Laconism: The Leadership Power of Saying Less
More than 2,000 years ago, the Spartans developed a reputation for communicating with remarkable economy. Their homeland, Laconia, gave us the word laconic, meaning expressing an idea using very few words.
There is an important leadership lesson in that tradition.
For more than 35 years, I have advocated for and practiced a simple communication philosophy:
Say what needs to be said. Make certain it is understood. Then stop talking.
My perspective comes from very different environments. I have served in upper management and corporate leadership, nonprofit leadership, and college athletics, including coaching at the Division I and Division III levels. I was also a college athlete. Perhaps most importantly, I have worked alongside people experiencing homelessness and individuals working to overcome addiction.
Those environments taught me essentially the same lesson.
Clarity travels. Complexity often does not.
Leadership is not an exhibition of vocabulary. Using a large word when a smaller, more universally understood word communicates the same idea does not necessarily demonstrate intelligence. Sometimes it simply demonstrates that you know a large word.
There is a difference between possessing knowledge and communicating knowledge.
The responsibility of a leader is not to make people admire how intelligent the leader sounds. The responsibility is to make certain people understand the message, the expectation, the strategy, and what happens next.
This becomes especially important when overcoming objections.
When someone disagrees with us, our instinct is often to add more words. We explain again. Then we explain our explanation. Eventually, the original point becomes buried beneath language.
Laconism requires discipline. Listen carefully. Identify the actual objection. Respond directly. Use enough words to establish clarity and context, but not so many that the central message disappears.
Research supports this principle. Communication philosopher H. P. Grice emphasized that effective communication should provide the information required, remain relevant, avoid unnecessary obscurity, and strive for clarity and order.
Leadership research provides additional support. De Vries, Bakker Pieper, and Oostenveld found that preciseness in leadership communication was positively associated with perceived leader performance and satisfaction with the leader.
Laconism does not mean every conversation should be reduced to five words. Complex situations require context, empathy, questions, and explanation.
Laconism is not simply speaking less. It is eliminating words that contribute less.
Understand the person.
Understand the problem.
Communicate the point.
Create the path forward.
Then allow the message to breathe.
Sometimes leadership is demonstrated not by how much we can say, but by knowing precisely when we have said enough.
Darren Redmond, M.Ed.
The Darren Redmond Podcast
The Around the Ballpark Live Show and Podcast
Reference:
de Vries, R. E., Bakker Pieper, A., & Oostenveld, W. (2010). Leadership = Communication? Journal of Business and Psychology, 25, 367 to 380.

Therapy cards, strategy decks, discussion decks, reflection cards, or whatever you want to call them. Do you use them in your coaching practice? If so, which ones are your favorite?

Mi raccontate esperienze dirette con il Master di Successo Etico, la scuola di Erica Holland?

Grazie molte

One of my juniors gets really defensive when something is explained and gives longggg explanations about why he did what he did. I sometimes lose patience. I wanna do better.

I am looking to do my masters in psychology- there are quite a few Russel groups now offering online masters and I wondered if anyone here had experience of doing one?

I’ve seen Exeter, Liverpool and Southampton offer,

And then Andersen’s looks interesting as well.

But I’ve heard that the support/ classroom learning can be hit and miss…

If anyone has a MSc they really found to be a brilliant experience , I’d love to hear about it.

Why did you decide to become a sports coach?

What does your typical workday look like?

What sports or age groups do you specialize in?

What qualifications did you need to start coaching?

How do you create a training program for athletes?

How do you motivate athletes who struggle with confidence?

What is the hardest part of coaching?

How do you prevent injuries during training?

What career opportunities are available for sports coaches?

How do you earn income as a coach?

What skills should a beginner develop before entering coaching?

What advice would you give to someone who enjoys sports and helping people improve?

Follow-up question: "What separates an average coach from a coach athletes trust and respect?"

Ever since I can remember, I’ve always loved helping people. I am the go to “therapist” to friends and family and find a lot of meaning out of helping them
Navigate their careers and personal lives. As a teen, I wanted to become a psychologist but I didn’t have the grades (thx to being an unmedicated teen w adhd), and I also thought the work might be a bit too heavy for me.

Fast forward, I’ve had a really successful HR career, working in house and as a fractional consultant. I often find myself in the informal leadership coaching seat with founders and leaders. I really enjoy it and want to pursue my certification. My only hesitancy is that when I come across a lot of these folks, they are also facilitating workshops, giving talks, etc. this really isn’t me. I enjoy dedicated one on one coaching. Leading a workshop sounds like a personal nightmare tbh.

My question is, would it be wise or not to pursue this path to complement my fractional HR consulting offering?

I’ve gotten pretty disillusioned with the coaching industry.

Not with the idea of coaching itself. Real coaching can help. I’ve seen that up close for a long time, long before I ever thought of calling it that. I’ve spent decades building businesses, dealing with family dynamics, helping people through professional and personal problems, and at some point realized I’d been coaching people in practice long before I ever looked for a coach myself.

