Wolf&Grayson EditorialMost executives have brilliant ideas but can’t translate them into the kind of inspiring message that moves people to act. Corporate initiatives fail not because of poor strategy, but because leaders can’t communicate their vision clearly across different levels of the organization. Aurélien Mangano learned this lesson the hard way during his years climbing from software engineering to Director of Global Digital Transformation, watching promising projects crumble under the weight of miscommunication.
Discovering Leadership Lessons Through Failure
Aurelien didn’t set out to become a governance communication expert. His career started in software engineering, then project management, before landing in global digital transformation roles. But he kept running into the same problem. “I realized that there are a lot of things that run into digital transformation. A lot of people are resisting this transformation,” he explains. That resistance taught him something important about leadership. “One of the elements that I saw was very important was to lead the change, not manage the change,” Aurelien says. Instead of hammering people with budgets and timelines, he learned to focus on value. “Not trying to push only the KPIs of time, cost, and budget because people don’t relate to these. And it’s not inspiring to just look at these KPIs.” The breakthrough came when he realized leaders need to help people see themselves in the future they’re building. It’s not enough to explain what’s changing. You have to help them “project themselves into this world that will be their better future.”
Explaining Why Leaders Sound Unclear
There’s actually science behind why communication goes wrong. “When you formulate an idea, there is no language. And when you translate it to language, you lose a part of the meaning that you have in your brain,” Aurelien explains. That’s why you feel your spoken words never capture what you really meant. The idea in your head was richer than what came out of your mouth. Then there’s the attention problem. “When you receive information, you receive about 1 billion bits of data every second. And you can ingest only 11 bits,” he notes. Think about that math. Out of a billion pieces of information hitting someone every second, they can only process eleven. Your brilliant strategy memo is competing with everything else in their world. This is where many leaders make their biggest mistake. They craft one message and expect it to work for everyone. But people process information differently. “There are some people who are visual, some who are more auditory, and some who are tactile,” Aurelien says. Some need charts, others need stories, and some need to experience things hands-on.
Building Authority With Honest Motivation
Aurelien’s approach to thought leadership starts with brutal honesty about your own motivations. “We always start with a why. And it is really going deep into your why,” he says. But not the surface-level why that sounds good in meetings. The real why that gets you up in the morning and keeps you working late. he uses a painting analogy to explain this. “I love to paint, but I’m not good at painting. That means I cannot follow the process of making precise lines and details. I will be very abstract.” The point isn’t whether you can paint well. It’s knowing what you can and can’t do, then building from your strengths.
Once you understand your true motivations and capabilities, you can craft messages for different audiences. Executives want short updates focused on ROI. Middle managers need action plans that show how their teams fit into the bigger picture. Individual contributors want technical details about their specific role. “People don’t have the same expectations according to the level in the company and their specialty,” Aurelien explains.
Understanding AI Impact on Communication
Artificial intelligence is making information cheaper and faster to find. But that doesn’t make communication easier. “It will be quicker to find information,” Aurelien says, but leaders still need to make sense of all that data for their teams. If anything, AI makes clear communication more valuable. When anyone can generate a report or find statistics in seconds, the premium goes to leaders who can translate complexity into clarity. “As a thought leader, that means thinking about what it means, making sure that it resonates correctly with yourself and with others,” he explains. Aurelien believes this puts more pressure on leaders to surround themselves with real experts, not just information. “Make sure that you have people around you who are knowledgeable about it. If it is healthcare, make sure that you have people around you in the specific industry.” The hardest part remains unchanged: taking complicated ideas and making them simple without losing their meaning. “Making sure that you are clear is the most difficult task that you have,” he says.
Clear communication is just the starting point for effective governance leadership. “Thought leadership and clarity are the first steps, but it’s a long journey,” Aurelien explains. You also need emotional intelligence, growth mindset, and other skills that develop over time. But clarity comes first because everything else builds on it. “If you are not clear about what you want, people will not be clear about what you offer and they will not want your product,” he notes. The stakes are simple: unclear leaders create confused organizations, and confused organizations don’t succeed. The good news is that most of the work happens upfront. Get clear on your purpose, understand your audience, and tailor your message accordingly. “When you do this, you probably are at 90% of it,” he says. After that, it’s just refinement.
Connect with Aurélien Mangano on LinkedIn to explore his insights on leadership and communication.
