๐ What If I Told You What Your Real Problem Is At Work
Published 8 days agoย โขย 3 min read
๐ค AI Can Do It...But Can It Make The Case?
One of the biggest mistakes I made in my career was while giving a presentation I was genuinely proud of in the moment.
I had the full attention of my agency's managers, directors, and executives. My presentation was full of pretty slides and impressive numbers. I thought the data would speak for itself, but the feedback I generally got from the highest-level executives was, "What was the point of your presentation?"
For context, I was the Head of Client Retention trying to make the case for a new CRM platform. What leadership heard was: retention numbers are going up....(I wanted to prove that I was great at my job!). But, okay great...why are we in this meeting where you're asking us to spend a little more money and a lot more time to onboard all our clients and internal teams?
They completely missed the story underneath the data because I didn't tell it: the one that explained why we still needed to change so that we could improve client retention significantly more.
That was the day I learned what nobody had taught me in the professional world: data informs, but stories are what move people to action.
๐ง Inside This Issue
If you're new here, ๐๐ฝ welcome!
This is The Messy Middle, a newsletter about the leadership journey no one tells you about. I'm Arshiya Kherani, an executive and founder coach & speaker, and I write about the things most people skip in professional spaces: identity shifts, the hard work of building something honest in public, and what it actually takes to lead with intention when life is anything but clear.
This week: why AI makes your communication skills more valuable, not less.
๐งฉ What AI Can't Do
The thing on everybody's mind: AI is changing how we work...probably faster than we can keep up with. It can design tests, analyze results, identify patterns, and generate insights at a scale no human team can match.
But here is what it cannot do: walk into a room full of skeptical stakeholders, read the political dynamics, and make a case that moves people to act. This part is still uniquely human. And it's where you can become a superstar in the workplace in 2026.
Historically, I would argue that most professionals, especially those in technical fields, are trained to let the data speak for itself. Present the numbers. Share the findings. Trust that the logic will land.
As AI takes over more of the analytical work, it's becoming more and more clear that the bottleneck at most organizations isn't INFORMATION, it's COMMUNICATION.
โ๐ฝ Use Your Data To Tell A Great Story
The scary reality: your job is no longer to be the smartest person in the room with the best findings.
The less scary hot take: your job is evolving to be the person who knows what to do with those findings; how to contextualize them, build trust around them, and advocate for a direction. That is a communication skill, and it is becoming the most irreplaceable one you have.
Three gut checks you can start using this week at work:
1๏ธโฃ When you share results with your team or higher-ups, are you reporting or advocating? There's a difference between presenting information (re: this could have been an email...) and making a compelling, personalized, tailored case that inspires action.
2๏ธโฃ Do your stakeholders know what you want them to do after your presentation? If the "so what" isn't explicit, it probably isn't landing.
3๏ธโฃ Could AI have given the same presentation you just gave? If yes, that's your signal to go deeper into the story, not the data.
๐ Want To Go Deeper?
The thing I love about storytelling is that it's a skill you can learn...and the impact on your personal and professional life are PROFOUND. And lucky for you, this is something I love to teach <3
I've brought my signature storytelling frameworks to teams like AvalonBay Communities, Buchalter, and SASE, and what I find every single time is that the insight was there, it just wasn't dressed up as a story that moves people to take action.
If your team is working through better communication, whether it's in fundraising, launching a new product, or your own executive presence, let's talk about what that could look like for you or your organization!
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