How to communicate with senior leaders in your public sector organisation

If you’ve ever felt nervous, unheard, or frustrated when speaking with senior leaders in your organisation, you’re not alone. At a recent webinar I delivered for Apolitical, this theme came up again and again in the comments: how do we get senior decision-makers to really hear us?

Whether you’re a communications professional trying to influence policy, manage reputation, or lead a critical public engagement campaign, your success often hinges on how effectively you communicate with those at the top. But too often, that’s easier said than done.

Public sector communicators face a unique set of hurdles when engaging with senior leaders. Some of the most common include:

• Perceived lack of strategic value: Communications can be seen as a support function rather than a strategic partner.
  
• Jargon and misunderstanding: Leaders may not fully grasp the value or impact of modern communications, especially digital, behavioural, or community-led approaches.
  
• Competing priorities: Senior leaders are often juggling big decisions under pressure. Your ask can easily get lost in the noise.
  
• Confidence gap: Even seasoned professionals sometimes feel intimidated speaking truth to power, particularly in politically sensitive environments.
• Short-term focus: Leaders may prioritise quick wins or media optics over long-term relationship building and public trust. We’ve all experienced that pressure of a knee-jerk reaction.

If you’ve ever struggled to get buy-in from senior leaders, you’re not imagining it. The data backs it up: there’s a real disconnect between what communicators know we can deliver, and how we’re perceived at the top table.

Recent research paints a clear picture:

• 72% of comms leads don’t report directly to the chief executive of their organisation.
  
• 17% of senior executives believe their communications and public affairs teams are fully equipped for today’s complex environment.
  
• 22% of internal communications professionals say their senior leaders actively advocate for their function according to VMA Group in 2024.
  
• 22% believe one of their major challenges is not being taken seriously as a function.
  
• 46% of comms professionals believe poor communication is a major driver of staff attrition.
  
• 42% of Heads of Comms sit on their organisation’s senior management team – meaning the majority are not a part of key decision-making forums.
  
• 72% of comms leaders say their function is more important than ever, but over half lack a dedicated budget to do their job properly.

These numbers aren’t just worrying, they’re a call to action. They show how essential it is for communications teams to claim their space as strategic partners, not just support services.

Communicating effectively with leaders is vital for comms teams. More often than not, you are uniquely placed to give leadership a true picture of what your communities are thinking and feeling about issues important to them. Through monitoring channels, listening across the digital space, and measurable insights through tools like Orlo you can speak truth to power and help inform strategies that will have tangible positive outcomes. 

So, it’s about making sure the voices of our communities, service users and employees are heard where it counts – at the very top.

How can you tackle this?

1. Frame your message in their language

Translate communications outcomes into strategic outcomes. Senior leaders care about things like public trust, service delivery, cost efficiency, and citizen satisfaction. Instead of focusing on engagement metrics, show how your work supports broader organisational goals.

Instead of: ‘Our reach was 40,000’.
Say: ‘we answered more enquiries on social media. This helped reduce inbound calls to the contact centre by 20%’.
Add data to show business impact:  ‘which saved us approximately 500 hours of staff time’.

2. Be clear on what you want

Every conversation should have a purpose. Whether it’s support for a campaign, resource allocation, or a change in mindset, be clear on your ask. Make it easy for leaders to say yes, or at least understand the implications of saying no.

Use the Think, Feel, Do model:

• What do you want them to think?
• How do you want them to feel?
• What do you need them to do?

To frame your conversations, remember the acronym C.I. A. My co-presenter on the webinar, Alvaro Vargas, created this, which you can read more about on his website, Work Is Play. 

To clearly present your information talk about:

• Context – what’s the situation and how is it relevant to me? What do I need to know and who’s involved?
• Impact – this is the ‘so what’. What are the risks, outcomes, and impacts and how will they affect me and the organisation.
• Action – what are the recommended actions to deal with this, and the outcomes of each of those. 

This gives leaders the right amount of information to make decisions at a strategic level that can then be actioned by you and your team. 

3. Bring evidence and make it human

Data is powerful, but so are stories. Back up your recommendations with insights from real people. A short quote from a service user, a screenshot of a public comment, or a simple statistic can help bring your message to life.

Leaders often love to benchmark, so if you can share data on what your competitors, similar organisations, or geographical neighbours are doing, that will help to get their attention and deliver your message. For example, using Orlo’s benchmarking tool, you can show what good looks like and how your work compares. Our blog on engagement rates for the public sector is a good place to start.

Sometimes leaders make unreasonable demands and want immediate action to change something. Here again, data is your friend. If they’re panicking about a negative comment on a post, show them the engagement stats and how small the impact is. Perhaps they want a press release when you know that’s not going to get picked up as a media story. 

Instead, offer an alternative solution and evidence of where it’s worked for another organisation like yours. 

4. Build relationships before you need them

Don’t wait for a crisis to start building trust. Look for regular opportunities to share updates, offer advice, and demonstrate your value. 

Ask them questions about their priorities and really listen to their answers. Try asking ‘what does a successful outcome look like for you?’, ‘how have you tackled situations like this in the past?’, and ‘what are your concerns about this?’. 

We talk about building trust a lot at Orlo, and for me, the way to do this is by being clear on the expectations, following through on what you’ve said you’ll deliver, and being upfront and honest  – don’t be afraid to have challenging conversations. 

When leaders see you as a trusted advisor rather than just a messenger, they are far more likely to engage in meaningful conversations.

5. Assert your professional authority

Communicators are experts in behaviour change, public engagement, and digital communication. Position your advice with confidence and clarity. You wouldn’t expect a finance officer to soften their recommendations, so don’t do it with yours.

Senior leaders don’t usually intend to undervalue communications. In fact, many of them have, through experience, learned how important a role good comms can play when they want to achieve something. The problem is, in their busy worlds, often it simply isn’t front of mind until a crisis appears on the horizon. 

But as communications professionals, we have an opportunity to close that gap. With clarity, confidence, and a strategic lens, we can shift perceptions and have more productive conversations.

When that happens, it’s not just internal influence that improves. It’s also the outcomes we deliver for the communities we serve.