Summary

We tend to assume communication gets easier when everyone speaks the same language. But fluency can create false confidence: leaders explain an initiative, see people nod and leave the room believing they have alignment, only to discover later that nothing has moved.

Sabrina Mucig confronted this when she moved to Japan with Colgate-Palmolive to lead change in a country where she spoke neither the literal nor cultural language. Knowing she might be misunderstood forced her to listen harder, read beyond the words and seek out people who could translate between perspectives.

The experience changed how she led in every organization that followed. Even when people share a language, distinct dialects emerge between global and local teams, the C-suite and the front line, and marketing and finance. In this episode, Sabrina and Anastasia explore how leaders can recognize what is being lost in translation and turn apparent agreement into genuine understanding and commitment.

The Leadership Fluency Trap

Inspired by Sabrina’s experience, The Leadership Fluency Trap is a practical framework for leaders trying to turn strategy into shared understanding and action.

The framework outlines four stages of leadership translation:

• Decode the words: Question what familiar responses might really mean.
• Read the context: Understand what shapes how each group hears the message.
• Bridge the worlds: Find the people able to translate between different perspectives.
• Translate into decisions: Test whether people understand the initiative well enough to use it when making choices.

Download the framework here: The Leadership Fluency Trap

Sabrina Mucig

Sabrina Mucig is a marketing and transformation leader who held senior roles at Colgate-Palmolive, including Senior Director of Brand Experience, Media and Digital Transformation.

Throughout her career, Sabrina has led change across large, complex and highly matrixed organizations. Her experience working in Japan reshaped how she thinks about communication, cultural context, and the role leaders play in not just communicating, but translating, strategy across functions, markets, and the many levels of an organization.

Her leadership approach combines curiosity, humility, and a belief that communication is not complete when a message has been delivered: it’s only complete when people understand it well enough to act.