This Is Why We Created the Executive Communication Awards

It wasn’t long ago, when “executive communications” mostly meant helping leaders say the things they were expected to say, on the appointed day, in the usual way.

Today’s exec comms is so much more than that, and now we’ve got a document to prove it. The Standard of Excellence ’23: The Best of the Inaugural Executive Communication Awards is bursting with best practices that would bewilder yesterday’s corporate communication pros.

This free anthology leads off with the ECAs’ Grand Award-winning entry from Intel. Senior Director of Technology and Executive Communications Kari Aakre lays out a strategy that amounts to nothing less than world-changing global CEO statesmanship.

Other work shows ECA-dominating T-Mobile doing innovative work in strategic and executive conversations in various settings–from the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. to a lively barroom in the corporate headquarters to a “mini-metaverse,” bestrode by holographic versions of the company’s execs.

Not that meaningful leadership communications demands high tech, big budget or even a grand strategy. You’ll read about how University of Wisconsin speechwriter Amanda Todd wrote a remembrance of former Chancellor Rebecca Blank, who recently died of cancer. The little piece went viral among everyone who ever knew Blank, and helped a community grieve.

From Fortune 100 analyst calls to a small concrete manufacturer’s innovative employee town halls and a nonprofit’s powerful campaign for criminal justice, there’s much exemplary work to admire–and more importantly for us, so many good ideas to glean.

Yes, this is why we created the annual Executive Communication Awards. May they grow and prosper, for glory of great leadership communication, and the people who help make it happen.