How to craft executive communications that acknowledge, align and assure

Messages from your leadership shouldn’t sound like they’ve come down from an ivory tower — silent on the sensitive issues of the day that matter most to employees, full of words and language that don’t resonate or connect with the work everyone is doing, blind to the main challenges facing the business. But in order to truly earn the trust of employees , leaders and principals must deliver executive comms that acknowledge, align, and assure. That’s where you can help.

Last year, Atrium Health Director of Executive Communications Rachel Gogal and Corporate Communications Director Jolie Shifflet spoke with Ragan producer Isis Simpson-Mersha, unpacking how their collaboration makes Atrium Health’s executive communications to employees, whom Atrium calls teammates, all the stronger.

“I will start a draft of a teammate campaign and (Rachel) will make it so much better, fit it in with exactly the way that our CEO speaks,” Shifflet said.

Acknowledging the litany of social and cultural issues that dominated 2022, Simpson-Mersha asked Shifflet and Gogal how they balanced communicating business needs with addressing employee concerns about the pandemic, social justice issues and more.