How to Build an Executive-Ready Comms Dashboard

Published on September 22, 2025 by Kurt Heinrich

Turn Metrics into Useful Insights for Decision-Making

If you’ve ever built a dashboard that looks sophisticated but doesn’t gain traction with leadership—this one’s for you.

A lot of communicators struggle to figure out which metrics actually land with decision-makers. We invest time and energy into smart systems, track all the things and still get the sense no one’s paying attention.

But here’s what I’ve learned: Most senior leaders do care about communications. They just care about it in very specific, often personal, ways. Your job isn’t to persuade leaders to embrace different metrics—it’s to figure out what already matters to them, and report outcomes in the language of their priorities.

This isn’t about oversimplifying. It’s about being strategic with how you frame, measure and report on your work.

Let’s get into how.

Why senior leaders often don’t care about comms KPIs

I’ve always been interested in systems and metrics, but lots of people have rolled their eyes at me. They either aren’t interested, or it’s hard for them to create a compelling case to spend time building out systems because their bosses have other things to worry about.

It’s true that the more senior our bosses are, the less focused they might be on specific communications or marketing KPIs. If your bosses have functional oversight of many other areas beyond comms and marketing, they’re probably more interested in outcomes than in the operational details that captivate you and your team.

The other thing I have noticed over the years is that bosses who do take an interest in communications are often interested in very different facets—depending on the boss. I’ve had leaders focused just on social posts (critical of them). Others have been keenly aware and engaged with the organization’s brand, logos and other marketing elements. Still others have been laser-focused on op-eds or media coverage. Finally, some have been particularly engaged in owned media on the website or internal communications such as newsletters or staff engagement.

It’s not that they ‘don’t get strategy’—they’re focused on their world

Whatever it is, I have sometimes heard a colleague lament that their particular leader doesn’t “get communications or strategy.” More junior communicators, in particular, will point to the singular focus of a senior leader as an example of a gap.

I see it differently, and I think it misses something important for communicators.

First of all, I believe we need to provide counsel—but we need to do it with a service mentality. One day we might be calling the shots as CEO, but for the time being, our job is to provide the best support to our leaders that we can.

Secondly, most senior leaders have advanced as far as they have because they have a keen understanding of things that matter most in the communications realm—for their stakeholders and strategic objectives. They might be missing pieces, but often they have a much better sense than anyone of what they need to be successful in their area.

While we might think they should be online and communicating a particular way through social channels, they may already know that their particular audience (and it could be a very specific audience) isn’t actually there.

How to build a dashboard your leadership will actually value

Step 1: Zero in on what your leader actually cares about

I’ve found it helpful to zero in on the areas they care most about, implementing clear and effective systems to support proactive communications—be it social, earned, owned or paid—in that area, and then find simple and clear ways to report back on their particular interest.

Put simply: If you know that brand differentiation and social media aren’t priorities for your boss, de-emphasize them in your dashboard.

You can still do great work in those areas if you think they are important to your organization, but focus your reporting and engagement on what you know your boss thinks about, to help inform their decisions.

Step 2: Ask smart questions, listen for the signals

How do you know what your boss actually cares about?

The other leaders around them should be able to tell you whether they are data-focused or story-focused. When you engage with them one-on-one or in groups, really listen to the type of topics they bring up. If you get time with them, ask about times in the past they’ve been impressed with communications and listen for the type of work and examples they give.

I once had a leader who would reference a niche industry newsletter as a source of info. It was clear that was important to him and we made sure to find ways to get our organization’s message into the newsletter frequently.

Step 3: Map their priorities to your outcomes

After you’ve tuned into what your leaders really pay attention to, you can use that insight to shape how you report back—and show the value of your work in ways that land. Bring in adjacent metrics when they illuminate the same objective—and make the linkage explicit.

For example, when I was working for a large school district as their comms manager in my early days, I quickly assessed that my boss was particularly focused on issues management and reactive media relations while another leader was interested in proactive storytelling on owned channels.

I constructed reporting that highlighted both areas, pulled out simple snapshots of success and contextualized it all with a few key metrics like number of stories released per week, number of media responses, etc. The dashboard was customized for what they were looking for, but really easy to create and consistently update.

The result was a clear articulation of the value my comms work was bringing for their needs.

Step 4: Focus earns trust—and trust earns you more space

In the example above, we were doing a wide range of other work, but this focus helped us break through and eventually grow the investment in communications and our team.

If you can consistently deliver what your leadership actually wants to see, you earn credibility. And once you have that, you can start to introduce the things you think are missing from the picture.

That’s how you move from being seen as a tactical player to a strategic one.

TL;DR: How to Build a Comms Dashboard That Lands

• Stop reporting on everything—report on what matters to them
• Find the patterns in what leadership references, praises, or probes
• Keep it simple—your dashboard isn’t décor, it’s an executive briefing
• Earn trust through relevance, then broaden the view

Want to see what this looks like in practice?

We’ve built Broadsight specifically for communications teams to track the metrics that matter most—especially the ones that rarely show up in traditional tools. Whether your leadership is focused on issues, proactive storytelling or stakeholder engagement, Broadsight makes it easy to report back in ways that land.

If you’re curious, we’d be happy to give you a personalized tour. Just reach out.