A stand taken in their own voice.
A communications department makes leaders speak. A public affairs firm carries their files to decision-makers. I bring the two together, with the European lever.
I work with leaders on a voice that serves both their strategy and the files they need to move forward.
Cette page en français : Conseil aux dirigeants.
When a problem has to be solved
A leader speaks up when their company faces a problem it has to solve: a rule in the making that weakens a business model, a project that does not get through, a debate where others speak in its place. More and more often, that problem is settled at European level.
Public affairs carry the file to decision-makers. What is almost always missing is the public voice: a leader who defends a reasoned position, with evidence, and holds it over time.
Two crafts, one voice
Speaking up puts the leader’s voice at the service of their strategy: what they stand for, what they prove, what they announce. Taking a stand means taking up political issues, European ones in particular, to make headway with those who decide. Apart, each is incomplete: the first turns into a shop window, the second stays in the corridors.
Held together, they have three effects:
- a file that moves, because decision-makers hear an argument backed by evidence and figures;
- visibility and a network at European level, where most strategic decisions are taken;
- a position that sets the leader apart and belongs to them beyond their current role.
Two ways of working
The diagnosis
Where the leader’s voice stands against their peers: what carries, what is missing, the European angle to take. A quantified, comparative reading and concrete recommendations.
The programme
The positions to hold, the evidence behind them, the writing. For a leader, one month counts for nothing; a year establishes a position.
Each format is sold at a fixed fee, by deliverable.
A position rather than an audience
LinkedIn is the main stage for this voice, in support of speaking engagements and press appearances. The aim is neither to chase followers nor to produce content on a conveyor belt.
What counts fits in three words: a position, evidence, consistency.
The measure follows: decision-makers who respond and doors that open.
Who with
Communications departments, directly, for their leader. I work with the team, not instead of it.
Public affairs firms, in partnership. They carry the file to decision-makers; I give the leader a public voice alongside them.
About me
Twenty years of agency consulting, fifteen of them within WPP, and ten years of programmes helping leaders speak up. Every week on this blog I analyse how the EU institutions communicate, and I teach EU communication at Sorbonne Nouvelle and Sciences Po Strasbourg.
A first conversation
Thirty minutes are enough to frame the subject: the problem to solve, the decision-makers to convince, the voice to build.
French version: Conseil aux dirigeants.