The higher you climb, the more the language flattens. Strategic, trusted, drives results, builds teams. Everyone at senior altitude has the same words available, which means the words have stopped doing any work. They describe the altitude, not the person.
This is why the standard advice, “sharpen your messaging,” quietly fails. You cannot sharpen your way out of a shared vocabulary by choosing better shared words. The problem is not the words. It is that you have not decided the one specific thing that is yours, so you keep reaching for the words everyone can claim.
Below, the difference between a description and a position, the test that tells them apart, and how to find the specific sentence that only you could say.
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