The best communications teams I work with are highly skilled. They draft clear messages and coordinate complex rollouts. They understand their organization and the mechanics of getting information out the door. This work requires real expertise.

What they also know is where their expertise stops and strategic advisory begins. This isn't a limitation. It's structural. Even the most capable communications professionals face barriers that prevent them from providing the strategic perspective leadership needs during high-stakes moments.

The Outsider Advantage

I managed communications for a social justice organization that worked to hold judges accountable. I wasn't an attorney or involved in politics. I wasn't even a native Chicagoan, despite living here for 20 years. I operated as an outsider.

That outsider status worked to my benefit. I could see perspectives others missed because I wasn't as entrenched. The attorneys on the team understood legal accountability in ways I never would. The political organizers knew the landscape. I brought a different lens precisely because I didn't carry their assumptions.

The audiences we needed to reach required completely different approaches. Communicating with attorneys meant one thing. Reaching grassroots organizations meant something entirely different. My channels and style shifted based on who needed to hear what. Being outside the core group helped me navigate those differences without defaulting to a single perspective.

This is what external advisors provide. They bring fresh eyes and the ability to see patterns insiders miss because they're too close to the situation.

Why Your Communications Director Can't Always Push Back

At a financial services firm where I advised on a major initiative, my boss told me directly she was glad I was there. My positioning as an outsider gave me the ability to push back in ways she couldn't. She knew what needed to be said and saw the risks, but understood leadership was headed toward communication failures.

However, saying those things carried different weight depending on who said them. As an external advisor, I could challenge assumptions without affecting my performance review or working relationships with executives I needed to collaborate with daily. She couldn't operate with that same freedom.

This isn't about courage. It's about structural position. Internal communications leaders have to maintain relationships with the same executives they might need to challenge. They report up through organizational hierarchies that shape what they can say and how they can say it. External advisors operate outside those constraints.

Why Timing and Position Matter

External advisors help create strategic frameworks at the early stages of decision-making, before communication plans are developed. By the time internal communications teams get involved, decisions are often already shaped, and their role becomes execution rather than strategic planning.

Even senior communications leaders face constraints that make strategic advisory work difficult. They're managing daily operations while leadership expects them to provide strategic input. The urgent work of keeping information moving takes precedence over the slower work of building frameworks for future decisions.

Being inside the organization also means working within established patterns. Internal teams know how things have always been done. This knowledge is valuable for execution, but it can make it harder to question whether those patterns still serve the organization during moments of change.

External advisors can dedicate focused time to strategic questions because that's the only work they're doing. They can think deeply about a single high-stakes communication because nothing else is competing for their attention.

When External Strategy and Internal Execution Work Together

The most effective communication happens when external strategy and internal execution complement each other. External advisors work with leadership to align on what decisions mean and how messages will be interpreted. They reveal the misalignments and ask the difficult questions internal teams often can't ask.

Then internal teams take that framework and execute. They know the organization, they understand the systems, and they can implement effectively because they have strategic clarity guiding their work.

How to Know When You Need External Strategy

Not every commu

nication requires external strategic support. Routine updates and standard announcements are exactly what your internal team should handle. External strategy becomes relevant during critical moments when communication choices carry real risk.

Consider external strategic advisory when leadership isn't fully aligned on what a decision means, when timing feels as critical as content, when past communications have required weeks of clarification, or when you're navigating a transition where interpretation matters as much as information.

The signal is usually tension. Your communications director mentions privately that an announcement might backfire, or different executives are describing the same decision in incompatible ways. The draft messaging feels unclear even after multiple revisions. These are signs that strategic work needs to happen before execution begins.

Good communications teams recognize when they need strategic support. They're not threatened by it because they understand it makes their execution work more effective. When strategy is clear, execution becomes simpler, and communications hold because the thinking behind them was sound.

Moving Forward

If you have a capable communications team and you're still seeing confusion after announcements, the issue isn't execution. It's strategy. Your team is probably doing exactly what they're supposed to do with the clarity they've been given.

The question is whether leadership has done the strategic thinking before asking the team to execute. Have you aligned on what the decision means? Have you anticipated how different groups will interpret it? Have you identified where communication risk exists?

External strategic advisors help leadership work through these questions before communication begins. The work respects and strengthens your internal team by giving them the strategic foundation they need to execute with confidence. When both functions work together, communication becomes clearer, and leadership moves forward with alignment that holds.

If you're facing a high-stakes communication and need someone to help leadership align on strategy before your team begins execution, that's exactly the work I do.