A few weeks ago, Stephanie got on a call with a client she's been coaching for several months. This client, a public health leader who had spent years building a program she believed in, was in tears. The list of what she was navigating was almost hard to say out loud: federal funding for her department was evaporating. Public trust in the field she'd devoted her career to had cratered in the years since COVID. There was an active measles outbreak demanding her team's around-the-clock attention. The strategic plan she'd helped design was effectively on hold. And in the same week, both her boss and her most trusted employee had resigned, with a hiring freeze in place that meant no one would be coming to help.
“Read the room” is common advice in professional settings, especially when people are preparing for high-stakes meetings or working with senior stakeholders. What people usually mean is that they want you to: navigate different audiences well show up professionally and handle complex real-time dynamics with confidence. Most people are told they need to read the room, but the more critical skill is what you do next and how you adapt in the moment when things don’t go as expected. “Reading the room” is actually much more about how you lead in the moment. As an influential communicator, you must be willing to check in with the group rather than move on. Then, try something different to re-engage people and move the discussion forward.
During a coaching call with Kara, a leader shared a “horror” story we can all relate to. In a recent team meeting, they presented a recommendation for a new process that he needed feedback on. The approach was going to shape the direction of a several-month project, so the stakes were high. He walked the group through his thinking, explained the approach, and then turned to the team and asked, “Any thoughts?” And then nothing. The room went quiet, and he paused and looked around, waiting for someone to jump in. No one did, and after a moment, he moved on. The meeting continued, but it felt flat and unproductive, and it was clear that something hadn’t quite worked.
Stephanie was coaching a product manager at Google, Marcus, who was preparing to pitch a new health tech idea to his executives. He had done the work. The research was solid. The opportunity was real. And like many strong operators, his instinct was to lead with the facts. During his discovery process, Marcus had interviewed a nurse, Sarah, who shared something surprising: She logged into her system about 100 times per shift. Marcus dug deeper. Each login took about a minute… That’s more than an hour and a half in an 8-hour shift spent just logging in. That’s a compelling data point. But it's not enough. Data alone doesn’t carry weight unless people feel what it means. So we worked on how he delivered it. We didn't change the numbers. We just changed the experience of hearing them.