01
Goodwill
Every communication should build goodwill.
Goodwill is performance capital. Every interaction makes a deposit or a withdrawal. That balance matters when organizations face hard conversations, uncertainty, and change.
Strategy and communication
Purposeful communication accelerates execution.
We help organizations clarify strategy, strengthen communication and trust, improve collaboration, and turn important decisions into coordinated action.
Start a conversation25 years of executive leadership. Award-winning teaching. Proven results for organizations of every size, from billion-dollar enterprises to local organizations.
A philosophy of leadership
Communication is not a soft skill.
Communication is how leaders create clarity, build trust, navigate disagreement, strengthen collaboration, and turn strategy into action.
Strategy + Communication
Clear strategy establishes the destination. Communication creates the alignment and momentum to get there.
Signature frameworks
Ideas leaders can use.
02
Ethos
Your ethos is always on trial.
Your colleagues, customers, and the public are continually deciding whether you are competent, whether you have character, and whether you care. Every communication strengthens or weakens their perceptions of all three.
03
TRUST
Put every important communication to the TRUST test.
Timely. Relevant. Unselfish. Swift. Truthful. Five questions that help leaders communicate with clarity, credibility, and purpose.
04
How Might We
No one solves it alone.
“How” signals that a solution is achievable. “Might” creates permission to explore. “We” anchors collective ownership. The framework helps cross-functional teams reframe complex challenges, surface diverse perspectives, and build better solutions together.
Ideas put to work
Frameworks matter when leaders can use them.
Our work combines practical ideas, guided application, and tools leaders can continue using long after the engagement ends.
How we help
Define the strategy. Create alignment. Move to action.
We help organizations determine what matters, make difficult choices, and use communication to build the clarity, commitment, and coordination required to move forward.
Strategic Planning & Alignment
Define future success, confront difficult choices, align boards and leadership teams, and create an actionable, measurable roadmap.
Leadership Communication & Collaboration
Build the trust, clarity, and shared expectations that allow leaders and teams to work across boundaries and execute effectively.
We facilitate and teach the “How Might We” framework, helping cross-functional teams define shared challenges, explore possibilities, and build solutions they can own and execute together. Leaders leave prepared to use the framework themselves, making effective collaboration an ongoing organizational practice.
Executive Communication
Develop the judgment, presence, and message discipline leaders need when the audience and stakes are high.
Workshops, Retreats & Keynotes
Bring practical, memorable ideas to leadership teams, conferences, classrooms, and organizations ready to communicate differently.
What clients say
Practical ideas. Meaningful results.
Cross-functional collaboration
“Brian Gillette and his team were outstanding partners throughout our cross-functional collaboration initiative. They translated their understanding of Athene’s values, leadership expectations, and business needs into a highly customized learning experience and practical tools for our leaders. Participant feedback reinforced the impact, with leaders describing the experience as immediately actionable, thought-provoking, and valuable.”
Organizational alignment diagnostic
How effectively does your organization turn strategy into coordinated action?
Strong organizations need more than a sound strategy. They need clear priorities, trusted leadership, effective communication, and collaboration across boundaries. Use this brief diagnostic to identify where your organization is strong and where greater alignment could accelerate execution.
0 of 12 answered
Answer all 12 statements to see your results.
Brian Gillette with collaborators Jenny Aune and Haley Greer
Our team
The core collaboration team.
Brian leads every engagement, working closely with a core collaboration team that includes Jenny Aune and Haley Greer. Together, they bring extensive experience in business communication, leadership development, collaboration, research, and learning design.
This core-team model gives every client senior-level attention, complementary perspectives, and continuity throughout the engagement. When a project would benefit from additional expertise, Gillette Strategy & Communication draws upon a trusted network of specialists to build a team around the challenge—not force the challenge into a predetermined structure.
Core collaboration team
Jenny Aune
Jenny Aune is a Teaching Professor at Iowa State University and Director of ISUComm Advanced Communication. She is the author of three textbooks, including McGraw-Hill’s Business Communication, and has received multiple honors for teaching and leadership. Jenny brings deep expertise in business communication, curriculum development, and the design of meaningful learning experiences.
Core collaboration team
Haley Greer
Haley Greer is a doctoral candidate and business communication instructor at Iowa State University whose research focuses on AI-assisted teaching practices and innovation. A recipient of the Freda Huncke Endowment Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Haley brings expertise in collaboration, emerging communication practices, learning design, and highly engaging facilitated experiences.
Business. Teaching. Communication.
“The first rule of leadership is that it isn’t about you.”
Boardroom experience. Classroom discipline.
Brian Gillette brings 25 years of executive leadership experience to his work as a consultant, facilitator, and award-winning educator. He combines real-world business judgment, research-grounded thinking, and an exceptional ability to make complex ideas practical and actionable.
Brian understands the pressures leaders face because he has faced them himself. His work is candid, engaging, and built for leaders navigating consequential decisions inside complex organizations.
Work with Brian
Communication in the age of AI
Competent writing is abundant. Communication that earns trust and inspires people to act is not.
AI has made competent writing easier to produce. That makes authenticity, audience awareness, relationships, presence, and persuasion more valuable than ever.
The future belongs to leaders who know what deserves to be said, why it matters, and how to say it so people can act.
Let’s build something worth trusting.