What Can Weather Forecasters Teach Us About Executive Presence?
Despite being the butt of endless jokes, the best weather forecasters quietly demonstrate executive presence every day in how they:
1) are willing to make predictions—and be wrong
2) translate mountains of data into clear, actionable guidance
3) take the most default of all default conversation topics (“So… how ’bout the weather?”) and actually engage stakeholders
Because weather is constant—something we check, talk about, and experience every day—these leadership lessons are hard to ignore once you notice them.
Check out the Season 7 kickoff of The Energy Detox, recorded during the January 2026 winter storm that impacted much of the United States.
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If you make one “bad” prediction against a slew of “good” ones, should that one bad prediction define you?
Well, in this Groundhog Day episode of The Energy Detox, we’ll help you 1) avoid putting too much stock in the results of a single prediction and 2) look for times when your fear of making decisions is holding you and your stakeholders back from sustained success.
Is this "negative" leadership pet peeve freezing your team's progress?
Are you bothered when someone refers to a "negative" temperature?
Or is that just an odd pet peeve of some people (or of one person)?
Either way, a North American cold snap not only inspires the sharing of that temperature-related pet peeve in this Calgary-based episode of The Energy Detox, but also sparks a conversation about a pet peeve that's likely having a negative impact on your organization:
Generic Leadership
Transcript
(AI training in progress; please excuse any errors)
What profession do we make fun of all the time yet still rely on every single day? Well, the answer, of course, is weather forecasters. And I Joe Sinnott, can think of no better time than right now, in the middle of a big snowstorm, than to talk about how those same weather forecasters, the butts of countless jokes are actually great reminders of how important executive presence is regardless of what your profession is and regardless of what your role is in your organization. And so today, on the season seven, kickoff of the energy detox, we're going to do just that. We're going to draw three parallels between weather forecasters and executive presence that are hyper relevant, especially if you are a leader in the energy industry. We're going to step through. One, weather forecasters ability to make predictions and be wrong all the time yet still keep plowing forward. Two, we'll talk about their ability to condense all kinds of data into a headline that is actually usable and actionable by their stakeholders. And three, we're going to dive into their ability to take the most default of all default topics, the weather, and actually make it interesting. Actually make it something that goes beyond just the cliche question of, Hey, how's the weather? And so let's do just that. Let's start with item number one, the fact that weather forecasters are always wrong, right? What's the joke? How can you have a job where you get to be wrong all the time. How nice would that be? When, in reality, of course, it's not a black and white. Are they wrong or they're right? We're talking statistics. We're talking numbers. We're talking ranges, right. How much snow are we going to get? Is it going to be six or seven inches? Is it going to be 16 or 17 inches? Who knows? And in many cases, who cares. The deltas there really don't make that big of a difference. But in reality, in business, it's the same thing. There are big decisions that have big implications, but many of them don't necessarily matter. Why? Because we're talking statistics, and the key is to make decisions, to make them confidently, use the best data that's available and then move forward. And we talk about this all the time on the energy detox, right? Whether we call it thinking in bets, thinking probabilistically, it's all the same thing. You got to make your best guess. You got to recognize that you as a human being, make upwards of what, 30,000 decisions a day. Most of them are not going to have big consequences. Now, weather related decisions, of course, do have big consequences, which is why, again, it's important to look to our weather forecasters as prime examples of those with executive presence, the ability to make a confident decision, move forward and know that you're wrong, or at least you're going to be wrong or somewhat wrong a whole bunch of the time. So ask yourself today, in the midst of whatever weather you happen to be experiencing, are you confident enough to go forth and be like a weather forecaster who knows he or she is going to be wrong quite a bit. Or do you find yourself stuck always trying to make that correct black and white decision, when, in reality, that's not what people need. They need something that's actionable. Which brings us to the second parallel, if you will, between weather forecasters and executive presence, the ability to convey, in some cases, complex data into something that is actionable. When it comes to weather, people want to know what school going to be canceled. Is it safe for me to go out and about? You know what's like? What decisions am I going to make about my life that are going to be different because of the weather forecast that you share? That's it. Some people sure are intrigued by all the records and the you know the nitty gritty details about weather, sure, but by and large, you start with a headline, right? What do you need to know so that you can live your life today in a manner that is going to keep you safe and going to keep you moving forward? That's it, and weather forecasters, by and large, do a pretty good job of that. They can't lead off a local news channel, forecast or whatever with you know all the detail, no, hey, here's what's going on. Here's what you need to know. You should stay indoors or, Hey, you know what it's going to be a beautiful day. Go out and enjoy that's it. And if people want more data, then you make it easy for them to drill further and further down. And in many ways, that's executive presence, and in many ways that's what I deal with on a day to day basis, especially not to stereotype here with engineers in the energy industry who have been trained to build up from a problem statement to all of the research and the data they've done to build up to some conclusion. But along the way, wind up losing their audience, wind up giving their audience all of this data, all these details that really undercut that final actionable message or recommendation or forecast. And so what's the antidote to that? Well, call it putting the bottom line up front, right the old bluff method, or whatever it is, that's the antidote. But it's easier said than done, which is why today it's a great opportunity to ask yourself, are you like a weather forecast, who is actually pretty good at putting the bottom line up front and then having the data later, or do you kind of fall into the trap of building up sharing all the data, sharing the conclusion while people are sitting there wondering why