Lessons from Riley: Say What We Mean

This week, my eight-year-old granddaughter gave me a better lesson on communication than many boardrooms, PowerPoint decks, and leadership seminars ever have.

Riley Swann, our resident green thumb

She had been working in an outdoor garden with my son and her brothers, and she proudly sent us a picture of a green bean plant she had started growing. She was excited, as she should have been. Something she planted had come to life.

My wife responded the way many of us would. She said, “Wow, Riley, you have a green thumb.”

Riley looked down at her thumb and said, “Huh, my thumb’s not green.”

So my wife clarified: “That just means you’re really good at planting.”

And Riley, in the simple way children often cut right through our habits and assumptions, said:

“Why didn’t you just say I’m really good at planting?”

I laughed. But I also stopped and thought about it.

That question lands a lot harder than it seems.

The problem with sounding smart

In business, many of us are rewarded for sounding polished. We learn the language of the room. We pick up frameworks, buzzwords, corporate shorthand, management clichés, and consultant-speak. Sometimes we use them because they are efficient. Sometimes they are useful.

And sometimes, if we are honest, we use them because they make us sound smart.

I’ve done it myself. I’ve used catchphrases. I’ve used business jargon. I’ve tried to sound academic. I’ve probably tried, at times, to be the smartest person in the room.

But here’s the hard truth:

Your communication is only as effective as the other person’s ability to understand it.

That is the standard. Not how polished it sounded. Not how strategic it felt. Not how many impressive words were packed into the sentence.

If the other person walks away unclear, then the communication failed.

Clarity is a leadership responsibility

A leader’s role is not to perform intelligence. It is to produce understanding.

That shows up everywhere: in PowerPoint decks, in memos, in emails, in meetings, and in quick conversations in the hallway.

When leaders overcomplicate language, teams often pay the price.

People may nod along without fully understanding. They may be hesitant to ask questions because they do not want to look uninformed. They may interpret the message differently from one another. They may execute with uncertainty. And eventually, leaders wonder why results are inconsistent.

The answer is often simpler than we think: people were never completely clear on what was meant.

Clever language can hide weak communication

One of the dangers of business language is that it can create the illusion of alignment.

A leader says, “We need to optimize cross-functional execution and create stronger stakeholder alignment around key growth levers.”

It sounds polished. It sounds informed. It sounds like leadership.

But what does it actually mean?

Maybe it means:

• Sales and marketing need one weekly pipeline meeting.

• Finance needs the forecast by Tuesday.

• The team is prioritizing two products, not six.

• Every leader needs to define the top three goals for the quarter.

That version may sound less impressive, but it is far more useful.

And usefulness is what moves an organization.

Simplicity is not weakness

Some leaders worry that simpler language sounds less sophisticated.

I would argue the opposite.

It is easy to hide behind jargon. It is harder to be clear. It is easy to sound abstract. It is harder to be understood. It is easy to make people think you said something important. It is harder to say something important plainly.

Clear communication reflects disciplined thinking.

When you can explain something simply, it usually means you understand it deeply enough to strip away what is unnecessary.

Results depend on understanding

At the end of the day, leaders are judged by outcomes.

But outcomes do not happen in a vacuum. They happen through people. And people need clarity.

Your team cannot execute what they do not understand. They cannot deliver on priorities that were never clearly defined. They cannot meet expectations that were wrapped in vague language.

If you want better execution, start with better communication.

That does not mean every message must be simplistic or stripped of all nuance. Some ideas are complex. Some decisions require context. Some strategies require depth.

But even then, the goal remains the same:

Say what you mean as clearly as possible.

A useful test for leaders

Here’s a simple test:

Before you send the email, finish the deck, or speak in the meeting, ask yourself:

If an eight-year-old heard this, would they know what I mean?

Not because your audience lacks intelligence.But because clarity reveals whether your message is real.

If you have to decode your own sentence, your team probably will too.

A better standard

My granddaughter’s question is one leaders would do well to remember:

“Why didn’t you just say I’m really good at planting?”

That may be one of the best communication audits I’ve heard in a long time.

So as you think about your presentations, your memos, your emails, and your conversations, resist the temptation to sound like the smartest person in the room.

Instead, aim to be the clearest.

Because leadership is not about impressing people with language.

It is about helping people understand what matters, what success looks like, and what to do next.

And sometimes the best wisdom comes from a child who is simply brave enough to ask the obvious question.