POWER Up your influence

5 min Read Lakshmi Ramachandran, PhD, Leadership communication and influence He was the most impressive person in the room before he opened his first slide. Confident, sharp, full of insight from years of building ventures and leading teams. You would have backed him to hold any room. Then he stepped on stage. The slides appeared. Dense text with errors visible on every slide which was nothing but a wall of information competing for space with the person delivering it. And t

Welcome to P.O.W.E.R UP (Brilliance to Influence) edition #13. This is a newsletter for leaders in science, technology, pharma, and biotech who want to turn expertise into influence, and ideas into impact. “Your expertise may get you to the table, but what keeps you there is influence.” Many brilliant ideas never make it past the boardroom because they’re presented as 'information' that people forget, not 'insights' that connect. In science and technology, leaders often belie

What separates the two and how to close the gap Keynote Speaker, professional speaker, public speaker difference- Lakshmi Ramachandran, PhD The speaker is brilliant. Their credentials are unimpeachable. They know their field better than most other in the room. And yet as they start to speak, the energy in the room goes down and phones come out. After the talk finishes, people walk away with nothing that will change how they think or what they will do differently. This is no

What It Really Takes to Lead With Influence Lakshmi Ramachandran, PhD- Executive Influence Strategist Something is shifting in our world right now, and we all can feel it. As a parent and a lifeskills educator, especially communication skills, I spend my days teaching that real power lives in connection, kindness and resilience. Yes, I believe in that deeply. But lately, I've been wrestling with a harder truth. Believing in those values doesn't mean you get to opt out of und