you wasted five or 10 minutes of their time when they just need to know if they need to. Carry an umbrella or if they should stay home today. And to reinforce that point, I do want to share that you know this, this concept here is not necessarily something new, of course. In fact, a couple years ago, some members of my team went out and they went to a class on data presentation, if you will, how to convey your data to an audience so that it's more usable. And in fact, they came back and said, Hey, Joe, here is the metaphor that was used, weather website, weather app, where, again, you go to a weather website. Ideally, you have the key information up top. What do you need to know right now? Is there a weather Winter Storm Warning? What's going to the next 24 hours going to look like? And then, if you want more information, a 10 day forecast, maybe an hour by hour forecast. You can keep scrolling. You can keep going even further if you want, and you can get information about, you know, records, and, you know, the sunrise, sunset, time, all of those different things. But it's logical. It's structured in that way. That's what executive presence is. Structured, clear, concise, articulate and articulate, ironically, and of course, actionable
06:02
and the third and final parallel between executive presence and weather forecasters is the fact that weather forecasters can take a fairly benign topic, certainly, again, one of the most default of all default topics, the weather, and turn it into something that's interesting, turn it into something that stakeholders are going to actually stop and pay attention to. Because I can talk about the weather. You can talk about the weather. How many icebreakers or networking events have started with a weather related conversation? Why? Because it's safe, it's easy, it's a known quantity. But weather forecasters are able to take that safe, known quantity, almost standard item, right? And they're able to make it interesting. And that's the challenge for you, that's executive presence. So my challenge for you is, how do you take something that's otherwise benign, whether it's your resume, whether it's a quarterly update for your company, whether it's a sit down conversation with one of your employees about performance? How do you take something that's fairly standard and inject a little bit of interest intrigue, if you will? Weather forecasters can do that because, you know, behind the scenes, they've got that data that we talked about previously, right? Sure, they can talk in headlines, but you know, behind the scenes, they've got this passion, they've got this interest, they've got this education, and boy, oh boy, you want them to get in the weeds. They can do it. And they can bring in fun facts. They can make it interesting. That's executive presence. So the question for you is, how do you do that? You know, certainly, if you're looking for something very practical from a weather standpoint. Next time you're tempted to, you know, say hello to somebody, especially somebody you don't know, and break the ice with the safest of all safe ice breakers, right? Hey, what do you think about the weather? How's it going? How's the weather treating you? Ask yourself, how you can inject a little bit of humor, a little bit of something different. Whether you say hey, you know, I think I'm legally obligated to talk about the weather, or whether you say something like, Hey, let's get the weather conversation out of the way, because I got a couple other things I want to dive into. What a great way to take again this default, almost, you know, cliched thing that many people are told not to address, right? Because it is so cliched. No, take the cliche. Lean into it, but ask yourself, how you can differentiate it just a little bit to make it stick, to make it memorable. Which brings us to really, why I chose today to kick off season seven with this episode, why I chose to dive into topics that, quite frankly, we've talked about in previous seasons of the energy detox. It's because there's really no value, or there's certainly limited value in sharing these things if they don't stick right, if you can't pull them out, if you will, when you need to, which in many ways is executive presence. You can read all kinds of books and listen to podcasts and go to Courses. But if you can't use this information in the moment when you need it, well, it's going to have limited value. And so how do you boost that value? How do you make it stick, so to speak, upon fully intended? Well, you tie it to something that's universal. You tie it to something that you see all the time, or you think about all the time, and what is that the weather? So hopefully, again, the next time you think about the weather, you open a weather app. You're in conversation about weather. You say, hey, how does that weather help me exude executive presence? How am I again comfortable being wrong? How am I comfortable being like that weatherman, who, despite being wrong, still has a job. How do I convey data in a very concise way that bottom line up front there, that's actionable, that's usable, even though I've got all kinds of data and models and everything else behind the scenes. And finally, how do I make my normal interactions with people just a little bit more interesting, a little bit more memorable. Again, how do I make it stick? That's all executive presence, which is why, again, today, we're taking advantage of this storm to share some of these tools that we've shared before, but tie them back to something that's universal. So that being said, Good luck as you deploy these tools. Good luck as you move further into 2026 putting into action executive presence tools that can differentiate you from everybody else, differentiate you from other forecasters, if you will, differentiate you from other leaders, and make it such that again, you're much like leaders in the energy industry, who are many ways wrong or often in the right thanks to commodity. Prices and uncertainty around that thanks to uncertainty around capital markets and supply and demand, but yet, recognize that if they don't keep making those decisions, if they don't keep their companies moving forward, well, guess what? People are going to start to notice. People are going to start to notice when energy companies fail, when they can't deliver energy, when they can't deliver what people need to survive. No different from weather forecasters. Weather forecasters stop doing their job. Sure there's data out there, but without the context, without the interpretation, without the extra insight, without that local flavor, again, people are going to start to notice. And so the challenge for you is, don't let them get to that point. Make sure that you keep plowing forward. You're using these tools, and most significantly, you keep tuning into future episodes here of the energy detox as we move further into season seven. So with all of that, thank you, as always, for joining me, Joe sinnotttt on the energy detox. Best wishes to you with whatever weather you happen to be dealing with right now. And of course, I hope you have a great rest of the day.