deeper human-centered issues they care about, especially in technical organizations, when "soft" skills get sidelined by discussions about engineering, code, or data.
The Sales Man
The Sales Man
The Salesman is confident in front of the room, even when pitching to senior management. Their presentations are polished and professional, and they seem to be able to answer every question thrown their way. Some people come away wondering if the information is credible.
The Data Diva
The Data Diva
The Data Diva loves data and can draw complex connections that others cannot find. They want to be able to tell their stories and get their message out to a wider group of people.
The Designer
The Designer
The Designer is creative and cool. In a presentation, they put on a beautiful show: great slides, lots of color, and vivid images, but they may struggles to engage experts, who find the message fluffy.
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