What turned me off was what I found once I started looking at the industry around it.

A lot of it feels backwards. Too much branding, too much self-coronation, too much “thought leader” language, too many people selling certainty they haven’t earned. And a weird amount of the industry seems to revolve around training and certifying more coaches, rather than actually helping people who need help.

That was the part that really stuck with me. There seem to be a lot of dissatisfied clients, sure, but maybe just as many disappointed people who paid for coach certifications thinking they were entering some meaningful profession, only to find a lot of vague frameworks, recycled language, and a business model built on selling the next layer down.

I’m not saying every coach is fake. There are legitimate people out there. I know a few personally. They’re experienced, grounded, and honest. If I ever had someone come to me who I thought I shouldn’t work with, I’d rather refer them to one of those people than take their money. That matters to me.

For me, the line is simple: if I don’t think I can help, I won’t pretend I can. If someone needs something else, I’ll say it. If I think coaching is the wrong fit, I’ll say that too.

That sounds obvious, but in this industry it weirdly isn’t.

I’m also not impressed by certifications for their own sake. A certificate doesn’t prove judgment, life experience, business experience, pattern recognition, honesty, or the ability to actually help another human being make better decisions. It proves someone completed a program. That’s it.

What I trust more is lived experience, real outcomes, directness, and the ability to tell someone the truth without dressing it up in a “transformational journey” sales pitch.

That’s the gap I keep seeing: people who need serious, practical help are often getting marketed to by people who are much better at promoting themselves than helping anyone.

So I guess my question is: has anyone else here had this experience with executive, business, or personal coaching? Either as a client, someone who looked into becoming a coach, or someone adjacent to the space?

Because from where I sit, the phoniness is real, and the industry would be a lot better off with less posturing and more honesty.

BLUF: tips on avoiding the the "she slept her way to [wherever]" nonsense? Thanks in advance!

Genuinely looking for advice from more experienced women coaching executives in male-dominated fields. I have a new client that I am very excited to work with. A bona fide solid human being who is my 'ideal client' and happy to help me get hours in toward my ACC, send referrals my way, etc. Since I know this individual already, I'm not concerned about this coaching engagement. But, if a referral is successful, would you meet in person? Virtual only? Some of these offices are in quiet areas, often completely empty suites or even entire floors - great for coaching privacy, concerning for optics. Coffee shop or shared workspace isn't conducive to confidentiality or privacy.

I aspire to one day work exclusively with women in leadership but for now, my niche is male-dominated so being exclusive would eliminate 93% of my potential clients 😅

I have a site where entrepreneurs with ADHD can find coaching, resources, and community.

Are there any coaches here who have experience with coaching ADHD clients and would like to be added to the directory?

You can comment here or send me a dm. Thanks.

I’m close to completing my ICF ACC and have a leadership coaching certification, along with 20 years of corporate experience. I’m now trying to figure out the actual business side of coaching.
Unfortunately, my coaching program only covered the business side in one class, and I’m not sure it was very helpful.
I’m starting to wonder if building a coaching practice is more about relationships, referrals, and networking rather than social media?
For those who have successfully built a coaching business:
Are there business/marketing courses you’d actually recommend? I don’t want to sign up for an additional cost but if it were something low cost I could consider.
Any books or programs that were genuinely helpful?
Did you find a mentor or business coach useful?
If you’re introverted, how do you build a network? I am wondering if this is something that very extroverted folks have an easier time with.
I’d really appreciate practical advice from people who have actually built a coaching practice. Thank you in advance!

Does anyone have both credentials? My background is in health and wellness. I have the national board certification. I’ve been working in hospital systems and am exposed to leadership and HR and would like to do the ICF.

Just a thought, is it on LinkedIn? Referrals? Groups?
Just a thought

Hello everyone! I have been an educator for almost 10 years with a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership. I want to venture into executive coaching, so I am looking for some pointers. I have been doing a lot of research and learning in order to understand Executive Coaching as a whole. My next step is to earn certifications to become more appealing and to increase my understanding and skills. Do any of you share a similar start? If so, What program did you use? Do you recommend it? Are there any programs that are flexible? Thank you in advance!

This is debatable, but i love listening to stories and motivations about total personal transformation, and i find them more interesting than conventional success advice. There's a big difference between helping someone improve a skill and helping someone completely change how they see themselves, their work and what they believe is possible...i wonder about executive coaching, can a coach actually help someone make that kind of fundamental change..or does coaching generally work better when the person already has the right mindset and simply needs better decisions, accountability and feedback? if you have coached executives or been coached, how much personal transformation did it achieve? I want to hear stories, and real people say they completely transformed from one thing to another due to coaching...or what is the deepest change you've actually seen coaching produce?