By Jeff Wakeen, Founder/CEO
The first in a series on how clear, intentional communication drives real business results.
I spent most of my childhood summers on the water. My parents loved to sail, and some of my earliest memories are of wind, salt, and the particular quiet that settles over a boat once the engine cuts out and the sails take over.
What I didn’t fully appreciate back then was how bold my father was.
He had never sailed a boat in his life. So naturally, he went out and bought a 36-foot sailboat and set out to sail. Most people would shy away from that kind of leap. Not my dad. He studied the art of sailing. He learned to read the currents, to anticipate shifting winds, and to respect the unpredictable nature of the ocean’s swells.
So what allowed him to be so courageous?
He had a plan, and he worked the plan.
The communication tools available to him were simple: body language, facial expression, nautical charts, a compass, and a keen awareness of everything around him. But simple didn’t mean unserious. He had a strategy and a clear way of communicating exactly what needed to happen, so the crew (me) knew our (my) part.
The goal was specific and shared: sail his new boat from Old Saybrook to Clinton, safely, before the sun went down.
What does a sailboat have to do with running a company? Everything.
Because the focus was never on the sailing for its own sake. It was on the desired outcome, the destination, the safety of everyone aboard, and a method of communicating clearly enough to get us there.
If you’re a CEO, that’s your job too. I’ve seen this firsthand, on the water and in business: strategic communication is how you reach the outcome you actually want for your company.
The CEOs we work with are wrestling with real challenges. Scaling, protecting profitability, widening margins, and attracting and retaining best-in-class talent. A clear strategic communications plan, flawlessly executed, can move every one of those, and I’ve watched it happen.
The hard part isn’t believing in growth; it’s building the plan.
Get clear before you set sail
To develop a plan worth working, you have to be clear on three things:
- What you want
- When you want it
- Who you need to help you achieve it
In my dad’s case, the answers were obvious. He needed a boat. He needed a crew. And he needed to arrive in Clinton before sundown.
As a leader, your version of that clarity looks a little different, but the discipline is the same. When the destination is clear, and how you’ll get there is clear, then you can build the plan. Skip that clarity, and your company is just drifting with good intentions and a nice balance sheet.
Attach every tactic to a measurable outcome
Here’s where most communication plans quietly fall apart. The tactics float free of the outcomes, and activity gets mistaken for progress.
The real test of a successful strategic communications plan is connecting each tactic to a measurable, specific result. So if you’re leading the company, keep asking the same questions:
Is my plan directly connected to my P&L? To employee retention? To my margins? To productivity?
You have to measure what matters. If a tactic can’t be tied to an outcome that shows up somewhere real on your business’s bottom line, it’s worth asking why it’s on the plan at all.
Everything communicates
Strategic communication touches every part of a business. It shapes how your teams work together, how you set direction as a leader, how your sales team conveys real value, and how your products and services speak to the customers you’re trying to win. The list is nearly endless, which is exactly why it deserves your regular attention as CEO.
The waters change. The winds shift. And eventually, the sun goes down. Will your boat be in a safe harbor?
In the posts ahead, I’ll break down how we build these plans at Wakeen & Company — how to define the destination, choose the right crew, and tie communication to the outcomes that actually move revenue, growth, retention, and margins. If you’d rather not wait, start the conversation.
