Why Smart People Fail To Influence Decision Makers

Communicating Technical Insights to Non-Technical Leaders

Neela 🌶️

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Published in

Women in Technology

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8 min read

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Nov 5, 2024

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Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

I’m sitting at my aunty’s kitchen table, steam rising from her signature chocolate chip cookies, trying to explain why cryptocurrency isn’t just “pretend money on the internet.”

Three cookies and two cups of tea later, she’s nodding along, even if she’s just being nice about it.

Funny thing is, that conversation went better than my Monday morning with Jack.

There he was, my CFO client, slumped in his leather chair in that corner office with the killer Manhattan view he never actually looks at. Numbers are his thing — give him a spreadsheet, and he’ll make it sing. But this particular Monday? The music had definitely died.

“For the love of God,” he groaned, rubbing his temples, “just… dumb it down for me?”

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again. Started comparing our legacy system to a rusty old Chevy, then somehow veered into space travel metaphors.

By the time I finished, poor Jack looked like he was trying to solve a Rubik’s cube in the dark, with mittens on.

He actually pulled out a quarter after I left. I saw him flipping it through his office window — though he swears now it…