Communicate with Confidence at Work

The Three E’s Framework for Clear, Confident Communication by Katie DeWulf, The Big Apple Red

Clear, confident communication is one of the strongest signals of promotion readiness. In organizations where cognitive load is heavy and decisions are made quickly.

Structured, relevant, and decisive communication elevates your personal brand by signaling that you are operating beyond execution and into leadership. It shows that you are not only doing the work, but shaping how the work moves forward.

Learning how to communicate effectively is easier said than done. Many professionals understand the importance of contributing ideas in meetings, yet struggle in the moments that matter. This hesitation rarely comes from a lack of expertise. More often, it stems from uncertainty about how to enter the conversation, structure a point, or speak with calm and clarity under pressure.

So, how do you make this shift from workhorse to showhorse through effective communication?

The framework I teach my employees and clients - the Three E’s: Entice, Educate, and Execute - offers a practical, repeatable approach to communicating ideas in meetings, presentations, and everyday workplace conversations.

ENTICE: Establish Relevance from the First Moment

Effective communication begins by earning - and holding - attention. In most work settings, attention is fragmented. People arrive to meetings thinking about other priorities. If your opening feels routine, it is easy for the message to fade into the background.

Research consistently shows that when individuals are operating under time pressure and information overload, their brains default to filtering out anything that does not immediately signal relevance. Attention is allocated to what feels consequential, time-sensitive, or tied to outcomes that matter.

So how do you earn and hold your audience’s attention?

Consider how you can entice your audience… how you can enter the conversation in a way that immediately signals relevance, purpose, and/or impact. Instead of asking people to work to understand why your point matters, make the significance of your contribution clear from the onset. The most effective way to do this is to anchor your contribution to something the room already cares about: risk, time, impact, outcomes, and alignment.

This type of opening works because it clearly frames the issue or opportunity in terms of impact and consequence, which immediately increases audience engagement and recall.

The objective of Entice is to establish instantaneous relevance by drawing attention to a material problem or opportunity and clarifying that the conversation has purpose. When you do this well, you position yourself as someone who understands what matters to the business and how to direct attention accordingly.

This is also a subtle yet powerful leadership signal. One that sets the foundation for everything that follows.

EDUCATE: Clarify Your Thinking and Guide Understanding

Once attention is established, your next responsibility is to provide a clear and structured environment to discuss proposed solutions.

Many capable professionals lose the confidence or attention of their audience at this stage because they attempt to explain everything at once. When information is presented without clear structure, it puts the burden on your audience to determine what points matter most, simultaneously reducing their comprehension and their confidence in your credibility.

Without a framework that filters out unnecessary detail, audiences are forced to work to follow your thinking. As a by-product, attention drops and your idea is left hanging.

Instead, Educate your audience by organizing your thinking in a way that is easy to follow. A reliable structure for this is:

What + So What

This sequence mirrors how people naturally make sense of information. First, they need to understand what is happening. Then, they need to understand why it matters to the business and to them – this is where you specify the risk or opportunity. When you present information in this order, you help your audience build a coherent mental model of the situation. AND the perception of you becomes: confident, strategic, and leadership-ready.

Educating the audience with the what + so what keeps your audience engaged and sets the stage for you to propose your solution to the challenges you have outlined.

EXECUTE: Deliver with Presence and Move the Conversation Forward

Execution is where communication turns into action. Where the what and so what become the now what.

From a performance standpoint, this is a critical inflection point. Research on group decision-making shows that many ideas fail because they lack clarity on responsibility, timing, and next steps. Which is why you need to land the plane with the third pillar of delivery: Execute. This is where you communicate how to take action and at what cost: the financials, resources, and timing.

By naming decisions, resources, and timing explicitly, you help the audience shift from discussion to action.

Execution also signals leadership presence. Leaders are expected to help teams and the larger organization progress. This step demonstrates your ownership – you’ve got this! This is a key behavior senior leaders look for when assessing readiness for advancement. They want someone who will take work off of their plate, not add to it.

Recap

The three E’s framework gives you a simple way to communicate effectively in any conversation. This approach applies to meetings, informal updates, planning discussions, and everyday interactions where direction and judgment are being evaluated.

You start by anchoring attention to what's relevant (Entice). Next, you unpack what the opportunity or risk is and why it matters (Educate). And lastly, you close by guiding the room towards informed action (Execute).

With practice, this approach becomes natural. You gain confidence in how to contribute because you know how to focus attention, explain what matters, and guide the next step. Your ideas land more consistently, and conversations move forward with purpose.

Effective communication builds trust and reinforces leadership presence. Over time, you will be viewed as someone who brings clarity to the noise and your name will stand out at promotion time. This is how reputations are formed and careers are progressed.

BONUS TIP: The Conversation before the Conversation

Execution starts before anyone enters the room. Preparation significantly improves focus and decision quality. When participants know what will be discussed and what is expected of them ahead of time, their mental spend can be utilized for analysis and problem-solving rather than orientation.

By consistently preparing the room and closing conversations with direction, you emulate a results-driven leadership identity. And that skill and brand makes you a shoe-in for promotion.

You’ve got this! Now enter the conversation and go lead!