Empowered Executive & Team Communications division to rethink, reframe and transform approach, philosophy and strategic direction for leadership, CEO and company-wide communications, including DE&I, Sustainability and Internal Comms.

16-month project delivered remote.

Burberry was going through an incredible period of transformation, both inside and out of the organisation, as a business and brand. Many new senior leaders joined the organisation to spearhead this growth and brand evolution.

As a result of ongoing change, when I joined, the Team had gone through many structural, as well as, team leadership changes in recent years and were lacking synergy. They were working in silo's as a Team and attempting partnership with Senior Executive stakeholders across the organisation.

The Division and Team required a new strategic direction and approach to Leadership and company-wide communications, as well as, ways of working and delivering communications overall.

The Team were responsible not only for Leadership communications, in particular, CEO-communications, but also key divisional and company-wide communications, including: DE&I, Sustainability and Internal Comms. As a result, a whole new approach to communications had to be established and implemented.

The Senior Manager was transitioning into a Director’s role to lead the Team, so my other key role was to coach, develop and grow them into the Director’s role to ultimately take over and lead with the new strategic direction, ways of working and approach to business.

At the same time, the organisation was going through a transformation, both as a brand and at the most senior-level in the organisation, with a new Leadership Team being formed. Many Senior Executives left, and a new CEO joined to transform the organisation.

Following a complete deep-dive with key stakeholders, a plan to rethink strategic direction, ways of working as a Team and across the organisation with Leadership; alongside stakeholder engagement was presented and socialised across the organisation in the first 90 days.

Ongoing Implementation of strategy, including mobilising the team to embed our new philosophy and approach to communications was delivered in the second quarter.

Training, coaching, mentoring and communications Leadership and development for team members and senior stakeholders was delivered in quarter two and three.

Following successful integration and implementation of our new strategic direction and approach to communications, ongoing coaching for team members and leaders to demonstrate growth and leadership with challenges continues.

There was a a number of steps to take in the early stages to ensure full participation, including:

1. Training and coaching of Director of Colleague Comms and other Team members to step into new (more senior roles) to deliver the plans,

2. Advising on how to direct and coach leadership and key stakeholders to step into and own their new leadership communication TOV and narrative.

3. Ongoing one-to-one coaching and training, psychology of communication through written and spoken word, the power of language and how to tell a story, engagement behaviour and body language, personal brand and everyday leadership; and DE&I Communication.

Functional transformation through Strategic Direction, vision and planning followed by new ways of working, processes and procedures; planning tools, guidelines and frameworks were delivered to ensure the new Communication Leader and Team felt empowered and confident to step into their new roles and support senior leaders across the organisation.

Leadership visibility: A new approach to the value of engaging, partnering and co-creating with the Leadership Team ensured that employees felt more connected to business and brand priorities during a period of change and transformation.

Focusing on company values and how to build and instil trust, an entirely new approach to strategic leadership communication was delivered ensuring transparency, consistency and clarity in a compassionate way at every touchpoint.

Ongoing coaching and training of team members and senior stakeholders ensured leadership development, personal brand and leadership awareness; and ongoing transformation and change adaption.