You Don’t Have Language for the Level You’re Playing At Now

Last week, we spoke about the moment when staying stops feeling neutral.

When something in you has already shifted, even if nothing has changed on the outside.

That realisation matters.

But it’s not the only difficult part.

Because once you see that something isn’t right anymore, another kind of friction shows up.

You start trying to explain what you want next.

And it doesn’t come out the way you expect.

You fall back on old titles.
Old ways of describing your work.
Language that used to fit, but no longer quite does.

You know you’ve grown.

But when you try to put it into words, it feels flat.
Incomplete.
Like it doesn’t quite capture who you are now.

Growth happens faster than language.

Internally, your thinking has already shifted.

You see problems differently.
You care about different things.
You operate at a different level.

But externally, you’re still describing yourself in ways that were true a few years ago.

So when you try to move forward, it feels like something isn’t landing.

Not because you’re unclear.

Because your language hasn’t caught up yet.

This is where many leaders get stuck.

They hesitate in conversations.
They downplay what they’ve actually done.
They default to being understood in the old way, because it’s easier.

And unintentionally, they reinforce an identity they’ve already outgrown.

So even when they try to move, they get met at the same level.

The DTC beauty category is crowded. To break through, Jennifer Aniston’s brand LolaVie, worked with Roku Ads Manager to easily set up, test, and optimize CTV ad creatives. The campaign helped drive a big lift in sales and customer growth, helping LolaVie break through in the crowded beauty category.

Learn more

The shift isn’t about becoming someone new.

It’s about finding language that reflects who you already are.

More precisely.
More honestly.

That might look like:

Describing your work in terms of outcomes, not responsibilities
Speaking to how you think, not just what you’ve done
Letting go of titles that no longer define your value
Allowing your narrative to feel slightly uncomfortable at first

It doesn’t happen all at once.

But when your language starts to match your level, something shifts.

People begin to place you differently.

And different conversations start to open.

If you’ve felt this, it’s worth sitting with a few questions:

Where are you still describing yourself in a way that belongs to an earlier version of you?

What parts of your current thinking or contribution are hard to explain, even though you feel them clearly?

What would it look like to start putting language around that, even if it feels incomplete?

This isn’t about perfect wording.

It’s about beginning to close the gap between how you see yourself and how others understand you.

A lot of the work I do with leaders sits here.

Not in creating more experience or capability.

But in helping them articulate what they already bring in a way that lands at the level they’re actually operating at.

If you’re in this space, this is often what we focus on in the Clarity & Positioning Sprint.

Not changing what you’ve done.

But helping you express it in a way that reflects who you are now and where you’re going.

If you’d like to explore that, you’re welcome to reply SPRINT and share what you’ve been finding hard to articulate.