Somebody told you to fix something.
Most writing about communication describes what good looks like. These pages do the other job: what the feedback meant, and which behaviour it was pointing at.
Feedback decoded
The phrases managers reach for, and the behaviours underneath them. One page each.
"Be more assertive" — decoded
Assertiveness feedback is rarely about volume or confidence. It is about whether you state a position and keep it. Here are the habits behind the phrase.
10 September 2026
"You need to be more concise" — what they are actually reacting to
Being told to be more concise is rarely about total words. It is about how long the listener waited for the point. Here is what people are reacting to and what to change.
10 September 2026
"Work on your executive presence" — what your manager actually means
Executive presence is a description of an effect, not a skill. Here are the specific behaviours managers are reacting to when they use the phrase.
10 September 2026
"You lack gravitas" and "own the room" — decoded
Gravitas is the vaguest feedback in the set, and it is pointing at something specific: what you do with pace, silence and correction.
10 September 2026
"Improve your communication skills" on a performance review — what to do next
A review line is not a plan. Here is how to turn the vaguest sentence in performance management into something specific enough to work on and prove.
10 September 2026
"You are too in the weeds" — decoded
This feedback is not about knowing too much detail. It is about the order you deliver it in, and who you make do the summarising.
10 September 2026
Speaking in meetings
The things that go wrong in a meeting nobody could prepare for.
How to answer a question you did not see coming
Nobody struggles with the talk they rehearsed. Here is what to do in the four seconds after a question you have no prepared answer for.
10 September 2026
How to stop rambling in meetings
Rambling is not a discipline problem. Speech has no revision loop, so the first draft is the only draft. Here is what to change given that.
10 September 2026
You have a rambler on your team. What actually works
Every answer to this is a process hack, and process hacks manage the symptom. Here is why they fail and what closes the loop instead.
10 September 2026
Compare
What the tools in this space do, where each one fits, and where Vocanti sits.
AI communication coaches compared (2026)
Yoodli, Poised, Orai, Vocal Image, Speakio and the sales roleplay tools do four different jobs. Here is the split that matters and which shape fits which problem.
10 September 2026
Live in-meeting nudges vs coaching after the meeting
Real-time prompts, the approach Poised is built on, are the most appealing idea in this category and the hardest to act on. Here is the attention problem behind them.
10 September 2026
What a communication coach costs (2026)
Executive coaches charge $250 to $450 an hour. Here is what that buys, what the software alternatives cost, and which problems each one actually solves.
10 September 2026
Yoodli alternatives (2026)
An honest comparison of Yoodli against Poised, Orai, Vocal Image, the sales roleplay tools and Vocanti, with which one to pick for each job.
10 September 2026