The craft of advising senior leaders.
Lessons and free tools for people who advise senior leaders.
About
Brian Fickel
I’ve spent almost 20 years advising senior leaders on communication. I started as a speechwriter, worked as a spokesperson, and spent most of my career as the communications advisor to commanders at the division, corps, combatant command and service-chief levels. Some of that was in Washington. A lot of it was in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I went to school for part of it. Georgetown taught me public relations and corporate communications, and the Army War College taught me strategy. I read constantly and paid attention to the advisors I respected. The rest I learned the hard way: advice my boss got from me a day late, a message that was textbook right but still wrong for the situation, and experiences that taught me more in a week than a semester could.
Over time I figured out that the part of the job I enjoyed most was developing the people around me. I now teach senior leader communication, and I built this site to share the lessons and tools I wish someone had given me earlier.
This is a passion project. Everything here is free. I don’t offer services and I don’t make money from it.
Focus
What you’ll find here
Most of what I know about advising I learned on the job. I think a good share of it can be taught, and that’s what this site is for.
Advising senior leaders
How to earn a leader’s trust, frame a decision, and bring bad news early enough to do something about it.
Teaching the craft
I developed and teach a graduate course on advising senior leaders. I’ll post lessons and case studies from it here as I go.
Practitioner tools
Free checklists and worksheets for advisors and communicators. They run in your browser, so nothing you type leaves your computer.