In the July 6, 2026 episode of the WRKdefined podcast You Should Know, communications coach Peter Novak challenged the notion that perfect grammar is the key to effective workplace communication. Instead, Novak, founder of Strictly Speaking Group and a former professor at the University of San Francisco, emphasized that clarity, confidence, and trust are far more critical, especially as global teams become increasingly distributed.
Novak, who holds a doctorate in dramaturgy and an MFA in acting, argued that unconscious bias—particularly like-me bias—often determines who gets promoted and believed in the workplace. He pointed out that non-native English speakers face additional hurdles, such as phrasal verbs (e.g., take off, take up, take over) that can derail understanding. Novak recommended using AI prompts to replace such verbs with clearer alternatives.
Drawing on a McGill University study, Novak highlighted how foreign accents affect perceptions of trust and credibility, underscoring the importance of confident delivery. He noted that investor relations teams now use AI to analyze CEOs' language and tone during earnings calls, reflecting a growing focus on communication effectiveness.
Novak reframed inclusive communication as a bottom-line issue, stating, "The best way to position it is that this is a business issue, that you need your communication to be as clear as possible to everyone, not just to a select few." He pushed back against the notion that non-native speakers must always adapt, using a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers analogy: "Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, only backwards and in high heels." Non-native colleagues, he argued, are translating and vocabulary-hunting in real time while native speakers barrel ahead.
The conversation offered concrete tactics. Novak described building executive "voiceprints" by feeding hundreds of hours of transcripts into AI to help leaders deliver scripts that sound authentic. He also shared a 20-question intake used to help executives communicate their preferences to teams, from pre-reads to agenda formats.
Novak referenced cultural intelligence lessons from his work in Tokyo and Dubai, and noted that Latin American teams often operate trilingually until a monolingual American enters the room, collapsing the exchange back to English. He contrasted Ernest Hemingway's accessible style with Oscar Wilde writing "for about 6 people," urging leaders to aim for clarity over complexity.
The episode, available now wherever podcasts are heard, provides a playbook for leading multilingual teams effectively. Novak's message is clear: in global business English, confidence beats perfect grammar every time.
