In the July 6, 2026 episode of the WRKdefined podcast 'You Should Know,' communications coach Peter Novak made a compelling case that confidence and clarity are more critical than perfect grammar in global business communication. Novak, founder of Strictly Speaking Group and a former professor at the University of San Francisco, argued that as global teams become more distributed, the ability to communicate clearly across borders is an increasingly urgent skill.
Novak, who holds a doctorate in dramaturgy and an MFA in acting, emphasized that strong workplace communication is not about using bigger words or achieving flawless English. Instead, it is about clarity, confidence, and building trust. He provided a practical playbook for leading multilingual teams, drawing from his coaching experience with executives at major corporations.
A key point Novak raised was the impact of unconscious bias, particularly the well-documented 'like-me bias,' which shapes who gets promoted and believed at work. He also highlighted how phrasal verbs—such as 'take off,' 'take up,' 'take over,' and 'take down'—can quietly derail non-native English speakers. He recommended using AI prompts to swap these for stronger, clearer verbs to improve comprehension.
Referencing a McGill University study on foreign accents, Novak discussed how accents affect perceptions of trust and credibility, and stressed the importance of confident delivery. He noted that investor relations teams now use AI to score CEO language choice and tone of voice during earnings calls, underscoring the business impact of communication style.
Novak reframed inclusive communication as a bottom-line issue rather than a political one. 'The best way to position it is that this is a business issue, that you need your communication to be as clear as possible to everyone, not just to a select few,' he told host William. He pushed back on the idea that non-native speakers must do all the adapting, using a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers analogy: 'Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels.' Non-native colleagues, he argued, are translating, interpreting, and vocabulary-hunting in real time while native speakers barrel ahead.
The conversation moved into concrete tactics. Novak described building executive 'voiceprints' by feeding hundreds of hours of transcripts into AI so leaders can deliver scripts that sound authentically like them. He shared a 20-question intake he uses to help new executives communicate their preferences to their teams, covering everything from pre-reads to agenda formats. He referenced Yakov Smirnoff on the absurdity of English, contrasted Ernest Hemingway's accessibility with Oscar Wilde writing 'for about 6 people,' and noted that Latin American teams often operate trilingually in Spanish, Portuguese, and English until a monolingual American enters the room and collapses the exchange back to English. He also flagged cultural intelligence lessons from his own preparation for business in Tokyo and Dubai.
The episode is available now wherever podcasts are heard. For more insights, listeners can explore the WRKdefined podcast here.
