Awareness
Notice your internal state, the outcome you want, and the assumptions shaping your response.
About Barbara Jenks
The conversation starts before you speak.
Barbara Jenks helps leaders become clear, understood, and persuasive, especially when the conversation is difficult. Through Clearly Communicate, she gives managers and teams practical ways to respond with intention and move work forward.
20+ years in corporate HR and leadership
Clear communication that helps leaders move work forward.
Barbara's point of view
Most leaders think the conversation starts when they speak. Barbara starts earlier.
Stress changes the way you listen, interpret, and respond. The conversation you are having with yourself shapes the one your team receives.
When leaders learn to notice that internal pattern in real time, they become more present, more precise, and more useful to the people counting on them.
You are always 100% able to control your part of the conversation.
Experience earned in real rooms
Twenty years inside the conversations that shape a workplace.
Barbara spent more than 20 years in corporate HR and leadership roles, including work with Netflix, Boeing, and Fox. She saw the same pattern repeat: when leaders avoided meaningful communication, people filled the silence with assumptions, worry, and negative stories.
That insight changed the focus of her work. The visible problem might be conflict, stalled work, poor feedback, or a difficult employee relationship. The deeper issue is often a communication pattern no one has learned to interrupt.
Today, Barbara brings together practical workplace experience, tools informed by cognitive and behavioral science, and the adaptability of improv. Her style is warm, direct, and focused on what a leader can do next.
Leadership communication coach · Speaker · Founder of Clearly Communicate
The Three Pillars of Communication
Three skills that make clarity repeatable.
Awareness, listening, and word choice work as one system. Together, they help a leader replace a reactive habit with a clearer response.
Listening
Listen for what was understood, what was not said, and the ask underneath the words.
Word Choice
Choose specific language that reduces ambiguity and creates the impact you intend.
One takeaway that stuck with me was the question, ‘How do I want to show up in this conversation?’ I actually used it a few days later for a difficult conversation outside of work. It helped me prepare and think through how I wanted to approach it. The 3 Pillars of Communication is a framework I’ll keep coming back to.Amanda CarrowHR Generalist, Superfeet Worldwide
Who Barbara works with
Support for leaders and teams when the conversation matters.
Individual leaders
One-to-one coaching for leaders who want to prepare for difficult conversations, communicate with greater confidence, and stay grounded under pressure.
Explore Individual SupportTeams and organizations
Facilitated workshops, speaking, and consulting for small to mid-size organizations that want clearer expectations, stronger feedback, and more productive interaction.
Explore Team EngagementsBarbara works online and in person across the Pacific Northwest. Nationwide engagements are available when travel and accommodations are provided.
About Clearly Communicate
Questions leaders ask before they begin.
Who is Barbara Jenks?
Barbara Jenks is a leadership communication coach, speaker, and founder of Clearly Communicate. She brings more than 20 years of corporate HR and leadership experience to her work with managers and teams.
What does Clearly Communicate help leaders do?
Clearly Communicate helps leaders prepare for difficult conversations, give clearer feedback, manage their own reactions, and build communication habits that support trust and follow-through.
What is Barbara Jenks's communication method?
Barbara teaches the Three Pillars of Communication: Awareness, Listening, and Word Choice. The method helps leaders notice what is shaping an interaction, understand what the other person needs, and choose language that creates clarity.
Who is a good fit for Barbara's services?
Barbara works with individual leaders, managers, teams, and small to mid-size organizations that rely on real-time human interaction and want practical support for workplace communication.
How can someone work with Barbara Jenks?
Barbara offers one-to-one coaching, facilitated workshops, organizational consulting, keynote speaking, and focused support for difficult conversations. A communication assessment or a complimentary conversation is a practical place to begin.
What conversation would change if you showed up differently?
Start with the Strategic Communication Assessment to identify the patterns affecting the conversations you lead.