When someone presents — whether it’s a town hall, a board update, a pitch, or a job interview — they’re selling an idea. And in moments of uncertainty, people need more than polished slides or rehearsed lines. They need to feel like they matter, that the presenter is fully present with them, not simply repeating a script they’ve used a dozen times before.
That’s why the reminder to “make your employees feel they are the most important stakeholders” hits so hard. Leaders forget this all the time. After giving a message repeatedly, the presenter slips into autopilot, assuming the audience will take it the same way everyone else has. But audiences never hear a message the same way twice. Context shifts. Emotion shifts. Stakes shift. What doesn’t shift is the basic human need to feel seen.
A simple example illustrates the cost of forgetting this. Imagine you already have a job but want a better one. You walk into the interview genuinely excited — maybe even a little scared because good opportunities always come with risk. Instead of expressing your full passion (a ten), you hedge emotionally and reveal only an eight. You didn’t do anything wrong… except you failed to make the employer believe you were the one. They went with a less qualified candidate who showed a ten in desire. Passion wins proximity.
The same rule applies everywhere: investors back the founder who shows up fully; teams follow the leader who speaks directly to them; clients renew with the partner who still treats them like they matter; and interviewers call back the candidate who connects personally instead of sending a generic message.
I’m reminded of this every morning when I look at the resumes coming in for AB. I receive ten or more a day. Many are impressive — talent, pedigree, experience. But the fastest way to be eliminated is also the simplest: sending a canned cover letter with zero connection to AB, zero sense of why you care, zero effort to show that we’re the audience that matters. The absence of that human connection turns a strong candidate into an invisible one. A loss for both sides.
Leadership in uncertainty isn’t about overconfidence or perfection. It’s about presence. It’s about making the people in front of you — whether an employee, a client, a partner, or a hiring manager — feel like they’re the most important audience you’ll speak to today.
Because if they don’t feel that, nothing else in the message will land.