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I am Jo. I'm a senior account director at 33.

Leaders are enormously important when getting involved in your advocacy program, and they're often quite underestimated. And it often kind of signals to people it gives them permission that this is okay to do here, and that you have the freedom kind of to talk about the organization in the way that you want to. What tends to happen is that you create an incredible advocacy program or a culture initiative, and it gets launched and becomes teams all on board.

You're a brand team are on board, the ambassadors are pumped and they're ready to go. The leadership team posts a small little LinkedIn post and then it goes quiet. And that kind of sends a bit of a signal to the rest of the business that this isn't actually that critical. And what can happen is when leaders are genuinely and visibly brought in, that can tend to change everything.

It gives the whole program legitimacy and gives it a momentum that no other internal comms kind of campaign can do. Now we know that they're probably the most time constrained. They're the most kind of risk averse people in the room. So what you want to do is create an environment where they feel comfortable, they feel valuable and involved in the project.

So if you're building an advocacy program and leaders aren't in the room, then I suggest that you get them in the room, not just as sponsors of the project, not just as budget holders, but actually active participants who genuinely want to be part of your story.