The Presence Lab | Executive Communication Under Pressure

The Cost - Who Pays, Who Decides, Who Answers

Description Sam Altman said the world should accept some bad things happening for the benefits of AI. He deserves credit for naming the tradeoff out loud. The reaction r

Next Move - What to Do the Night Before a High-Stakes Meeting

Picturing the big meeting going well can make it go worse. The night before a high-stakes meeting, the meeting shows up early. The CFO challenges the number, a board mem

The Fog - When Your Team Asks, "Is AI Taking My Job?"

The go-to answer to "Is AI taking my job?" is "embrace it and you'll be fine." The people using AI the most are the ones most worried about losing their jobs. It ha

Rude - When Interrupting Is the Right Move

Interrupting someone feels rude. Sometimes not interrupting is the bigger communication mistake. Dale Dixon learned that during about fifteen years in television news, w

Why You Get Nervous When You Know the Material Cold

You know the material. You’ve done the work. You may even be the most knowledgeable person in the room. So why do you suddenly get nervous when the stakes go up? Someti

The Read - How to Tell What a Room Actually Means

You notice the folded arms. The silence. The lack of questions. The person looking down at the table. You read the room. Then you make the dangerous leap: you decide wh

When Your Company Screws Up: Own It, Fix It, Prevent It

How does a bad decision survive the idea, production, internal review and final approval before somebody finally says, “We shouldn’t do this”? That’s the leadership ques

The Scorecard - How to Prove Your Communication Changed

You can work hard on your communication and still leave the people around you experiencing the same behavior. That’s the uncomfortable problem with self-awareness: knowi

The Hedge - How to Sound Confident When You're Challenged

You didn't lose your point. You watched yourself soften it. One skeptical look, and "we should do this" turns into "I think maybe we could look at this." For executi

The Open - Fix the First 30 Seconds of Your Next Talk

The opening of a talk isn't a scripting problem. It's a state problem. Here's what happens in the first thirty seconds, and three moves that keep your best

Why Leaders Go Blank Under Pressure, and How to Recover

You know the material. Then someone asks a difficult question, the room turns toward you, and your mind goes completely blank. Why does your mind go blank under pressure

The Grip - Why Letting Go Is the Skill Leaders Never Train

Every leader believes the same thing under pressure: prepare hard enough, control enough of it, and you will finally be safe. It is exactly backwards. The tighter you gri

The Dial - How Strong Leaders Turn Nerves Into Fuel

Everyone tells you to calm down before the big moment. The research says that's the wrong instruction, and it's quietly costing you the edge you need. In the s

The Pause: How Three Seconds Of Silence Builds Authority

Get The Pause Field Guide, a free two-page companion with all three pauses, the training wheels line, and a seven-day tracker: https://www.daledixonmedia.com/pause  Some

The Flinch: Why Leaders Soften Bad News and Lose Trust Anyway

Every leader knows the moment. The reorg announcement, the roadmap cut, the budget town hall. And right before the hard sentence lands, something in us reaches for a swee

The Communication Mistake Confident Leaders Don't Know They're Making

Download the field guide:https://www.daledixonmedia.com/gap Experienced leaders rarely have a clarity problem they can feel. They have one they can't. Learn why you

The Mirror: Why Your Body Language Undermines Your Leadership

There is a version of you that walks into the room, and a version of you that everyone else actually experiences. The gap between them is usually something small. A sigh

How to Change Your Stress Response Under Pressure

You don't have six personalities under pressure. You have one switch, challenge or threat, and your body flips it before you get a vote. In this episode, Dale opens

The Expert’s Curse: Why Smart Leaders Lose the Room

The smartest person in the room is often the one most likely to lose it. Not because they lack expertise. Because they have so much knowledge in their head that they for

The Borrowed Voice

Download the free resource guide: https://www.daledixonmedia.com/podcast I tell the story of the night my “authoritative” anchor voice turned into a Peter Jennings impre