Clearly Communicate

Clearly Communicate Leadership communication coaching for people managers and teams, based in Bellingham, WA.

I help leaders handle difficult conversations with clarity and confidence, using neuroscience, improv, and 20+ years in HR.

Read that again. 👇When you dread having a difficult conversation, know that knot in your stomach is not about them. It's...
09/17/2026

Read that again. 👇

When you dread having a difficult conversation, know that knot in your stomach is not about them. It's about the story you've been running on repeat in your head.

The real problem isn't the “difficult” conversation. It's the conversation you keep having with yourself about the conversation.

Ready to stop rehearsing and start resolving? I have spent 20+ years helping leaders at companies like Boeing and 20th Century Fox master the conversations most people avoid.

Learn the tools → clearlycommunicate.com

The conversation you keep putting off is already costing you something.Sleep. Trust. Time. The next promotion for someon...
09/16/2026

The conversation you keep putting off is already costing you something.
Sleep. Trust. Time. The next promotion for someone who deserved to hear the feedback six months ago.

Here’s what you don’t hear in the average leadership course: Communication does not fall apart at the words. It falls apart before the words. In how your body language and tone say something different than your words. In your assumptions. In the second you decide to soften, delay, or overexplain.

You do not need a better script. You need to notice what’s off sooner.

That is what Barbara Jenks teaches at Clearly Communicate.

Twenty plus years in HR leadership, SHRM SCP credentials, advanced Cornell certifications, and a method built from thousands of real workplace conversations she has watched, mediated, and cleaned up.

Three skills. One clearer way forward. Awareness. Listening. Word choice.
Strengthen one and the pushbacks quiet down. Strengthen all three and people no longer have to guess what you mean.

Save this for the conversation you have been rehearsing in your head all week. Then head to clearlycommunicate.com and take the Strategic Communication Assessment. See the pattern. Change the conversation.

Which slide hit hardest, one, two, or three? Tell me in the comments.

Comment "CLEARLY" to learn more

Nothing means more than hearing that something learned in a workshop was put into practice right away.This participant h...
09/15/2026

Nothing means more than hearing that something learned in a workshop was put into practice right away.

This participant had a difficult conversation coming up and used what they learned in the Clearly Communicate webinar to prepare for it. The result? A conversation they had been nervous about turned out not to be difficult at all.

That’s the goal: practical communication tools you can actually use when it matters.

Comment CLEARLY to learn more about Barbara’s workshops and services.

A quiet manager can create a very loud story.When people don’t know what’s happening, what’s expected, or when they’ll h...
09/04/2026

A quiet manager can create a very loud story.

When people don’t know what’s happening, what’s expected, or when they’ll hear from you again, they fill in the blanks themselves. And those assumptions are rarely better than the truth.

Clear communication doesn’t mean having every answer. Sometimes it’s as simple as being specific, giving a date, and following through.

Silence creates uncertainty. Clarity builds trust.

Comment CLEARLY to learn how Barbara can help you and your team communicate better.

The kill zoneYou probably think that’s some kind of metaphor for leadership.It’s not.This window has been a battlefield...
08/24/2026

The kill zone

You probably think that’s some kind of metaphor for leadership.

It’s not.

This window has been a battlefield for the last week. Body count: 300 Yellowjackets.

😳😩

It started with one, hovering against the glass, like he was casing the joint. No open doors. Screens on every window. No sign of them anywhere else in the house… just this one window, like it had a neon “vacancy” sign only they could see!

One a day turned into two. Two turned into three. Then four. At that point I stopped Googling “how are yellow jackets getting into my house?” and started Googling “pest control near me.”

Pest control showed up a week later and found the entry point: a hairline crack near the fireplace insert. Never noticed it, and through that crack a huge nest was made in the wall.

Rude of them to find the one weak spot and turn it into a Yellowjacket freeway.

Pest control poisoned the nest at the source. The colony died… just not all in the wall. 300 of those buggers made it into my house first, flew straight for the light, and met their demise on this one window.

