What can you, as an executive, learn about communicating from a 27 year old? Pete Cashmore at age 19 started Mashable, a tech blog. It grew in one year to 2 million followers.

So what does he do that you can learn from in order to make your communication as an executive more profound?

1. Visuals stay, words just play. Pete started studying his reader’s behavior and found they were more eight times more likely to share an image than they were a link. So he had his team design a more responsive system that is based more on images.

ASK YOURSELF- what do you do when you speak to create visuals? Is your mission/vision statement one that can be defined by a picture or is it just a bunch of words?

2. Stay focus, play loose. Pete is constantly watching the shifting landscape and then adopting his company to fit his client’s lifestyle. He is focused on his goal but allows his clients to help shape the delivery.

ASK YOURSELF- Do you have precision in what you need to execute on but do you have flexibility in how your team executes?

3. Execute Thoughtful Disruption. Pete realizes he can’t rest on his laurels so he is constantly looking for new ways to disrupt thought and generate new ways of doing things. He switched his sight to be one where as people click on links and share that news story starts to move to the top. He is essentially letting the clients manage the site.

ASK YOURSELF- Who has control? Do you put your client’s in the driver seat?

John Maxwell said, “people do what they see.” In other words, your team will perform in accordance with what they see from you. So you are being a Pete and creating the world you want for your team?

Anne Warfield, Impression Management Professionals in Minneapolis, MN – IMP is a strategic leadership development provider with focus on executive presentation skills, negotiation skills and train the trainer programs.