3 ways internal communicators can platform thought leaders

When it’s time to platform a leader, many internal communicators reach for the same playbook: put a C-suite executive on stage, record the message, post a recap and call it thought leadership.

But the most effective messenger for a thought leadership moment isn’t always the one with the biggest title. Sometimes it’s the leader closest to a key initiative. Other times, it’s simply someone employees trust and who can tell the story well.

Amira Barger, executive vice president at D&A Communications, will share her perspective on how communications can build thought leadership from the inside out and pick the right person for each piece of messaging at Ragan’s Employee Communication and Culture Conference next month in Boston.

“People often go straight to the CEO or the chief marketing officer, but there are so many other options within an organization that might be better mapped to a particular message,” Barger told Ragan. “The real question communicators should ask is this: Is this the right person for this message? Once you answer that, you can build messaging around the trust that person already has with the community they serve.”

For Barger, a key point of her presentation is that thought leadership doesn’t have to involve giving leaders a public platform. How they show up for employees is equally valuable.

“People often think thought leadership means positioning the CEO externally,” she said. “But every leader has something distinct to add to the conversation about how we work and lead. Each person has a perspective on the workplace, on their industry and on how they manage people that could be useful to someone else.”

She added that even on small teams, internal communicators can build the systems to make thought leaders effective.

“Even if your sphere of influence is a team of 10 people, that internal thought leadership matters,” Barger said. “The same frameworks we use for CEO visibility can help anyone become a more powerful leader within their organization.”

Ahead of the conference, Barger shared three elements communicators can use to better platform thought leaders.

1. Pin down the message and identify the leader to share it

Instead of defaulting to the top of the org chart, Barger recommends starting with two questions:

1. What do we want to say to our employees?
2. What do we want our employees to do with the message?

She added that communicators should focus on which leaders are closest to the audience, rather than simply defaulting to titles.

“Sometimes the person who should tell the story isn’t the CEO,” Barger said. “It might be the program director who has direct line of sight into the communities you serve and who sees the impact of your work every day. That person is often boots on the ground, and people trust them in a very different way.”

Barger also said that expanding the search for thought leaders can build valuable audience trust.

“There are leaders all across the organization who have credibility and expertise in different areas,” she said. “If communicators start by asking who is the most trusted voice on this issue, rather than who has the biggest title, they often find a much stronger messenger.”

2. Match the leader to the platform

Not every leader is effective on every messaging channel. It’s on internal communicators to know their leaders inside and out, bring out their strengths, and place them on platforms where their ideas shine.

“Some people are incredible when they’re in conversation with others in a room, answering questions and responding in real time,” Barger said. “Others are much stronger when they have space to think and write, so as communicators we need to recognize those differences and choose platforms that let their strengths show.”

She added that communicators should pay close attention to a leader’s strengths when choosing the right channels.

“Once you’ve identified the right messenger, you have to think about where that voice is most likely to resonate,” Barger told Ragan. “That might be an internal town hall, a LinkedIn post or a podcast conversation, depending on who you’re trying to reach and how that leader naturally communicates.”

Barger also said that internal communicators should look to their colleagues as a litmus test for whether they’re using thought leaders on the right platforms.

“Employees are often the first audience for leadership communication, and they’re also the most credible test of whether that communication is landing,” she said. “If a message lands internally with confusion, skepticism or even silence, that’s a signal that we need to rethink how we’re communicating and how that leader is showing up as a thought leader.”

3. Build voice kits for your thought leaders

By building voice kits that capture the elements of a leader’s communication style, communicators can identify which parts of that voice make messages resonate.

“A lot of leaders have what I call ‘isms’,” she said. “These are the phrases and ideas they return to again and again. They reveal something about their worldview and how they think about leadership. A voice kit helps communicators capture those elements so that when you’re helping them communicate across platforms, the voice still feels like them.”

She emphasized the importance of these voice kits, especially at a time when AI summary tools can erode the originality of a leader’s words.

“You’re documenting their lexicon, their cadence, the metaphors they use and the stories they always come back to,” Barger said. “Those pieces help preserve authenticity, especially as teams start using AI tools that might otherwise flatten someone’s voice.”

Barger recommends documenting four key elements in any thought leadership voice kit:

1. Signature phrases
2. Metaphors and analogies that explain thinking
3. Personal anecdotes
4. Language to avoid, like overused phrases and sensitive topics

“Documenting these details helps communicators recreate the tone and perspective of that leader so the communication still sounds like them,” Barger said.

To register for our Employee Communications and Culture Conference, click here.

Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications.