How comms can help execs begin their thought leadership journeys

Thought leaders don’t just magically appear from nowhere. They’re forged through dedication to craft and time spent carefully working on how to communicate a message to a given audience.

For internal communicators, building a thought leader often means molding and polishing the opinions and viewpoints of organizational leaders who need a little push in refining their talking points.

There’s not one single way to build a thought leader — but with the right kind of coaching, relationship building and risk-taking, internal communications pros can turn their executives and managers from smart on-the-job employees into leaders.

Coaching from the comms role

Communicators take on many jobs throughout the process of getting messaging out to an audience, but one of the most important is that of a coach. Internal communicators should use their knowledge to help advise aspiring thought leaders on how to best share their knowledge with the rest of the organization.

Shannon Iwaniuk, global head of internal communications at Alcon, told Ragan that when internal comms pros are tasked with helping build up a thought leader, the first thing they need to do is take a step back and observe.

“I look for the qualities I want to lean into and coach up,” she said. “Sometimes, there are qualities I want to soften a little. It’s not about changing who they are via comms — it’s about maximizing their strengths while making sure they resonate with their audience.”

Iwaniuk shared an anecdote about a particularly hard-nosed leader she was charged with shaping into a thought leader. It was a challenge to help him understand the value of sharing his knowledge.

“He was ultra-intelligent, deeply technical and not exactly a believer in communications,” Iwaniuk said. “It was my job to help show him why it mattered.”

Iwaniuk said that framing formed a major part of the buy-in that helped turn this executive from an ordinary part of the top brass to an exceptional thought leader.

“I had to put things in a way that resonated with him,” she said. “I told him, ‘You lead the team that makes and moves us.’ Once we started delivering wins for him on our internal social media platform and showed him the metrics, it brought out his competitive side and he was all-in.”

Iwaniuk added that data-driven approaches have helped executives understand the role communicators play in the larger business. In her case, it meant sharing the impressions and views of the internal comms social posts that the leader in question was involved in to help drive buy-in from the top.

“We transformed our internal comms program to be data-driven,” she said. “It was hard work, but now, when we show leaders the numbers, they get it.”

Pointed conversations stand to have an outsized impact

Halley Knigge, director of communications at REI, reminded comms pros that not every budding thought leader will realize that their expertise is valuable.

 “It’s easy to forget that when you’re around a certain kind of work every day that you’re in contact with a subject matter expert or are one yourself,” Knigge said. “It’s not intuitive for everyone and it’s your job as a communicator to evoke that from people.”

With that in mind, Knigge said that communicators need to ensure they’re putting their potential thought leaders in their best light.

“Our number one job is making sure that we are bringing forward a smart recommendation so that leaders can understand our point of view,” she said. “I ground my recommendations for budding thought leaders within the scope of the entire business, not one department or function of the organization.”

Not every conversation with a growing thought leader is going to be an easy one, but they’re often key to helping them along in their journey. Iwaniuk shared a story about how she was charged with helping turn a new C-level executive into an internal comms thought leader. While filming the introductory video, she noticed that the executive had an unconscious verbal tic at the outset of sentences.

Iwaniuk debated taking the risk and staying silent, but ultimately brought it up to the executive and showed them the tape.

“I asked if they were open to hearing the feedback I had for her, and she was,” she said. “I told her she was doing a great job, but that I wanted to show her something on the video after she claimed she wasn’t doing anything differently.”

By helping work through the issue with positive reinforcement, Iwaniuk ceded a sense of control back to the executive which built all-important trust, something that’s needed for any thought leader in the works.

“If I didn’t say it then, I might not have had another opportunity to help this leader share her thoughts in the absolute best way,” Iwaniuk said. “Sometimes, the best thought leaders in-the-making don’t want to be just told how great they’re doing — they need to be shown how well they’re doing too.”

 Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.