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Questions leaders ask when they're looking for communications support

These are the questions CEOs, CHROs, CIOs, and heads of transformation ask when something important isn't working. If any of them sound like the conversation you've been having in your head, the next conversation is probably with me.

  • It depends on what's broken and how long you'll need help.

    A senior consultant or fractional communications leader is the right fit when you're inside a transformation, a leadership transition, an integration, or a high-stakes moment that needs experienced judgment now. A freelancer also makes sense when the scope is bounded — a project, a launch, a defined deliverable. A full-time hire is the right answer when communications has become a permanent operating function – a core competency critical to your organization - and you can keep the role full and growing.

    Most of the leaders who reach me are in the first category. They have a real problem, the timeline is shorter than the hiring cycle, and they need someone who can show up at the executive table on day one.

  • Three things:

    1. Find where clarity is breaking down — between the executive team and the next layer, among functions, between what's been decided and what's being heard.

    2. Build the alignment that makes implementation possible: shared language, effective sequencing, shared definition of what "great" looks like.

    3. Equip the people who carry the message — line managers, in particular — so the strategy survives the trip from the boardroom to the front line.

    Beyond message-writing, it is the work of making sure the organization is moving in the same direction at the same speed.

  • Six things, in roughly this order:

    1. Seniority that matches the room you need them in.

    2. A track record in your kind of complexity, not necessarily your industry.

    3. The ability to diagnose before they prescribe.

    4. Comfort working across HR, IT, operations, strategy, and the executive team — not in a single lane.

    5. Clear writing as evidence of clear thinking.

    6. And the discipline to tell you what's not working, not just what you asked for.

    Credentials matter less than judgment.

  • The right consultant for an executive team in change is someone who can sit at that table without being intimidated by it, name what is really happening without political softening, and translate strategy into communication that stays clear and credible under pressure. Look for long, deep, and wide experience both inside orgs and as a consultant, formal change management certification (Prosci® is the most established), strategic communications certification (like SCMP® or APR), and a track record across more than one industry — because executive change problems repeat across sectors and a consultant who has only seen one is solving from a smaller library.

    Prospect Strategies fits that brief. So do a small number of other senior independent consultants in Canada — and the right answer is whoever you trust to tell you the truth in week one and stick it out until the results come.

  • Yes. Atlantic Canada has a serious bench of senior independent communications consultants who work nationally and cross-border.

    I'm a Maritimer by choice. My career before Prospect Strategies was Toronto, New York, and global in reach. I chose Nova Scotia as my base, and the expertise and work travels — my clients are still national and cross-border, across Canada, the UK, and the United States.

Are we the right fit?

These are the questions leaders ask once they're past the general comparison and considering whether I'm the right fit.

  • From the inside. For more than twenty years.

    Before founding Prospect Strategies, I held senior in-house corporate communications leadership roles inside large, complex, highly-regulated and scrutinized matrixed, global organizations — on executive teams, in the room when the decisions were made, accountable for what happened next. Pharmaceuticals. Manufacturing. Franchise-models. Multi-country operations. The full weight of corporate life, not the consultant's view of it.

    That matters because the difference between a consultant who has only ever consulted and one who has carried the role is significant. The first knows the theory. The second knows what it feels like to navigate the layers, the emotions, the expectations, and the pressures.

  • Some version of one of these:

    • A strategy is clear at the top and isn't being executed in the business. (Purpose, Strategy & Performance)

    • A transformation has stalled and no one wants to be the one to say it. (Leading Through Change)

    • Employee engagement is dropping or stagnant. (Purpose, Strategy and Performance)

    • A system has been implemented and adoption is below where it needs to be. (Leading Through Change)

    • A leadership team is inconsistently cascading information and it's starting to show in the business. (Executive Influence & Presence)

    • You’re “carrying too many laptops” – caught in the task whirlwind with no space to clarify your thoughts. (Thought Partner Coaching)

    • A change has been announced and the resistance is louder than the rollout. (Leading Through Change)

    • A CEO is new, or a senior leader is on the way out, and the communications around the transition need to keep trust intact. (Purpose, Strategy & Performance, Executive Influence & Presence, Thought Partner Coaching)

    • A merger, integration, or restructuring is in motion and the human side is being underestimated. (Leading Through Change)

    If any of those are the conversation in your office right now, you're in the right place and we should talk: Sarah@ProspectStrategies.ca 

  • Yes. This is some of the most common work I do.

    When engagement scores are flat or sliding, when line managers are inconsistent, when a benefits change, talent management approach, or HRIS rollout isn't getting through, the instinct is to send more information. The fix is usually the opposite: less volume, more clarity, and more support for line managers — who are the most trusted communication channel in your organization and the least equipped one.

    I work with HR, not around HR with the CHRO often as my closest partner.

  • Yes. CIOs and transformation leaders embed me into their PMOs and transformation leadership when the system works and the people don't.

    Most adoption problems aren't technical. They're clarity problems, desire problems, and manager-equipping problems. The plan to use the new tool exists, and the workaround is winning anyway. That's a change communication problem, and it's solvable — but not with another email.

  • It starts with understanding your priorities, direction, challenges, leadership style and organizational culture. Then a deeper look at where work is breaking down. From there, the engagement is built around the unique business problem you’re facing, not a packaged offer.

    Most engagements include some combination of: executive team alignment, leadership communication coaching, manager equipping, change communication architecture, and direct partnership with the CEO and subject matter experts. The structure is shaped by the problem. The cadence is shaped by the urgency.

    I embed. I don't drop a deck and leave. And we collaborate to get sustainable results.

  • Prospect Strategies is based in Nova Scotia, on Canada's east coast. I work with leaders across Canada, the UK, and the United States, primarily remotely, but also in person when it helps. My clients have included publicly traded life sciences/biotech companies, privately held manufacturing operations,  healthcare, digital business services firms, global standards organizations, and not-for-profits operating at the regional or national level.

    If your work is complex and the stakes are high, the geography rarely matters.

Let's have a focused conversation

If you recognize your situation in any of the questions above, the next step is a focused forty-five-minute complimentary discovery conversation. No deck. No pitch. The conversation is first and foremost about you — who you are, what your priorities are, what's getting in the way. Then we get into what's happening, where it's breaking, and how to think about next steps.

If we're not the right fit, I'll help you find someone who is. If we are, we’ll align quickly on what to do first and get to work.

See If We're the Right Fit

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