Technical competence is no longer the only currency in many workplaces. Increasingly, professionals are finding that the ability to clearly communicate ideas, whether in meetings, presentations, or everyday collaboration, plays a crucial role in how those ideas are received and implemented.
When Anthony Wang’ondu first stepped into a leadership role, he quickly realised that being technically sound was not enough.
Trained as an accountant and newly tasked with leading a supply chain division, his job required him to make frequent presentations to senior management and the board. Armed with data, graphs and detailed reports, he expected his work to speak for itself. It didn’t.
‘I found myself presenting graphs and numbers, and it wasn’t working, and I was getting pretty frustrated,’ he says.
That moment marked a turning point. It exposed a gap that many professionals only discover after entering the workplace: that the ability to communicate ideas clearly and persuasively often matters as much as the ideas themselves.
For Anthony, the shift from technical expert to leader came with a new set of demands, ones that were less about knowledge and more about influence.
‘When you join an organisation, the interview is about what you know,’ he explains. ‘But when they want to make you a team leader, they don’t pull out your CV. They look at your ability to manage people and produce results,’ he says.
‘You must be able to bring your people together, tell them this is what we want to do, this is the direction we’re going. The clearer your communication, the better it is for your team.’
This shift is now playing out across corporate Kenya, where communication is no longer treated as a ‘soft skill’ but as a core leadership competency.
In high-stakes environments, the impact of communication becomes even more visible.
Anthony points to ongoing engagements with revenue authorities across the region, often tense, high-pressure meetings where outcomes matter.
‘Initially, these tend to be very antagonistic meetings. People are coming to fight,’ he says. ‘But the ability to communicate, put your ideas through, and demonstrate that you’re listening… tends to break the ice and you can begin working toward a solution.’
Communication trainings
Such moments underline why companies are increasingly investing in structured communication training, not just to improve presentations, but to influence outcomes.
At Davis and Shirtliff, communication is now embedded into the organisation’s development strategy.
‘We are putting together a corporate club for our staff,’ Anthony says. ‘The reason is that we find communication skills are important.’
Across departments, the need is consistent. Engineers must explain products to clients, finance teams must present performance clearly, and teams must align around shared goals.
‘You can put up very colourful charts, but you must be able to tell the story behind those charts,’ he adds.
Beyond formal training, the company is also building communication into everyday work. Staff are regularly required to present in meetings, ensuring that no one ‘disappears through the cracks.’
As organisations place greater emphasis on communication, it is also becoming a factor in how employees are perceived-and how quickly they rise.
‘The person who can articulate themselves better is seen as a leader already,’ Anthony says. ‘They might not even be the strongest technically, but they take ownership of the narrative.’
Speaking up signals leadership
In practical terms, speaking in meetings signals leadership, builds credibility as well as confidence while driving visibility.
Even hiring decisions are influenced. Anthony recalls a case where a candidate stood out largely because of strong communication skills and was hired, only for the company to realise later that the technical ability did not match the impression.
‘Communication is powerful,’ he says. ‘It can be used for both good and bad. But it is an essential skill.’
While there has been some improvement in how graduates communicate, thanks in part to extracurricular exposure, Anthony believes more can be done.
‘It’s an area that we should focus on, not only at university level, but even from high school,’ he says.
At the individual level, the journey often begins with confronting personal limitations. For him, it was shyness and fear of speaking in front of others.
‘I thought crowds were very scary, and I avoided being in front of an audience,’ he admits. ‘But communication takes that away.’
Through structured practice on platforms such as Toastmasters International, he says, professionals can build not just speaking ability, but confidence and leadership presence.
Ultimately, communication does not replace technical expertise; it amplifies it.
Benefits of an early start
At Standard Chartered, Orege Arnold Odhiambo, Associate Director, People Capability, says the realisation comes much earlier, sometimes even before professionals formally enter the workplace.
‘I had the privilege of starting quite early on, during my university days, where I was part of an organisation,’ he says. ‘We did a lot of business interactions that normally expose you to corporates at a very early stage, even before you start your career. From that aspect, it looked like whatever it is that you’re studying is never enough; you need to do more.’
That early exposure, he says, created an awareness that communication is central to professional growth, from proposal writing to negotiations and stakeholder engagement.
‘And from that point, it exposed me to the need to boost communication skills quite early. It gave me that growth mindset to keep developing myself better,’ he says, adding that his eventual shift from biomedical science into human resources further reinforced that reality.
‘It became more about how you manage people and how you communicate with people.’
Still, like many professionals, his biggest challenge was not formal presentations but speaking in unplanned situations.
‘My biggest struggle has always been impromptu speaking,’ he says. ‘Everyone feels like they are good at communicating when they are prepared, but when it comes to impromptu situations, that’s where the challenge comes in.’
In meetings, he says, that often translates into silence.
‘You tend to overanalyse and keep quiet. It’s not that you don’t have ideas, it’s just difficult to relay those ideas in a way people can take them,’ he says. ‘And what happens is that you miss many opportunities.’
That silence, he adds, can quietly affect career progression
‘People feel like you’re not ready for the next level-not because you’re not doing well in your job, but because you’re not expressing yourself,’ he says. ‘So, you find stagnation happening, even when you’re capable of much more.’
