Thought Leadership
Leaders carry an opportunity with their words: to appeal on a human level, explain a position or concept with depth, or create a deeper connection with an audience. When an organization’s message is established and humming, a leader’s communication acts like a highlighter, accentuating the most important points and stories to illustrate a mission.
But creating these pieces takes an intentional approach that is oftentimes an additional scope to daily communications efforts. It can be exciting, but it can also tax a team.
Building a cohesive narrative that is punctuated with planned frequency, we’ll develop thought leadership pieces that define a leader’s persona while uniquely adding to organizational communications strategy.
Layering on top of your regular organizational communications, let’s consider the right mix of pieces to further your voiced message:
Written Pieces for Mass Publication - OpEds, Substack, LinkedIn
Speeches for Watermark Events - town halls, pitches, civic clubs, launch events, fundraising
Critical Internal Communications - change communication messages, newsletters that speak into a vacuum
When leaders’ comments become a highlighter for organizational communications…
With one organization, the ingredients of strong communication and prime sharing opportunities existed. They were established, well-backed, and carried a strong reputation. So we partnered alongside the team’s communications leaders and content experts to research, message plan, develop outlines, and write OpEds and speeches. The work offered exercises to fine-tune organizational thinking and introduce new concepts. Each piece offered a warm tone to data, a personal touch to examples, and infused passion to each key point - and even garnered further media attention.
Of course, there are times when organizational message is not yet in place or is undergoing change - which makes executive communications important in a different way. Early-stage ventures or special initiatives of established companies are often wrestling with new messaging that is either catching up to current operations or being launched to start something new. In these cases, executive communication uses the leader’s voice to develop not just the nuance but even the basis of organizational message. They bring trust and a human explanation of what could have just been a written, blasted-out communication or a new concept that is hard to understand. These words shape the tone, set message direction, and carry true business implications.
When communications teams are focused on the core, everyday work of leading organizational message, executive communications can become a partner that connects the dots and supports the overall efforts - in a distinctly voiced way.