Melody Wilding: Have you ever gotten feedback that you’re too in the weeds, they need to zoom out and focus on the big picture? If so, you might be sitting there thinking, how am I supposed to do that when I am the one managing all of the details that would fall apart if I was the one that stopped paying attention to them.

That tension. The tension between being deeply capable at the tactical level and being seen as someone who can operate at the strategic level, that is one of the most common and most confusing places you can find yourself. And it’s exactly what today’s guest was navigating when she joined our program, Speak Like a Senior Leader. Reshmi is a program manager at a major consumer packaged goods company. She was already being pulled into high profile work. She was collaborating. Directly alongside directors, VPs, and executives on a lot of projects. She had a great track record, but the feedback she kept getting was the same, too detail oriented. Two in the weeds, spend less time on execution, and it’s easy to think that the fix is well just delegate more. And if you have tried that, then you know that delegation alone does not fix a perception problem because you can hand off all of the tactical work you want, but if you still show up to the leadership meeting and you are drowning people in data and context, you are still going to be seen as the tactical person every single time.

So inside Speak Like a Senior Leader, Reshmi, completely changed her approach to communication. In this conversation, you’re going to hear how she did it, how she accomplished going from hearing, can you just get to the point to starting to hear, I love how you frame that. How she went from letting meetings spiral out of control to being the person who confidently steered things back on track. How she cut her prep time dramatically because she had frameworks that got her to 80% in a fraction of the time she used to spend agonizing over every single slide.

Reshmi has gone from being someone leadership trusted to execute to someone leadership trust, to shape direction. And that distinction is everything when it comes to what happens next for you in your career.

These are the kind of results our clients are achieving every day inside of Speak Like a Senior Leader. This is my bestselling eight week program where you get the complete speak system, tactical on demand lessons paired with live weekly workshops where you get practice in real time to develop these skills. You also get Q&A calls with me daily written coaching in our private community. Practice exercises with direct feedback from our team, our AI communication coach, MelodyGPT for 24/7 support and lots more. Our clients come into the program feeling overlooked, over-prepared, and under-recognized. And they walk out communicating with the kind of confident authority that gets them promoted, gets them raises, and gets them pulled into opportunities they used to be left out of.

Speak Like a Senior Leader sells out every time we open the doors. So if you know you want in, you’ll want to make sure you are at the free Effortless Executive Presence Training I’m hosting on May 5th. That is where enrollment is opening. The link is melodywilding.com/training or just check out the show notes.

Alright, with that, let’s get into it with Reshmi.

Reshmi, I’m so happy to have you here to talk about your story or experience in Speak Like a Senior Leader, but let’s start with a little bit about you.

Reshmi Butala: Happy to be here, Melody. Thanks for having me. I’m a program manager at a, consumer package, goods company. as a background, I have a kind of diverse background. I started with environmental engineering and then moved on into sustainability and then made a move into procurement. So currently working on certain large scale projects in the procurement group.

Melody Wilding: Very nice. When you came into the program, you had talked about in your onboarding forum how you were already working with directors, VPs, the C-level, so you were already performing and communicating with the executive level folks. What wasn’t working for you that made you realize you needed a program like Speak Like a Senior Leader?

Reshmi Butala: Yeah, I would say it is a combination understanding that I needed to step up. I saw certain areas lacking in terms of communication, with the C-suite, with the directors. and the project I was handling was brand new to me. So that added to the complexity. And I just feel, felt like. There was a gap, there was a bridge that I needed to cross over, and so that, that kind of led me to you and your program.

Melody Wilding: You mentioned you got this project with more complexity. What was the biggest struggle when it came to communicating around that? What roadblocks were you hitting or what was feeling most difficult for you?

Reshmi Butala: I think the expectations given that this was a brand new project for most of the, stakeholders involved, there, there was a, there was a, there was a lack of clarity and I I did not realize that I could step up and ask for more clarity, for more information, to be more strong voice and make my clear and, to ask for more direction, more guidance and cetera. So I felt, I did not feel equipped to do that.

Melody Wilding: Yeah, and I completely understand that. We hear, we hear this all the time from people who have been given a moonshot project or even sometimes there’s been a reorg and other folks have left the organization and now their scope is even larger. And as you said, the bigger expectations that come along with it. The new stakeholders who might not know you, might not know your work. There’s more eyes on this project. There may be more urgency and pressure around it ’cause it’s tied more directly to revenue, for example. And you’re, you’re right, it’s great you recognized that, it wasn’t necessarily going to be a change in your technical skill.

