You’re reading The Messy Middle: weekly deep dives on leadership, startups, identity, politics, and how to make high stakes decisions that are intentional and in-line with your values.
🎙️ The Gap In Perception
I recently had two discovery calls that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. On one call, the prospect named a five-figure budget before I'd even finished my pitch. She'd attended one of my workshops months earlier, understood the value of the work, and knew exactly what she wanted. It was the easiest yes and contract signing I’ve experienced to date in my business.
A few days later, I spoke with someone facing remarkably similar leadership challenges in their company. Instead of discussing the work itself, we spent twenty minutes negotiating me down a few hundred dollars. Given the size of their organization, I could sense it wasn't really about the money itself, it was about how the organization values investing in professional development. Within the same week, I experienced two completely different value systems for the exact same work.
I've been thinking about that gap a lot lately, especially as I've watched executive communications roles at companies like Netflix, Anthropic, Replit, OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft command compensation packages that would have seemed unimaginable not that long ago. Some exceed $400,000, and one Netflix role reportedly had a salary cap at more than $1 million 👀👀👀
What's fascinating isn't just the salaries themselves; it’s that these are the same companies making headlines for layoffs, organizational restructuring, AI transformation, and relentless pressure to operate more efficiently.
At first glance, those two realities seem contradictory, but the more I've thought about them, the more I think they're telling us something much bigger than the value of communication.
🤔 The Case For The Haggler
I don't think the person negotiating with me was necessarily in the wrong. If you've spent your career thinking of communication as a presentation, an email, or a speech, it makes perfect sense to see it as something that's ‘nice to have’ but ultimately secondary to the 'real work.' As a South Asian millennial, I'd argue many people in my corporate and social circles still carry this assumption.
Leaders made decisions and built strategies. Operations executed them. Communications rolled out what senior management had already decided. HR managed the fallout. And I think this order of operations is exactly what’s changing in the age of AI, declining reading comprehension, and relentless speed and automation.
💰 Leadership Has Changed
One of the biggest transformations I've noticed over the last few years is that leaders no longer own the narrative simply because they made the decision. The moment a layoff is announced, an AI strategy is unveiled, a return-to-office policy is shared, or a major acquisition is completed, dozens of competing interpretations emerge before leadership has finished explaining what happened.
Employees ask what it means for them, slacks are zooming, investors start reading between the lines, customers draw their own conclusions, and the media builds yet another version of the story. Before long, one decision has become a dozen competing narratives, each influencing trust, morale, engagement, and ultimately affecting business performance.
Leadership used to be about making good decisions, but now it's also about helping people make sense of those decisions. Companies aren't paying extraordinary salaries because they suddenly fell in love with storytelling; they're paying because in an era of AI slop that's identifiable in an instant, they need Real People to communicate The Big Idea. Clarity and conviction have become a competitive advantage, and consequently, communication is now the highest-leverage expression of leadership.
Technology can summarize meetings, draft emails, write presentations, and generate endless amounts of content in seconds (often with tons of mistakes!). What it can't do is exercise judgment, build trust, navigate competing stakeholder emotions, or help people move through uncertainty together.
TLDR: AI can generate words, but leaders have to generate trust, excitement, and belief.
🧵 How This Changed My Own Work
I never set out to build a career around communication. I spent years in finance, startups, growth, and marketing, always focused on the bottom line. But over time, I noticed something that contradicted what I had always been taught: contrary to popular belief, the greatest story almost always won. Numbers and strategy can't create momentum without a story that creates momentum.
This is why my own work has evolved so much over the last few years. While I still love strategy and I'm *ALWAYS* chillin in a spreadsheet, what I find myself working on most often with founders, executives, and leadership teams is helping people make sense of complexity. I help teams translate ambiguity into clarity, data into story, and strategy into the words that create something people can actually rally behind.
As AI continues to level the playing field, every organization will have access to increasingly similar tools, information, and technical capabilities. What will become harder to replicate is judgment, trust, and the ability to create shared meaning. I don't think the organizations that thrive will simply be the ones making the smartest decisions. I think they'll be the ones that help people believe in them.
💡 Self-Reflection: Are you leading in a way people can actually make sense of, or do your leadership decisions often cause turmoil, questions, and disarray?
🎙️ The Conversation You've Been Avoiding
If this essay makes you want to become a super-communicator, I'd love to connect. This is an invitation to look at how you personally show up as a communicator, and what might be costing you clarity, trust, or influence right now. I coach founders and executives 1:1 on exactly this, the thinking & communication behind the decisions, not just protecting the outcome.
🥨 Snacks
⚽ Global Stage: A World Cup cannot deliver justice to Palestine, but something about Spain's win felt politically symbolic.
⚠️ Recently Watched: Ok I watched Gail Daughtry And The Celebrity Sex Pass this weekend and loved it...but then learned that the main actress, Zoey Deutch, is a zionist (!!!). Even when you're just trying to chill and go for a movie, you just get caught off guard! Including here for those who are looking to boycott...maybe just wait for it to stream.
🏢 Job Market: Even though we love to blame AI for the job market, there might be a bigger issue causing the largest labor shortage in history.
🪞 Real Talk: You're leading a team and still feel like a fraud. Here's why.
☕ Free Resource: I'm co-hosting a free Kismet Coffee Hour on July 30th for senior leaders. This month's conversation: How do you build trust when even leaders don't know what's coming next? Think peer office hours, not another LinkedIn pep talk. Join us →
See you in next week's mess,
Arshiya
