“The best leaders don’t just talk digital—they live it.”
Most organizations don’t have a shortage of leaders willing to support the intranet.
They’ll approve the investment, appear in the launch video, and encourage employees to visit. They may even describe it as the organization’s new digital front door.
But endorsement only takes an intranet so far.
If leaders want employees to see the intranet as an important part of the workday, they need to show that it’s important to them, too.
Employees notice what leaders actually use
Every workplace has a gap between what is officially encouraged and what is genuinely valued.
Employees become skilled at spotting that gap.
A leader can tell people to use the intranet, but if every meaningful update still arrives by email, what message does that send? If important conversations happen somewhere else, why would employees build a habit around the platform? And if leaders are never visible there, can we really expect everyone else to participate?
Leadership behaviour is one of the clearest signals an organization can send.
When leaders regularly publish updates, respond to employee questions, recognize good work or reference intranet content in meetings, they do more than increase activity. They establish the platform as a credible place to pay attention.
They’re not simply promoting the intranet, they’re participating in it.
Visibility doesn’t require polished production
Sometimes leaders hesitate to participate because creating content sounds like another major responsibility.
It doesn’t have to be.
A brief written update can be more effective than a carefully produced announcement. A short video recorded after a customer meeting can feel more insightful than a formal quarterly address. A quick response to an employee question can demonstrate accessibility more convincingly than a campaign about open communication.
The goal isn’t to turn every executive into a content creator, it’s to make leadership more present in the flow of work.
For internal comms teams, that may mean making participation as simple as possible: offering a prompt, capturing a quick video, shaping a rough voice note into a post or helping a leader establish a manageable publishing rhythm.
Consistency matters more than polish and authenticity matters more than production value.
Leadership participation gives content context
Employees don’t just need information. They need help understanding what that information is telling them and why it's important.
A policy update can explain what is changing. A leader can explain why it matters.
A strategy page can outline organizational priorities. A leader can connect those priorities to the decisions teams are being asked to make.
A company announcement can share the facts. A leader can acknowledge the questions, uncertainty or opportunity behind them.
These are areas where visible leadership can transform the intranet from a repository of information into a place where the organization makes sense of its work.
That distinction matters. Information alone doesn’t always create alignment, but context does.
Digital champions create permission for others
When leaders participate openly, they also give others permission to do the same.
Managers may feel more comfortable sharing team updates. Subject-matter experts may be more willing to contribute useful knowledge. Employees may be more likely to ask questions or respond to a post when they can see that participation is welcomed from the top.
This is how culture travels through a digital workplace - not through a single launch campaign, but through repeated, visible behaviour.
Not every leader will participate in the same way. One may be comfortable on video, while another may prefer short written reflections. A third may be most effective when recognizing employees or answering questions.
The format matters less than the habit.
A useful question for digital workplace teams
Instead of asking, “How do we get leaders to promote the intranet?” try asking:
What is one meaningful leadership behaviour we can make visible through the intranet?
It could be a monthly reflection from the CEO. A recurring question-and-answer post. Recognition from a senior leader. A brief explanation of a recent decision. Or simply an executive referring employees to an intranet conversation and then joining it.
Start with something useful, repeatable and recognizably human.
The strongest signal leaders can send isn’t that employees should use the digital workplace.
It’s that leadership already does.
