Happeo Unmuted

Happeo Unmuted, Episode 13: Authentic Leadership, Strategic Seats, & Why Silence Isn't a Comms Problem

Written by Jesse | Mar 12, 2026 2:07:03 PM

 

Welcome to Happeo Unmuted, the podcast where we go beyond best practices to explore what really connects people at work. In this episode, Jesse Bourgeault-Trickey sits down with Nekolina Lau to challenge how internal comms teams think about their role, and where they're spending their time.

Top 5 takeaways from Nekolina Lau on Happeo Unmuted:


1. Leaders are the most trusted communication channel, not the comms team.

Employees trust people, not logos or titles. Leaders have been outsourcing their voice for too long, and simply approving a drafted message isn't the same as communicating.

2. Silence isn't a comms problem.

When nobody asks questions in a town hall or engagement is low, the instinct is to blame the channel. More often than not, it's a trust and psychological safety issue, and no new tool or feature will fix that.

3. Stop measuring vanity metrics.

Post views and likes don't tell you much. The metrics that matter are the ones tied to real business outcomes — changed behavior, training completion, tool adoption.

4. Build your reputational piggy bank before you need it.

Transparency and honest communication are deposits. When a difficult decision or crisis hits, organizations that have built up that trust recover faster and with far less damage.

5. Comms professionals need to stop being gatekeepers.

The goal should be setting up frameworks, templates, and guardrails that empower leaders and employees to communicate within appropriate lanes, freeing the comms team to focus on work that's actually strategic.

 

If you’re an internal comms, digital workplace, or knowledge management expert and have something to share, we’d love to hear from you! Get in touch.