You had the technical skill already, but you needed to close some of that gap in terms of the communication piece. And being able to ask for clarification or help, it is so difficult when, well, you tell me. What did you find most challenging about asking for clarification, asking for direction, or for support from some of those higher level people?

What were the roadblocks you faced? ’cause I think a lot of people can relate to that.

Reshmi Butala: Absolutely. It was as simple as. Hey, I do not have clarity. Hey, I, I do not know what is the outcome of this project. Are we, is it more tactical? How do I tie to the business goals of the company? How do I, how do I measure the value of the project? What exactly are we working at here? So I, I think that just speaking up and not, and not feeling handicapped about speaking up. I think that was a huge part of this.

Melody Wilding: And you mentioned you have a very illustrious background and procurement, supply chain management, the environmental side, so a lot of deep expertise. And you had said at one point that you were feeling very overloaded in your role and that your communication sometimes was undermining your leadership. What type of signals or feedback were you hearing that that was the case?

Reshmi Butala: One of the feedbacks I had received was that I to get too detail oriented and that I needed to look at the bigger picture. And, and it, it’s hard to do that when you’re managing some of the tactical pieces, but then you’re also trying to zoom out and look at the big picture. So that was the, that was one of the feedbacks I had received. To zoom out and other piece was delegate, do not try to do, do not try to handhold too much. Delegate as much as possible. So that frees up my time.

Melody Wilding: And what’s interesting about the delegation point from a communication perspective, because on the surface it does seem like it’s a be able to hand off work more, but the, the next part of that is, you need to hand off work more because we need to see you operating at a more strategic level. Right. And that’s something we’re not seeing. And we as the executive team, think delegation is going to help with that. And it’s interesting. I would love to hear your, your perspective on this having gone through the program now, because you could, you could delegate and hand things off all day, but still, project at a level of still being too detail oriented and too in the weeds. So how have you made changes, not, not just to tactically hand off the work, but also reposition how you are perceived by the executive level as not being just in the tactics all the time.

Reshmi Butala: I think in terms of delegating and making that conscious switch between, it’s not just about delegating, but it’s about empowering myself to be more strategic, to be more vision oriented. The gap there trying to take more ownership of the strategic viewpoint. Trying to align with the leadership team on what the vision is for the project.

Melody Wilding: Inside of the program, what are some of the key areas you believe you have improved the most? What has changed for you?

Reshmi Butala: So what has changed for me is I try to now understand each, executive in terms of, you know, the Four Cs that you have in your program. I actually was able to understand what each director’s communication style is, and from that perspective, I know now who wants to hear what. For example, we have a cheerleader on the team and so they wanna hear about the big picture, the vision making a program, delightful for everybody. And so that’s the kind of communication I use with that person. there’s someone who wants to know the bottom line upfront, and so that’s what I use with that. With that particular executive so think that’s, that has been a huge shift on my end in terms of understanding what someone wants to hear and how I can make the conversation valuable to them.

Melody Wilding: I love that. I love being able to target your message more towards your audience. What difference has that made for you in terms of how your ideas or your proposals are being received?

Reshmi Butala: I think that I am hearing, oh, I love how you framed that. I love how you, proposed that. And I wanna see more of that. That’s something that I’ve heard from my manager.

Melody Wilding: How is it for you to get that feedback now compared to what you were getting before?

Reshmi Butala: It’s been very, it’s been a huge change. It’s been, it’s been very impactful in terms of how I’m being observed, in terms of how I’m being viewed, in terms of the, the level of communication, in terms of the level of conversation, the depth of the conversation. It does not have to be all checking off boxes, but it’s more of a conversation if that makes sense.

Melody Wilding: It does. It does and and often, you know, I would categorize this as you’ve gone from being seen as a subordinate and order taker to more of a peer and a partner. Where you are being able to have the, those conversations with them more on an intellectual level rather than just a pure execution. Reshmi, I need you to go do this. Come back to me when it’s done. It’s more you’re being looped in. It sounds like a greater degree of trust that they have in you, and again, not just your ability to get things done, but in your expertise and your input, your opinion, they want you at those tables where these ideas are being formed or they’re trying to hash out problems, would you, would you say that’s true?

Reshmi Butala: I, I would agree. Yes. I’m viewed more as a stakeholder and not someone she’s, she’s gonna get this done. She’s gonna get this done.

Melody Wilding: That must be so rewarding to, to feel and to see that shift in how people are treating you day to day, which is so wonderful. Okay, so we talked about being able to adapt to the, the different communication styles that, that’s been beneficial to you. What else are some changes you made or tweaks you have found valuable to project more of that executive presence?

