CEO Announcement of New Parental Leave Benefit
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During a virtual town hall meeting, the company announced two new employment benefits for new parents: a parental leave benefit, and a program that would allow new parents to bring their babies to the office with them. The next day, an email from the CHRO went to all employees with the details on each benefit.
This announcement from the CEO about the new benefits was the third all-company communication on the topic. My approach to writing for the CEO--for any leader--is to look for the unique angle on the topic. This one was easy. Anytime a new benefit of some kind is announced that will not apply to all employees, you're going to have a few who view it in a negative light. The best thing a leader can start off with in speaking on the topic is an explanation of how the benefit makes sense for the company. Parental benefits are an easy topic to use this approach with, particularly at a healthcare-related company. As you'll read, I was able to neatly tie the benefits to the company mission and values, as well as provide research supporting the idea that parental leave benefits deliver a societal advantage. The message is: We all benefit from parental leave programs. Click the thumbnail image to open the article in a new window and enlarge. |
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Chairman & CEO Don Carty 9/11 letter
I wrote the following letter from American Airlines Chairman and CEO Don Carty in the days following the events of 9/11. The letter appeared on the AA.com home page, was sent to AAdvantage program members via mail or email, and was run as a full-page newspaper ad.
DEI Communication from CEOYou can learn a lot from internal employee engagement surveys, but the learning doesn't matter if you don't use it to inform your communication strategies.
After some not-so-subtle resistance to company DEI efforts started to appear in our internal surveys, the annual Hispanic Heritage Month communication from the CEO seemed like the perfect opportunity to subtly address it. Click the link above to read both the rationale and the email. |
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Redesign of CEO's monthly report to the board of directors
One of my jobs in my current role is to gather relevant content each month to build the CEO's written update to our board of directors. The report has several standard topics that it covers, along with rotating topics based on what's happening with the business, in the marketplace, or on the legislative front.
When I took over the job of drafting the report, I inherited a format that all involved were happy with. I left it as-is for a couple of years, although I did make one change once I got my Adobe CS license: The articles that we would pull from various publications and tack onto the end of the report had no uniform look, so I created a format for these attachments in InDesign so that they would blend in nicely with our report template and all have a uniform look.
By the start of 2022, the company's COVID-inspired marketing campaign called "DO LIFE" had grown legs. It began to appear in new company resources (e.g., in the design of our approved PowerPoint deck templates). This presented a great opportunity to refresh the CEO's report template. Taking my cues from visual elements of the "DO LIFE" campaign, I created a template that feels more current, more professional, and more personal.
The following thumbnails lead to full-size layouts showing how the report originally appeared, and how it looks following my redesign. Content is blurred to protect information.
When I took over the job of drafting the report, I inherited a format that all involved were happy with. I left it as-is for a couple of years, although I did make one change once I got my Adobe CS license: The articles that we would pull from various publications and tack onto the end of the report had no uniform look, so I created a format for these attachments in InDesign so that they would blend in nicely with our report template and all have a uniform look.
By the start of 2022, the company's COVID-inspired marketing campaign called "DO LIFE" had grown legs. It began to appear in new company resources (e.g., in the design of our approved PowerPoint deck templates). This presented a great opportunity to refresh the CEO's report template. Taking my cues from visual elements of the "DO LIFE" campaign, I created a template that feels more current, more professional, and more personal.
The following thumbnails lead to full-size layouts showing how the report originally appeared, and how it looks following my redesign. Content is blurred to protect information.
Original layout (2020)
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Revised layout (2022)
Click image to enlarge.
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For 2024, I created new designs for the CEO's monthly report to the board of directors and biweekly all-company email, both based on the theme of last fall's Board of Directors retreat: "On the Rise." Click image to enlarge.
Internal company rebrand announcementWith this company rebrand announcement, it would have been easy to tell employees, "We have written public announcements about our new brand, so clients already know about it," insert the approved verbiage about "fulfilling our company mission . . ." and let that be the end of it.
I prefer to look for opportunities to give employees (and clients, for that matter) something beyond the approved rhetoric -- a straightforward message that feels like it came from a human, and leaves them feeling better and/or more optimistic and excited about the change being communicated. Click image to enlarge. |
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ADT Royal Blue Awards letter of congratulations from CEO
Letter from ADT's CEO to the recipient of a Royal Blue Award
Byline for Parago’s CMO on showroomingThis one-page byline I wrote for Parago's chief marketing officer was picked up by Chain Store Age.
Click image to enlarge. |
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Revision of an executive reply to a Glassdoor review
No matter how great the company culture, every business occasionally hires people that don't like it. Sometimes, those employees will post negative reviews of the company on sites like Glassdoor.
One such review hit the CEO of this software company particularly hard. Far from the stereotype of the typical CEO, this gentleman was warm and approachable. And he worked just as hard to create a welcoming, collaborative, and fun environment as he did at building the business. If you know him, you know he took this review personally.
His first impulse was to pen a reply in defense of his company and the culture he had worked so hard to build. But he was not impulsive by nature, and he knew not to publish the post. Instead, he brought it to the office, where it landed with me for review and suggestions. I took the heart of what he wanted to communicate, and simply removed the evidence of the "sting."
On the page for this communication, you'll see: 1) the employee review that appeared on Glassdoor, 2) the CEO's original response to it, and 3) my rewrite, which was ultimately published. As this is a sensitive matter, I've password-protected the page. I'll be happy to supply a password if you're considering me for a role that would have me handling executive communications. Request password.
One such review hit the CEO of this software company particularly hard. Far from the stereotype of the typical CEO, this gentleman was warm and approachable. And he worked just as hard to create a welcoming, collaborative, and fun environment as he did at building the business. If you know him, you know he took this review personally.
His first impulse was to pen a reply in defense of his company and the culture he had worked so hard to build. But he was not impulsive by nature, and he knew not to publish the post. Instead, he brought it to the office, where it landed with me for review and suggestions. I took the heart of what he wanted to communicate, and simply removed the evidence of the "sting."
On the page for this communication, you'll see: 1) the employee review that appeared on Glassdoor, 2) the CEO's original response to it, and 3) my rewrite, which was ultimately published. As this is a sensitive matter, I've password-protected the page. I'll be happy to supply a password if you're considering me for a role that would have me handling executive communications. Request password.
Platform rebrand announcement from the general manager
CEO message about behavioral health & stigma
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In 2023, the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona Foundation for Community & Health Advancement launched the "Stigma-Free AZ" campaign to raise awareness of the correlation between behavioral health stigma and motivation to seek treatment. At the heart of the campaign was a pledge to take a stand against stigma that could be shared via various social media channels.
To help spur employee involvement in the campaign, our CEO sent an email to the company explaining the harm caused by the stigma that surrounds behavioral health conditions. Click the image to enlarge. |
Thought leadership article for general manager
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I wrote this article to kick off a new thought leadership campaign for the company's general manager. He wanted to talk about his partnership philosophy; I thought it was a great opportunity for him to potentially own the concept of "partner experience."
Click the thumbnail image to open the article in a new window. |
LinkedIn article written by Lawri Williamson for General Manager Dave Jones
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Client email from general managerThis email was sent to clients who had attended the company's Client Council event.
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