Executive Communications
Remarks, board and town hall material, and the preparation that makes each hold up under real questioning.
The draft is not where it goes wrong.
By the time a set of remarks reads badly, the failure is usually two steps upstream. The decision behind it was never fully made, or it was made and never explained to the people being asked to carry it. Editing the language cannot repair either.
The second failure is quieter. A leader speaks often enough that the words start to sound like the role rather than the person, and an audience that stops hearing a human being stops extending trust.
So the work is to settle the argument first, then find the voice that can carry it honestly.
Three situations
A moment that cannot be rehearsed twice
Results that will disappoint, a strategy shift, a succession announcement, an all-hands after a hard quarter. One delivery, watched closely, remembered longer than intended.
A leader whose messages aren't landing
The substance is there and the room stays flat. Usually a mismatch between how the leader actually thinks and their register, what's being communicated, and how and when the message is delivered.
A new executive establishing standing
First hundred days, first board meeting, first public position. What is said early sets the terms on which everything later is heard.
How it runs here
The same four stages as every Plumb engagement, in the shape they take when the subject is a leader's own voice.
Sounding
Two working sessions with the leader, and candid conversations with the people who watch them speak — chief of staff, direct reports, the communications lead. A read of the last year of remarks. The question is not what they want to say; it is what the organization currently believes they mean.
Structure
The argument written down in one page: the claim, the evidence, the ask, and the three things that must be true in every telling. Then the sequence — who hears it first, and what changes in the room between the board version and the all-hands version.
Alignment
Drafting, then rehearsal that is worth the name: the hostile question asked properly, the follow-up nobody prepared for, the answer tested until it holds. The leadership team hears the argument before the audience does, and disagrees in private if it is going to.
Rhythm
One speech changes little on its own. The engagement closes with a cadence the leader can hold — which forums, how often, in what register — and a short debrief after the first two outings to correct what the room actually told us.
Three shapes this takes
Every engagement is scoped by phase and agreed in writing before it begins. Most start with a single moment and continue only if the situation warrants it.
One high-stakes appearance
Sounding through rehearsal for a single announcement, town hall or board session.
Building the platform
Point of view, message architecture, and the first quarter of appearances delivered against it.
On call with the context
Continuing counsel once the structure is in place, for the call that cannot wait a week.
Scope is set by what the situation requires and confirmed after the first conversation. Engagements are limited by how much work one person can genuinely do well.
What this usually sits alongside
A leader's voice is heard inside the organization before it is heard outside it. These three come up in most executive engagements.
Questions we hear most
Is this speechwriting?+
Writing is part of it, but the work starts before the draft. Most remarks fail because the argument underneath was never settled, not because the sentences were weak. A writer hired at the draft stage inherits that problem rather than solving it.
Do you work with the executive directly?+
Yes. The engagement is with the leader, alongside whoever supports them — chief of staff, communications lead, general counsel. There is no account team, and nothing is handed to a junior to draft.
How much of the executive's time does this take?+
Less than most expect. Typically two working sessions of ninety minutes in the first stage, then short reviews. The preparation happens around the leader rather than on their calendar — except rehearsal, which cannot be delegated.
Can you work to a short deadline?+
Often, and the first conversation will say so honestly. A compressed timeline changes what the first stage can cover, and that trade-off is named before the work starts rather than discovered halfway through.
What if the honest answer is that we do not need this?+
Then that is the answer you will get. Sounding regularly reveals that the presenting problem is not the problem, and saying so early is worth more than a well-written engagement aimed at the wrong thing.
Bring the situation, not a brief.
If there is a moment approaching and the argument underneath it is not yet settled, that is enough to start.