Reshmi Butala: So what I’ve observed is I. I kind of tend to wrap things up quickly and do not let things linger, which brings a sense of closure even in myself. There may be, there may be meetings where we have questions that still need be addressed. But I, I still wrap things up. I say, let’s move on to the next. You know, we, we cannot solve everything right now, but let’s park this and let’s move on to the next. And so this program has helped me bring that level of confidence, to say, Nope, we pause here. Let’s move to the next thing. Let’s see how we can continue to grow and not try to address every single issue or question right now.

Melody Wilding: Yeah. And what a switch in mindset for you going from that, as you were saying before, this overloading the conversation with detail and getting into the nitty gritty and every possible aspect. It’s so interesting to hear you now be a director of those conversations, and that’s a really hard skill to master.

I wanna give you so much just kudos and credit for having the courage to go there to steer these discussions, because a lot of people get very hesitant. Oh, I don’t wanna step on the executive’s toes. If that’s what they wanna talk about, this is their time, so, so I’ll let them go on. And what I hear you saying is, no, I, it’s part of my obligation to this project and also my leadership to be a good steward of the time and literally the program manager. And I am not doing my job if I’m letting us go down a rabbit trail and we spend, you know, 40 minutes on a topic that really should have taken 15. And we have five other things on the agenda that we need to get to. For you, what’s, what has that changed? Being the one who is jumping in and saying, okay, we’re moving on to this next topic. Let’s table this one. Being able to have that assertiveness In those conversations, what have you seen either within yourself or how other people are responding to you as a result of that?

Reshmi Butala: So I work with numerous stakeholders, as part of the role that I’m in and, and at multiple levels. So being able to, close something, even with gaps, even with questions unanswered, it has bring brought a certain level of confidence in me that it’s okay for me to say, no, we’re not gonna solve this now. Let’s move on. And I think that. It’s almost like I needed someone previously to tell me, yes, you can do this, you can move on. And now it’s me telling myself that I can move on and I do not need permission from anybody. And that’s such a huge shift because I, I think somewhere inside of me, I did not make that connection. This is me telling myself perfectly okay to move on.

Melody Wilding: Perfectly okay and perhaps expected that, that you are being proactive around that instead of reactive. Right, and we talk about this in the program is the difference between the executive meeting mindset and the manager meeting mindset. The manager is receiving. Is a recipient of information or a giver of information.

The executive expects to be a participant and a driver. And that’s what I see you stepping into here, which is amazing because you’re not having to hit people over the head with this is this great thing I did, and this is the value I brought to the organization. You are subtly putting your leadership capabilities and your acumen on display by doing that because those are the nuanced, soft skills that the executives are looking at. Where when they’re assessing those super complex projects that have even more stakeholders than the average one, they’re going to say, who’s able to take a room of 10, 15, 20 people who may have a lot of big opinions and egos and differing thoughts about how something, something should go? Who can handle that? And if you’re the person that comes to mind, oh, Reshmi. I’ve seen her be able to do that. I, I think, I think she has the potential for this, right? It’s these, what, what seems like these little minute situations that really add up to that perception in someone’s mind over time.

Reshmi Butala: I agree. I agree. and it, it takes time to build on this.

Melody Wilding: Of course.

Reshmi Butala: Not happen overnight. And yes, as, as. The executives are seeing this shift, the subtle change that you mentioned it, it takes time to grow and build, but certainly I’m setting myself up for that.

Melody Wilding: Absolutely. Now something else you have mentioned is that you are now able to draw the line when it comes to over preparing. Tell us about that. How, how are you approaching things differently now that you’re not getting into that perfectionism and overthinking?

Reshmi Butala: Yeah, that’s a great question, Melody. and this ties in directly to what I had mentioned previously, in terms of it’s okay to move on. So when I tell my stakeholder. It’s okay to move on. That’s exactly what I tell myself also, when I’m preparing for a presentation or, scoping for other opportunities within the company, within the corporation, I don’t get overworked about it anymore.

I, I, I’m able to say, this is, this is the best I can do and I’m going to, put my best foot forward. I not going to lose sleep over it. And, and that’s been such a huge shift in me. I I cannot explain it. I, I cannot emphasize it enough over preparedness does not really make you, set you up for success.

Is what something I have learned, the perfectionism, the, but I did not do this. I did not think of that. What if this, what if that. I just draw the line there.

