Most people are taught that communication is a skill: Learn grammar, build your vocabulary, and practise speaking and writing. After a period, you will become better. That is the common belief.
But after more than two decades of working across advertising, journalism, public relations, corporate communication, and leadership, another reality has dawned on me. And that is that identity plays a strong role in how people communicate much more than skill does.
This identity is not straightforward. It is shaped over many years, most times without any conscious effort. It comes from your upbringing, culture, family, education, and experiences. This includes how people spoke around you when you were young, the environments you have worked in and the countries you have lived in, as well as your confidence, thinking patterns, and emotional habits. All these forces come together to shape how you speak and write.
This is what I call ‘communication terroir’ (/ter’wa:/). It is the foundation of how you express yourself. Many professionals do not realise this, but focus on improving their English or sounding more professional. Yet they still struggle. They feel that communication is harder than it should be.
You may have experienced this yourself. You write an email, and it feels too long or too emotional. You attend a meeting and know what you want to say, but the words do not come out clearly. You read your writing and feel that it sounds too formal or too stiff, but you are not sure how to fix it. You try to adjust your tone in a multicultural environment, but it feels like you are losing part of yourself.
These are common, especially among professionals who work across cultures or who have moved between countries. Many people have strong ideas but struggle to express them in a way that feels clear, calm and confident.
The question is not whether people are capable. Many are highly intelligent and experienced. The real question is why their communication does not match their ability. The answer lies in the forces behind their communication.
To understand this, let’s borrow an idea from agriculture. In the world of wine, coffee, and cocoa, there is a concept known as “terroir”. Borrowed from French, it refers to the combination of soil, climate, and environment that shapes the final product. Two farms can grow the same crop yet produce very different results because their conditions are different.
The same idea applies to communication. Two professionals may have similar education, qualifications and even experience. Yet one sounds clear and confident, while the other sounds uncertain or unclear. The difference is not just skill but the blend of forces that shape how they communicate. We can group these forces into five simple areas.
The first is origin. This includes your upbringing, early exposure to language and the way communication happened in your home and culture. Some people grew up in environments where people spoke directly. Others grew up in environments where people softened their words or avoided confrontation. These early patterns stay with you.
The second is the environment.
This is the current location where you communicate. It could be Canada, Nigeria, the United States, or the United Kingdom. It could be a multicultural workplace or a new industry. Each environment has its own expectations about tone, clarity and structure.
The third on the list is identity. Here we are talking about your confidence, thinking style and emotional habits. It also includes the beliefs you carry about yourself quietly, such as whether you feel your English is strong enough or whether you hesitate to speak in certain settings.
The fourth is expression. This is how you communicate every day. It appears in your emails, your meetings, your reports and your conversations.
The fifth or the last on the list is refinement. This is the effort you make to improve. It includes coaching, practice, and the systems you use to bring clarity to your communication.
When these five areas are not aligned, communication problems rear their head. A person may be brilliant but sound unclear. Another may be confident in speech but hesitant in writing. A leader may have strong ideas but struggle to express them in a way that others can follow. This is why many traditional communication courses do not work as well as people expect.
The reason is that most training programmes focus on surface-level skills. They teach grammar, vocabulary, presentation techniques and public speaking tips. These are useful, but they do not address the deeper issues.
Many people struggle with tone. They struggle to stay calm and clear in their writing. They struggle to organise their thoughts under pressure. They struggle to communicate across cultures without feeling awkward or misunderstood. Some carry habits formed in childhood that affect how they express themselves as adults.
These are not problems that grammar alone can fix. What people need is a way to align their identity with their communication. When this alignment happens, the results are easy to see. Writing becomes shorter and clearer because thinking becomes more organised. Tone becomes calmer because there is better control over emotion. Emails become stronger because they are structured properly. Meetings become easier because thoughts are clearer before speaking.
For professionals, this means better communication in everyday work. It means writing emails that are direct and easy to read, speaking with more confidence and expressing ideas without overthinking every sentence.
For leaders, the impact is even greater. Clear communication leads to clear decisions. It builds trust within teams and creates consistency in how messages are delivered. It also strengthens what people often call “executive presence”, which is largely shaped by how a leader speaks and writes.
For organisations, the benefits can be seen in many areas. In a lot of companies, different departments sound like different organisations. Reports lack clarity; messages are inconsistent; and internal communication is slow or confusing. When communication improves, these problems begin to reduce. Messages become clearer, making it easier for teams to understand each other better. The result is that work moves faster because there is less confusion.
What makes this approach different is its starting point. Rather than beginning with grammar, it begins with identity. It looks at who the person is and the forces that shape their communication. From there, it builds systems that bring clarity and consistency. It also recognises the reality of a global world. Many professionals today work across cultures. They need to communicate clearly without losing their sense of self. This requires awareness and structure.
Simple tools can make a big difference. For example, shorter paragraphs improve readability. Clear openings help guide the reader. Structured thinking makes ideas easier to follow. Consistent tone builds trust. These are just a few cases. Over time, these small changes lead to lasting improvement.
The future of communication will go beyond grammar or vocabulary. It will depend on how well people understand the forces behind their communication and how they align those forces. In a world where people move across countries and cultures, clarity must come from a deeper place. It must come from identity, supported by structure and refined through practice.
Every person has a unique communication style shaped by their experiences. The goal is not to erase that identity, but to refine it so that it works effectively in any setting. When this happens, communication becomes less of a struggle and becomes clearer, calmer and more confident. And most importantly, it begins to reflect the true capability of the person behind it.
X: @BrandAzuka
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