Ragan Workshop
Thought Leadership Communications: Writing and Messaging for Your Senior Leaders
An essential workshop for communicators looking to lead with clarity amid today’s noise and complexity.
Executives are the face and voice of your organization’s reputation. When leaders communicate with clarity and purpose, everyone wins.
But exec comms has changed. In 2026, the pace and visibility of leadership messaging has accelerated across platforms like LinkedIn and a growing class of new media on Substack and indie podcasts. And according to a Ragan and HarrisX survey, 57% of CEOs would use an AI trained on their voice instead of a top communicator for speechwriting.
However, that same Ragan/Harris X survey said 46% of CEOs said a high-performing in-house comms team using AI tools effectively would bring the most value to their organization.
Here’s how to bridge the gap and prove your worth: Join us for this can't miss virtual workshop on Feb. 18 to help you guide senior leaders with precision and confidence. Through live collaboration, breakout discussions and applied exercises, you will learn how to translate executive insight into high-impact thought leadership, making sure every message reinforces the organization’s authority and vision.
Top Takeaways:
- Proven frameworks for building and scaling executive thought leadership programs.
- Live practice with message mapping, tone adaptation, and channel selection.
- Guidance on using AI to refine executive voice while maintaining human oversight.
- Direct collaboration with peers through structured breakout sessions.
- Access to Ragan Training’s full library for 30 days.
AGENDA
Strong executive content begins with understanding both the leader and the platform. This session offers a channel-by-channel review of the 2026 thought leadership landscape and data on where audiences actually engage. Participants will map how to determine objectives for their strategy and create a consistent, repeatable approach that anchors thought leadership in purpose. You will learn:
- The Ecosystem of Modern Thought Leadership: Why LinkedIn remains the most visible leadership stage, and details on what styles and types of messages the algorithm prefers.
- Be Essential for Execs in 2026: Learn how to anticipate what your leaders need before they ask, and how communicators can shape messaging for them that feels human and grounded while still advancing organizational strategy.
- Understanding Voice: How to capture and define your executive’s voice without jargon, and techniques to incorporate its uniqueness across written, video, and social platforms.
- Who, Where, Why: How to determine, select and work with the best thought leader for a particular story—and why they don’t need to be from the C-suite. Plus: how to guide leaders towards content that strengthens industry presence.
In small groups, you’ll create a “voice alignment map” that translates an executive’s authentic style into the channels that will serve them best.
Effective leadership communication begins inside the organization. This session shows how to develop a a strong internal thought leader strategy before you expand to external storytelling, ensuring coherence between what a company says and what it embodies—plus, techniques to repurpose internal messaging for external audiences. You will learn about:
- Why Internal First Matters: Skills to build credibility and alignment before going external and turning employee engagement into amplification.
- Translate to External Impact: How to convert internal narratives into external-facing content with polish and precision.
- Repackage with Intent: Learn practical strategies to repurpose executive content across internal and external audiences.
- Consistency, Consistency, Consistency: Manage the message between culture-focused and audience-facing messages.
In this breakout session, you’ll transform one internal message into an external asset (for example, blog to op-ed, memo to LinkedIn post).
Thought leadership gains strength through repetition and precision across channels. This session provides a disciplined method for building message maps, scaling narratives, and balancing consistency with creative variation. Participants will learn to pair human judgment with AI tools that can be used for duplicating and transferring executive voice across multiple formats. You will learn how to:
- Incorporating AI Without Training Your Replacement: How to leverage AI for speed, ideas, vetting responses, and training on executive voice while emphasizing the need for human control.
- Message Mapping Framework: How to customize core messaging, supporting points, proof and storytelling hooks for each platform, aligning executive messaging with organizational priorities, and how this can be incorporated into AI templates and prompts.
- Channel Planning Deep Dive: Adapting tone and format for LinkedIn, op-eds, internal notes, and media while balancing consistency and customization—plus, the AI Agentic workflow to automize some rewriting.
In the final breakout session, you’ll build a mini “Message-to-Channel Map” for one executive initiative, ready for immediate use.
PRESENTERS
BONUS MATERIALS: YOUR DIGITAL TOOLKIT
Every participant receives access to a collection of resources designed to strengthen long-term mastery of executive communication.
- Executive Comms Checklist
- LinkedIn’s Guide to Executive Thought Leadership
- Writing Style: Adapting Tone and Voice
- Blueprint for Mixternal Messaging
- Social Media Strategy for Executives
| Rates | |
|---|---|
| Registration | $699 |
| Nonprofit/Gov/Edu Registration | $675 |
| Ragan Insider Registration | $645 |
Included: 2.5-hour live Workshop, Lab session, 30-day Ragan Training access, and full digital toolkit of bonus materials.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
- Executive and Corporate Communications Professionals
- PR and Media Relations Leads
- Internal Communications Managers
- Social Media and Digital Strategy Specialists
- Thought Leadership Program Directors
- Brand and Content Marketing Strategists
YOUR RAGAN TRAINING BONUS: HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL SEE
Your workshop registration includes 30 days of complimentary access to Ragan Training, an on-demand learning platform for communicators.
Explore curated sessions hand-selected for this Workshop topic, including:
- Be a Trusted Strategic Advisor: Keys to Get (and Keep) Your Seat at the Table
- Business Fluency: Speak the Language of Leadership
- Mindset Shift: Business Partner First, Communication Expert Second
- Brand Storytelling: How to Move Audiences (and the Bottom Line)
- The Future is Unwritten: Writing Skills and Strategies for Tomorrow’s Communicator
- Elevating Executive Voices: Communication Strategies that Build Trust and Connection through Uncertainty
- From Local to Global, Global to Local: Scaling Thought Leadership Worldwide
Each course expands your Workshop experience into a month-long professional development plan, connecting daily tactics with strategic communication goals.
WONDERING IF YOU SHOULD ATTEND?
Here’s what past attendees are saying about Ragan and PR Daily Events!
Inspiring content and a great way to connect with fellow writers in the communications world!
I learned many angles of storytelling - from planning a story, to writing with power, to editing - this conference inspired me to think differently when I approach my next long-form written piece.
This workshop inspired an immediate change in my writing -- the emphasis on clear, concise writing while retaining "heart" when appropriate. For that, I am very grateful.
It's hard to find good writing workshops. This course was an excellent review of the best business writing concepts and provided lots of good information on how to make your business writing entertaining.
Even after years of writing experience, in print and as a communications professional, I still learned new techniques.