In today’s workplace, he argues, communication is increasingly tied to visibility.
Communication in an evolving workplace
He notes that workplace structures have also evolved, with performance now shaped by how employees engage across teams.
‘It’s no longer just about impressing your direct boss. You’re working with different teams, and how they experience you; how you share ideas, solve problems, that’s what determines your growth.’
Within the bank, communication is embedded across multiple layers of training, even beyond formal public speaking.
‘We do have an in-house Toastmasters club that started in 2016, which gives people a practical platform to practise,’ he says. ‘It creates psychological safety where you can learn, make mistakes, and grow.’
He adds that even broader workplace training, from leadership to client engagement, has a strong communication component.
‘If you’re training relationship managers to be client-centric, communication plays a key role. If you’re talking about coaching or building high-performance teams, communication is still central,’ Orege says.
For him, the early gains are often visible in confidence.
‘The first improvement you notice is courage; you start putting yourself out there more,’ he says. ‘You may not be perfect, but you begin organising your ideas better and presenting them.’
He notes that improvement ultimately depends on how much effort an individual puts in.
‘It’s a journey. The more you practise and engage, the more confident you become, and the more people start noticing how you connect your ideas and influence others.’
Unacknowledged KPI
Communication, he adds, is now deeply embedded in how organisations function, even if it is not always formally measured.
‘It may not be a KPI on paper, but it’s a key driver in everything, from collaboration to leadership to client engagement,’ he says.
He also observes a clear divide when graduates enter the workforce.
‘Some have an advantage, especially those who were involved in extracurricular activities like business clubs or public speaking,’ he says. ‘But many others focus purely on academics, and when they come into the workplace, they struggle to express themselves.’
That gap, he says, becomes evident during interviews and early career interactions.
‘You can find someone with first-class honours, but when you ask them a question, they struggle, not because they’re not sharp, but because the communication element is missing,’ he says.
Ultimately, Orege believes communication is a skill that can be learned and developed over time.
Confidence is not enough
At Dormans Coffee, managing director Rozy Rana says she learnt the importance of communication long before entering the corporate world.
‘I don’t think I can say it was specifically at a certain point in my career,’ she says. ‘I learnt it when I was quite young. I may not have known better at the time, but I definitely understood the importance of communication.’
Years later, however, it was only after joining Toastmasters that she realised confidence alone did not necessarily translate into effective communication.
‘I joined at a friend’s invitation, and honestly, I thought I was a good communicator,’ Rozy says. ‘When I drafted my first speech and shared it with my mentor, I was expecting validation. Instead, he told me we had work to do.’
The experience, she says, was both accidental and humbling.
‘I realised I was probably rambling, overwriting and overexplaining, and that’s not impactful,’ Rozy says.
That lesson has since shaped how she approaches communication both personally and professionally.
‘Clarity is not so much about saying more; it’s about saying what matters,’ she says.
Cost of communication breakdowns
At Dormans, she recalls one incident where poor communication nearly cost the company a client. A customer had been promised same-day delivery, but due to Nairobi traffic, the delivery arrived after closing hours.
‘The driver assumed he could do it the following day and didn’t communicate the delay,’ she says. ‘Meanwhile, the client was very frustrated because the least they expected was a phone call.’
The issue was eventually resolved, but the experience reinforced the cost of communication breakdowns within organisations.
‘It just shows how important it is not to work in silos,’ Rozy says. ‘Each party has a role to play in keeping the promise.’
She believes public speaking and communication are becoming increasingly important in today’s workplace, even where they are not formally measured.
‘If you communicate effectively, it gives you visibility, builds your brand, enables influence and helps shift perspectives,’ she says.
Within her workplace, Rozy says communication training is now embedded in mentorship and leadership development. She mentors professionals and also facilitates a programme focused on helping women in management strengthen their influence and leadership communication.
‘The programme is very strong on communication; how to structure presentations, persuade with power and communicate intentionally,’ she says.
She argues that one of the biggest shifts professionals must make is learning to communicate with the audience in mind, rather than simply speaking to express themselves.
‘Communication is making sure the message you are delivering has been received by the audience as you intended,’ she says. ‘It’s always about understanding the audience, their context and crafting your message so that it lands.’
Looking back, Rozy says some of her own blind spots included overexplaining and trying too hard to sound structured or professional.
‘You might think adding more detail creates clarity, but sometimes the more you squeeze in, the more you squeeze out the audience,’ she says.
Over time, however, repeated practice and feedback helped refine those habits. ‘Eventually, it becomes second nature.’
While she believes younger professionals today enter the workforce more confident than previous generations, she says there is still room for growth in communication and professionalism.
‘There’s definitely more confidence now, which is a good thing,’ she says. ‘But there’s still a need for people to learn how to structure ideas, simplify complexity and communicate with intent.’
For Rozy, the strongest communicators are not necessarily the loudest or most polished speakers, but those who can make complex ideas easier for others to understand.
‘It’s very easy to make something complicated, but very hard to make something simple,’ she says. ‘That’s what effective communication really is.’