How to Build Memorable Leadership Communication and a Stronger Professional Brand
I had to read The Odyssey in college as part of a required humanities class. I was not a fan. It was confusing, repetitive, and weird. I didn’t care about Odysseus, the Cyclops, or the dozen other characters I couldn’t keep straight. Reading The Iliad alongside it didn't help.
The other day while scrolling social media, I came across a game where you match quotes to the movie they came from.
<Clears throat, laces fingers, turns palms out, cracks knuckles.>
This game was made for me.
Some people are fluent in second languages, I’m fluent in quoting memorable (and sometimes wonderfully unmemorable) lines from movies and TV shows.
It’s the way my husband and I say goodbye: “Have fun storming the castle!”
I point out significant moments to my clients: “It is time.”
When someone tells me they read my book, I joke: “Oh, so you’re the one.”
They are always in rotation to punctuate the absurd: “So you’re telling me there’s a chance!”
I’ve even used them when explaining storytelling concepts: “I’ll have what she’s having.”
I’m not alone. They’re an integral part of the language in my friend groups. Some of out favorites include:
Bye Buddy, hope you find your dad
May the odds be ever in your favor
The first time I watched The Princess Bride, I didn’t decide that “Have fun storming the castle” would become my go-to departure greeting. I didn’t set out to memorize any of these lines. Yet I automatically internalized them, and they pop out in unexpected moments.
What is it about these lines that make them stick?
We rarely remember information by itself. I think part of this is that we’re remembering it attached to an experience. Both for the story of the movie, and who I saw it with. My friends and I would leave the theater laughing at the same lines and made them part of our shared vocabulary. Some of them stuck because they were clever or unexpected. Others stayed because of the emotional zing they created.
That’s how memory works. Our brains are much more likely to hold onto information that’s connected to emotion, surprise, or a meaningful experience than information delivered without any of those things. A line that catches you off guard, tied to a specific person or moment, has a much better chance of becoming part of you than information delivered flatly.
That's why it's easier to remember a movie quote from twenty years ago than an update from last week's staff meeting.
The Same Ingredients At Work
I see this with the leaders I coach on becoming memorable communicators. The same principles that make a movie line land are the ones that make a meeting or a message land, or don't.
Words alone rarely make something memorable. The experience around them, and the impact it creates, is what people actually connect with. You’re either creating that kind of memorable residue on purpose, or you're leaving it to chance. That happens in two different ways.
The first is about the pattern your communication creates over time. In my last Brain Food, I wrote about the expectation people have when they seen your name on the meeting invite. That expectation is the accumulation of many small interactions.
The meeting that starts on time and ends with clear next steps creates one expectation. The meeting that wanders for twenty minutes before anyone knows why they're there creates another. The email that gets to the point in the first sentence trains people to open yours first. The one that takes four paragraphs to get there trains them to skim, or skip.
Positive or negative, that pattern becomes your reputation. You don't get to opt out of creating it. You only get to decide whether you're building it intentionally.
The second way is through individual moments. Not every interaction should be memorable. It can't be. If every meeting tried to surprise people or carry emotional weight, none of them would. Trying to make every meeting or email something memorable is exhausting for you and mind-numbing for everyone else.
The question is: Which moments deserve more? Where are you trying to earn trust, help people move through a transition, or mark something worth celebrating?
Most of your communication can, and probably should, be forgettable, the way a well-run meeting is forgettable. A handful of moments should not be.
I’m currently working with a newly promoted leader. She’s taking over a large team that is tired of change, uncertain about their roles and not yet inclined to trust her. She’s bringing them together for an offsite in the next few months to strengthen their trust in her and create clarity for the path forward.
We’re not spending time talking about the slides or the ice breakers. Instead, we’re talking about what people should feel and remember when they walk out of the room. The stories that she tells to reveal what she values. The questions she asks instead of the announcements she makes. The moments she leads with curiosity instead of authority.
None of that replaces the vision and the strategy. But the strategy won’t matter if people don’t trust the person delivering it. Trust is built in the moments people remember, not the ones you hope they absorb because you said something out loud.
That is the mistake I see often: assuming that because something was said, it was understood and will be acted on. Talking at people rarely becomes memorable or actionable, especially when you're focused on what you want to say instead of meeting your audience in the moment.
When I worked in corporate, the CEO announced we were getting an extra holiday one year. He could have written an email or delivered a speech. Instead, he filmed a short video holding up handwritten cards, Love Actually style, without saying a single word. People talked about it for years. The silence was unexpected, the format felt human, and it wasn’t your standard corporate communication.
Had he spoken, it wouldn’t have landed the same way. He probably would have used jargon and told us how to feel about the extra day. Being told how to feel about something is one of the fastest ways to stop people from feeling it. Instead, he created a memorable experience.
That’s the opportunity we all have. We build trust by creating predictable ongoing experiences people can rely on. But when the moment matters, we have the chance to intentionally create an experience that changes what people remember.
You are already creating memories at work. The question is whether they're the ones you intended to create.
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What's a moment from work you still remember, months or years later? What made it stick? I'd love to hear about it
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Karen Eber is an author, TED and keynote speaker, and communication strategist who works with frontline leaders, senior executives, and C-suite teams at Fortune 500 companies. She specializes in breaking down the science of communication and decision making to influence outcomes. Karen partners with teams across sales, marketing, communications, HR, finance, operations, legal, and IT. She works across industries including healthcare, technology, financial services, manufacturing, energy, consumer goods, retail, professional services, education, and nonprofits — helping leaders turn complex information into clear, compelling stories that drive decisions and action. She is the author of The Perfect Story. Learn more about her keynotes and workshops at kareneber.com/speaking.