Melody Wilding: Well, It begins to have diminishing returns over time where you can keep spending 2, 3, 5, 10, 20 hours on a presentation.

Reshmi Butala: Yep.

Melody Wilding: But you probably got it 80% of the way there in the first two hours. And now I, I know I’ve seen this for myself, when I’m, when I’m tweaking some, you know, a talk I have to give, I, I start moving things around and I’m not sure if I’m making it better or worse at some point.

And that’s what you’re talking about here. And, and what we try to do in the program is make sure you have those frameworks and those shortcuts to say, alright, how do I get the most out of the two hours I have to prepare? And then I have the peace of mind that I have approached this with a sound proven way of distilling down what I wanna say and making sure it comes across concisely and crisply.

And if something else comes to mind, great, I can add it in. But. I feel confident that I have followed that and I’ve, I can check the box rather than always wondering, well what if this, well what if that I’ve seen this person do X, Y, Z, and maybe I should do that right? And all this self-questioning because we don’t necessarily have a system to follow.

So I was wondering if you could just speak to that, if any of the, the tools or the strategies in the program have helped you save some of that time and stress.

Reshmi Butala: yes, from the program, when I went through the pre present with poise module, I found it to be immensely helpful terms of honing my skills in certain, in several areas really. One is, you know, how to condense my presentation, how to make it simple, how to make it easy to understand, and how to not obsess over, including everything in the slide. How to, how to step out, step back, how to zoom out and. And then have clarity in my mind at the back of my mind, and what does the audience want?

How do I make things easy for them to comprehend? How do I, when they walk away from the meeting, do are, do they have clarity? As you say in some, in some of your sessions you’ve mentioned, if you were to summarize the whole presentation in two sentences, what would it be? And so that’s something that’s always at the back of my mind as I work on it, that if I were to give a two minute. or a two sentence version, what would this presentation be like? And so those are the things that have really helped me with, reducing the amount of time I spend. I, it’s just, it’s, it’s kind of hard to explain, but I’m able to just call it quits and say, this is it.

I think I’ve done a really good job and I need to move on.

Melody Wilding: Absolutely.

What have been some of your favorite parts of the program, aspects that you have found most valuable to you getting results.

Reshmi Butala: it is hearing the, the numerous participants put forth their questions during the weekly coaching sessions and, and realizing that, yeah, this is something that I have come across, but I’ve never vocalized it internally. And hey, I’m so glad someone asked this question because I can use this in my professional and even in my personal life, I think the skill sheets at the end of each module, they’ve been super helpful because they force me to look at myself, what are my strengths, what are my weaknesses? What is my communication style? How do I like to receive information? And all of those things have been super valuable. Another aspect of the program that I really like is the consistency. the consistency helps build, helps grow and really helps bring about a shift internally and externally. so I think these, I think I’ve given a lot. I can go on and on, but there’s, these are the main features. Yeah.

Melody Wilding: And I’m so glad to hear that because we have, we’ve really aimed to make this interactive because we know you don’t need more information. Yes, you need training and I have really collated the best tactics and tools and frameworks for my 15 years plus of executive coaching. Delivered that to you in this system. It’s the live coaching elements, it’s the daily coaching in the community. The skill drills are the exercises you were referring to because in insight is great, but if you don’t translate that into actual results for yourself. It’s, it’s not going to do anything. It just stays in your head. And what, what good is that? That’s not what you’re paying for. And so being able to come into the program and as you were saying, get those opportunities for practice, for troubleshooting, for feedback, and you are someone who has used all of those elements, which has been wonderful to see. yeah, I, I wish it was a flip of a switch that I could just. Download all of this into your brain and one day and off you go, you’re fine. But it does, it takes implementation. It takes application. It takes going through, over that 13 weeks, a couple of different meetings, different one-on-ones with your boss or your skip level.

And we’re there with you along the way as you’re trying to apply these, adapt these to different situations and build them more into a habit that you can take going forward. And so I just, you, you have made use of all of that, which I think is credit to where you are, where you are now.

Would you recommend Speak Like the Senior Leader to someone else who is in a similar position as you and what would you tell them about the program?

Reshmi Butala: I would certainly recommend it to someone who is at my level or even higher up than me and I think that I, what I would tell them is you do have to put in the work. Is not a switch as you had mentioned. You know, it’s not something that someone is going to download everything into your head or into your system. You do have to put in the work. But the rewards and results you get are, you’re gonna see an incremental magnification of the results and rewards in, you know, internally and externally. I’ve been in other coaching programs and I would say that this is very different because it builds, it’s a process, it builds. I do think that you and your team, you are fully invested. you know, I see your energy coming through. You’re fully invested in seeing us and because in our growth, your growth.