All this made for a very distracting week, to say the least. And it’s ended with counting my blessings: in a couple decades of homeownership, this is genuinely the biggest pest issue I’ve faced. Not bad, all things considered.

And now with the buzzing distractions gone… Back to work!

Please share your worst pest control stories in the comments!

Most leaders were taught what to say.Not how to show up.And that's the gap where trust leaks, momentum stalls, and messa...
08/20/2026

Most leaders were taught what to say.

Not how to show up.

And that's the gap where trust leaks, momentum stalls, and messages land sideways.

Communication CrossTraining Basics is my new four-week live program for leaders who are done overthinking, over-rehearsing, and over-explaining — and ready to lead conversations with more presence, clarity, and intention.

Over four weeks, we train the four things no leadership book ever taught you:

Week 1 — State & Outcome: notice what you're bringing into the room → Week 2 — Observe the Story: separate reality from your prediction of it → Week 3 — Body & Presence: what you communicate before you ever say a word →
Week 4 — Notice the Message: get intentional about what your communication is actually transmitting

Live with me. Recordings included. Introductory tuition $297.

We start Wednesday, September 9 at 12:00 PM Pacific.

If you're ready to change the pattern — and change the conversation — I'd love to have you in the room.

Comment CROSSTRAIN and I'll DM you the enrollment link.

Real influence begins the moment you stop trying to control the other person.You can't choose someone else's response, b...
08/19/2026

Real influence begins the moment you stop trying to control the other person.

You can't choose someone else's response, but you can choose how you listen, how you speak, and how you show up.

That's where your influence lives. Not in controlling the conversation, but in taking responsibility for your part of it.

Choosing happiness is part of the work I do. Last week I was reminded that choice is not always easy.My last kid moved o...
08/14/2026

Choosing happiness is part of the work I do. Last week I was reminded that choice is not always easy.

My last kid moved out recently

Off to school. Close enough to visit, far enough that the house is quiet in a new way now.

I've spent years helping people see that happiness is a choice, not a circumstance. I've used every tool in my own kit on myself ... more than once. And none of that made this transition easier. It just meant I recognized what was happening while it was happening.

Jim Rohn said it plainly: "Happiness is not by chance, but by choice." I believe that. I also know believing it and living it in the same week are two different things.

For 24 years, my choice was my kids. Raising them, being present for them, building my life around that focus. Rightly so. I'd choose it again.

But that focus isn't the whole of me, and it was never supposed to be. So this next stretch is its own choice: finding what makes me happy separate from them. Not because I'm letting go of anything that mattered. Because when we come back together, I want us bringing our own full lives to the table, not just the one we used to share.

I am remembering my own favorite saying: Each moment is a new day. We forget that. We think a hard season locks us into a fixed state, that the ache we feel today is the ache we're stuck with. It isn't. We can choose happiness in this moment. It doesn't mater if what's in front of us is an impediment or a gift.

I'm choosing gift. Most days. Some days I'm still just choosing to notice I have a choice at all, and that counts too.

Under pressure, people don't rise to the occasion.They drop to their habitual patterns.That's why the perfect script nev...
08/13/2026

Under pressure, people don't rise to the occasion.

They drop to their habitual patterns.

That's why the perfect script never saves you when the conversation actually matters. And why Communication CrossTraining isn't another framework to memorize. It's a skill to train.

One tool.
One rep.
One conversation at a time.

Inside the new essay:

→ Why 69% of managers freeze in tough talks
→ The gym metaphor that reframes how you learn to communicate
→ The Three Pillars of Communication™: Awareness · Listening · Word Choice
→ The one conversation to practice this week

Read more in the comments.

Most communication advice sounds great in the room and is gone by next week.Because it never touches the habit.Communica...
08/13/2026

Most communication advice sounds great in the room and is gone by next week.

Because it never touches the habit.

Communication CrossTraining is built the way you'd build strength at the gym:

One tool.
One rep.
One conversation at a time.

Awareness.
Listening.
Word Choice.

Practiced separately.
Stacked over time.
Usable under pressure.

Read more in the comments.

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