Why do some internal communications professionals reach the C-suite while others remain stuck executing campaigns?
Throughout my career, I’ve watched this pattern repeat itself. The answer isn’t about working harder or producing more content, it’s about mastering two fundamental yet often overlooked elements: confidence and credibility.
When Advita Patel and I founded The Belief Builders this year, this question became central to our work. We recognised that talented internal comms professionals weren’t failing due to lack of skill. They were missing a practical framework for building these essential qualities that will help them thrive.
That’s why we developed the COMPASS framework so we could work with teams to help them.
When talent isn’t enough
I’ve observed it repeatedly across organisations. Skilled internal comms professionals who deliver exceptional campaigns that drive engagement, understand their audiences deeply, and create compelling content that resonates. Yet when strategic conversations happen, they’re not in the room. When leadership roles open, they’re passed over. When budget discussions take place, they’re viewed as a cost rather than a strategic partner.
The frustration is real, it doesn’t seem to be stopping, and the impact on careers can be significant.
Why both confidence and credibility matter for internal communicators
Through our combined experience – Advita’s expertise in confidence building and my focus on credibility – we discovered something critical: you can’t develop one without the other.
Confidence without credibility is hollow. You might speak up boldly in meetings, but if you can’t support your position with business intelligence and measurable impact, trust erodes quickly.
Credibility without confidence remains invisible. You might possess valuable data and insights, but if you can’t present them with conviction or struggle with imposter syndrome, your expertise stays hidden.
Internal comms professionals who reach the C-suite have cultivated both and the COMPASS framework we have created provides a structured approach to developing these interconnected capabilities.
Understanding the COMPASS Framework
COMPASS represents seven essential pillars that internal comms professionals must master to move from tactical execution to strategic leadership. Think of it less as a linear path and more as a navigation system – a way to think about where you are and identify which direction requires your development energy.
Conviction: Where confidence meets credibility
Conviction means standing firmly behind your strategic recommendations with both the inner belief to speak up and the evidence-based rationale to support your position. Without it, presentations become tentative. Language shifts from “Based on our engagement data, here’s what we need to do” to weaker phrases like “I think maybe we could…”
Research on executive presence shows that leaders who demonstrate conviction, backed by solid reasoning, earn trust more quickly and influence decisions more effectively. It’s not about being right every time. It’s about being clear about what you know, what you don’t know, and why your recommendation matters.
Organisational Intelligence: Speaking the language of business
Many internal comms professionals speak exclusively in communication terms: channels, campaigns, employee voice, engagement scores. To earn credibility at the leadership table, you need fluency in business drivers, financial metrics, and how communication connects to organisational outcomes.
This isn’t about becoming a finance expert. It’s about developing sufficient business acumen to position communication as a strategic enabler rather than a tactical service. When you understand how your CEO measures success, how your CFO views investment decisions, and what keeps your COO awake at night, you can frame your strategies in terms that resonate with their priorities.
Meaningful Impact: Moving beyond vanity metrics
Stop counting emails sent and intranet page views. Start measuring business outcomes.
Consider these questions instead: Did your change communication reduce voluntary turnover during the merger? Did your leadership visibility program improve manager effectiveness scores? Did your culture campaign correlate with increased customer satisfaction?
When you demonstrate meaningful impact, you transform your role from communicator to business partner. This requires discipline – tracking the right metrics, establishing baselines, and making clear connections between communication activities and organisational results. It’s harder work than counting opens and clicks, but it’s what separates tactical practitioners from strategic leaders.
Presence and Pace: Managing energy and rhythm
Executive presence is often misunderstood. It’s not about being extroverted; it’s about managing the rhythm and energy of communication while commanding attention in senior forums. It’s about showing your warmth and your competence at the same time.
It involves knowing when to slow down for strategic thinking and when to move with urgency. It means matching the pace of leadership while maintaining your genuine voice. Some situations call for rapid-fire decisions and concise updates. Others require space for reflection and deeper exploration. Reading the room and adjusting accordingly builds your presence over time.
Authentic Authority: The confidence to be vulnerable
This pillar may be the most counterintuitive. Building authority doesn’t mean pretending to know everything, it means having the confidence to say “I don’t have that data, but here’s how I’ll get it and why it matters.”
Authentic authority combines genuine expertise with the courage to acknowledge uncertainty when appropriate. Research on leadership effectiveness shows that people who admit gaps in knowledge while demonstrating clear paths to finding answers actually build more trust than those who project false certainty. This approach creates psychological safety while maintaining professional credibility.
Strategic Support: Anticipating rather than reacting
Moving from order-taker to strategic advisor requires a fundamental shift in stakeholder engagement. It’s about anticipating needs before they’re articulated and demonstrating your capability to solve complex challenges.
Strategic support means understanding not just what leaders say they need, but what they actually need based on your deep understanding of internal communication. When your Chief People Officer says “we need an email about the policy change,” your strategic support might involve asking about the underlying business challenge, the audience’s likely concerns, and the behavioural outcomes needed – then proposing a more comprehensive approach.
Sustainable Growth: Playing the long game
The journey to strategic leadership isn’t a sprint. It requires continuous evolution, resilience to setbacks, and commitment to ongoing learning.
Leaders who reach senior positions don’t just develop themselves; they lift others along the way. This pillar recognises that sustainable growth involves building capacity in yourself as well as your team. Investing in the right things for your development is key, you can’t do it alone, and being intentional is key. It’s about thinking in years, not quarters.
Using COMPASS to help you have more influence and impact
The framework isn’t a linear checklist where you master Conviction, then move to Organisational Intelligence, then tackle Meaningful Impact. That’s not how professional development works.
Instead, think of COMPASS as a diagnostic tool. When you feel stuck in your career, when you’re preparing for an important presentation, or when you’re struggling to influence a decision, ask yourself: Which pillar do I need to strengthen right now?
Perhaps you have strong Organisational Intelligence but lack the conviction to speak up in meetings. Or maybe you have Authentic Authority but struggle to demonstrate Meaningful Impact in terms lof eadership values. The framework helps you identify where to focus your development energy.
We created The Belief Builders to work with teams at away days, share insights at virtual events or work 1:1 with folks who want a blend of confidence and credibility support. If you want to work with us next year, email hello@thebeliefbuilders.com. And if you want to know where to start, the COMPASS quiz is designed to help you do just that!
