Speak Like A CEO

Everyone knows what you supposedly need in order to be a CEO: a college degree, a previous lower position in the same or different company, financial knowledge, sales and negotiation skills…but many forget to mention the role communication plays. Even if you are not involved in marketing, how you present yourself, your company and your ideas can completely change how people see you and the product or service you are offering and how they choose to respond. Here are 5 tips to speak like a CEO. 

1. Show genuine curiosity

Yes, you may be one of the most important people within the company, but that doesn’t mean you’re always going to be the smartest. Your subordinates often have something you don’t: a different perspective or experience. Something you could have no way of knowing in your position but can provide constructive feedback on the impact of your decisions or points to improve. That’s why it’s important to listen with genuine curiosity to what they have to say; you might just learn something helpful. It also helps you maintain your reputation and morale in the workplace. The trick is to find a balance between confidence and humility. 

2. Ask high quality questions

Sometimes a ‘tell me more’ or ‘why?’ is appropriate, but for long conversations, you might have to find new ways of becoming memorable. Picture this: you’re the CEO of an important company and you’ve been invited to this glamorous gala. You get there, you don’t have any idea who anybody is and it’s getting awkward next to the bar. The table below has a standard question, plus a more interesting one you can use instead. Think: how can you change the questions you usually ask to increase their quality?

Standard question	Higher quality question
What are you interested in?	If you had to do a TED Talk right now, what topic would it be about?
Did you achieve your goals?	What’s your definition of success, and do you think you accomplished it?
Do you like the project you are currently working on?	If everything in your current project had to change except one thing, what would you keep the same?

3. Think before you speak

In the 2026 Winter Olympics, Eileen Gu, professional athlete who represented China in freestyle skiing, was asked by a reporter how she answered questions ‘so quickly and so comprehensively’. She answered: ‘I’m a very introspective young woman like I spend a lot of time in my head [...] I journal a lot, I break down all of my thought processes…’. By not just thinking before you speak but also journaling and spending time with your thoughts and feelings, especially when you do this alone, you can learn so much about yourself that when they ask you a question you will already know the answer like it was all planned. This results in answers with more structure and clarity. 

4. Body language 

Even if you show genuine curiosity, ask more interesting questions and become more introspective, those efforts without body language mean pretty much nothing. It’s the first thing people notice about you, and it completely changes the impact your words have on the receiver. To reflect confidence, push your shoulders back, put as much distance between your ear and your shoulder and maintain eye contact. As well as that, if you have to shake someone’s hand, make sure you do it firmly. Last but not least, remember to move your hands slightly from time to time to articulate your thoughts instead of keeping them at your sides, pockets or back. This shows you believe in yourself. 

5. The Three Cs Method

So now that you’re a good listener, a good ‘question asker’, more introspective and confident, you have to make sure your message is clear, concise and compelling. To do this, use the three Cs method:

Context: why?

Core: what?

Connect: why does it matter?

For example: 

Good morning, [...] I’m here because the CFO in Europe called and told me to give you a message. [Context]

She wants to revise all the financials from last February, but she’s missing some files from our headquarters here to be able to do so. [Core]

She would like for us to scan them and send them to her assistant by email as soon as possible. [Connect]

With these five tips, whether you’re already a CEO or an aspiring one, you will start speaking like one. The presence of communication and its importance as a leader is often undermined. But communication allows us to create an impact, connect with others and become more memorable as people.