Sounding Like Everyone Else is Not a Wording Problem, it is a Positioning Problem

Most people think their positioning problem is a wording problem, so they keep rewriting the headline. New verb, stronger adjective, a fresh spin on the same summary. It never moves anything, because the headline was never the issue. The issue is that you have not decided what you actually are, so every version comes out sounding like everyone else at your level.

Here is the thing about senior altitude. The higher you go, the more everyone around you shares the same vocabulary. Strategic. Trusted. Drives outcomes. Builds high-performing teams. At a certain level those words stop describing anyone, because everyone in the room can claim them, and a description that fits everyone points to no one. You are not being vague because you write badly. You are being vague because you are reaching for the shared words instead of the specific one.

The fix is not better wording. It is a decision. What is the one thing you do that the other strong people at your level do not, or do not do the same way. Not a list, one thing. The person who catches the risk a quarter before anyone else. The one who turns a skeptical room without a deck. The one whose accounts never churn and nobody can quite say why until you explain it. That is positioning. The words are easy once the decision is made, and impossible until it is.

This is why rewriting your LinkedIn headline for the ninth time changes nothing. You are polishing language on top of an undecided position. Decide the position, the sharp and specific and slightly uncomfortable one, and the words fall out of it in about a minute.

If you cannot tell whether your problem is the words or the position underneath them, that is exactly what the quiz reads. Two minutes, and it is free.

→ Take the What Has You Stuck quiz

Onward, Laurie