Melody Wilding: That’s right. it’s good for us if you do well and you succeed and we want that. there’s a reason we do this work. It, it really is so rewarding. We have our, you know, our team Slack channel and when, when we get to go in there and say, oh, so and so nailed this promotion, so and so just got an invite to a meeting with the C-Suite to get private face time with them. This other person got a spot bonus. It makes everything worth it to be able to celebrate all of you.

Because you are someone that’s done a lot of professional and and personal development, you’ve done coaching programs in the past. What else is different about this one? ’cause it’s a little hard for me to explain what is different about it, but from your perspective, what has stood out about Speak Like a Senior Leader to you is different.

Reshmi Butala: I think what stood out is the is having access to you. Because in other programs that I’ve been in there, the access to the, the coach has been more through the program modules that they put out and, the participants having to go through the different presentations and different, worksheets and exercises. Or even, it’s an automated recording of, the coaching system and, having access to the community, where everybody can put forth their questions, their growth, their wins, and having you respond to them and your team respond to them, at a continuous level. Having the weekly coaching sessions, you getting feedback from us on what’s working, what’s not working.

when I look at the price point and the level of involvement and engagement that I’m seeing from your team and how well thought out and how well structured the whole program is. You thought about everything. You’ve thought about our internal shifts. You’ve thought about our style of communication. You’ve thought about how we should read an audience. You’ve included the assertiveness that we need to exhibit in certain points in time. You’ve thought about how we should learn to not obsess over mistakes, not to worry over mistakes. Just keep moving on. And I think those are such value added fundamentals that a lot of us miss in our day-to-day interactions at work.

Melody Wilding: Yes, it is packed with tactics to the gills. But at the same time, we also know that if you’re in your head about this. If you’re intimidated by the executives you’re trying to communicate with, you’re not going to follow through on anything. Or you’re going to go in circles. Or you’re just going to stay in practice mode. Let me just do one more exercise before I actually bring this out into my meeting or my conversation. And so yes, having some of those elements where we’re touching on the fear, the psychology of executives, of the dynamics that are happening so you can decode, you can see through that for what it is and not be so intimidated is the word that keeps coming to mind. ‘Cause I hear that often. Not be so, put off or fearful of that. It makes all the difference.

Reshmi Butala: Not wanting to be so right all the time. It’s not about being right. It’s about the how. And one other thing that I will mention is when I look at executive stock, I look at it differently. Now, I really understand that they’re, don’t care if they, if they don’t have everything right, they’re just so confident about what they know already and that’s what they project and that’s something that I’ve started to observe and that’s a result of this program.

Melody Wilding: Yeah. we don’t advocate at all that you just have this empty confidence and bravado about, oh yes, I know everything. Because that’s not what confidence is, that is being full of yourself. That is false confidence. But there is a way to respond confidently even when you don’t know the answer. Even when you’re caught off guard or you have to speak off the cuff. Or it’s not your area of expertise that you’re being asked to weigh in on. There are still ways to project presence and to stand your ground and to not just crumble into a ball of shame and embarrassment And I know having stepped into some of these larger projects and bigger rooms for yourself, you’ve had to do that because as you were saying, you, you can’t always be right. You don’t always know the information. Things are moving so fast that even what’s quote unquote right may change day, day to day, hour to hour sometimes. And so being able to have that just groundedness and self-assuredness, conviction, even when you don’t know the exact right, quote unquote, answer, that’s everything because then you have confidence to step into any type of situation and know I can hold my own here. I don’t have to count myself out of this opportunity just because I’ve never been in a room like this before or I’ve never done something in this area before. This feels very big. You don’t have to count yourself out of that ’cause you, you are resourceful. To be able to communicate and pivot on the spot.

Reshmi Butala: I agree. I think you, you nailed it when you said self-assuredness.

it’s not about having nothing or no knowledge about something and coming from that angle versus coming from a, an angle of self-assuredness. I got this. Even if, I don’t know I’m gonna say that in a very confident way.

Melody Wilding: Incredible. Reshmi, thank you so, so much for being here, for sharing your experience and your story. I am so grateful and just I, I can’t wait to see what you do next. I know you have a lot of big things ahead of you. You and I have talked about that, so I’m just, I can’t wait to see.

Reshmi Butala: Thank you, Melody. Really appreciate it. Thank you for having me.