The Content Leadership Strategy to Fix Your Teams' Content Bottleneck

If your team's content is unclear, inconsistent, or just not getting enough traction, it might not be a content problem. It might be a leadership problem.

On Strategy Talks, I sat down with executive coach Lori Bruhns, who’s known for helping leaders communicate with more clarity and lead with more impact. Lori brings decades of experience coaching leaders across industries, and her work centers on authenticity, alignment, and the kind of communication that actually moves teams forward.

If you’ve ever felt like your content process is stuck in molasses, this conversation will feel uncomfortably familiar in the best way.

The truth is: content doesn’t break by itself. Systems break. Expectations break. And most often, leadership habits break them first.

leadership starts when you admit the real problem

I said it on the show and I’ll say it here too:

“If your team's content is unclear, inconsistent, or just not getting enough traction, it might not be a content problem, but a leadership problem. You Yes, you. You might be the problem.”

That line lands because it’s true. Leaders don’t usually mean to create confusion. But if your team is waiting on you, guessing what you meant, or rewriting the same post five times to match a vibe you never clearly defined, you’re not dealing with a content issue.

You’re dealing with content strategy leadership.

Lori put it in plain terms:

“Understanding how to use language that lands on people so that they follow you versus you having to push or pull that.”

If your content workflow feels like pushing a boulder uphill, there’s a good chance your communication isn’t landing the way you think it is.

Content strategy gets easier when you know how your team learns

One of the biggest leadership blind spots is assuming everyone processes information like you do.

Lori broke down four learning styles:

• Visual

• Auditory

• Kinesthetic

• Tactile

Her advice was simple and honestly overdue: “get to know your people.”

That doesn’t mean a personality quiz for fun. It means understanding how people absorb direction so your strategy doesn’t get lost in translation. Because when a leader gives instructions in one style and a team member receives information in another, content becomes a game of telephone.

I shared a real-life example where a medical team asked how I learn, then gave me information in exactly that format. It was an instant reminder that good communication isn’t about saying more. It’s about saying it in a way someone can actually use.

leadership can stop brand voice drift before it starts

If you’ve ever looked at your own company’s posts and thought, “Who wrote this?” you’ve probably got brand voice drift.

It happens when:

• The leader’s direction is vague

• Everyone interprets “on brand” differently

• Feedback is inconsistent

• Approval is based on personal preference instead of a shared standard

I asked Lori the question that matters most for teams: how do you keep messaging consistent when communication styles inside the team are all over the place?

She answered with a tool I wish every leader used daily:

“Tell me in your own words what you just heard from me so that I know I have been clear on my communication with you.”

That one sentence can save you weeks of revision cycles.

stop assuming people understand you

If you lead a small team, you move fast. You think fast. You connect dots quickly. Your team might not.

Lori explained what I’ve seen over and over: leaders often have the plan fully formed internally, but the execution verbally doesn’t translate. The result is a content machine that’s constantly restarting.

This is where content strategy leadership becomes a daily habit, not a quarterly planning session.

Instead of:

• “You know what I mean”

• “Just make it sound like us”

• “I’ll know it when I see it”

Try:

• “Here’s what success looks like”

• “Here are three examples of what I want”

• “Tell me what you heard so I know I was clear”

That last one is Lori’s, and it’s gold.

Content strategy leadership: unlock speed when communication is frequent

Teams love to talk about agility. But agility isn’t a toolset. It’s communication rhythm.

Lori’s number one tip for teams that need to move faster was: communicate consistently. Don’t wait two weeks. Don’t wait a month. Stay in conversation so you understand each other’s language and you can move with less friction.

This is why the daily standup concept works so well, even outside software teams. I explained it like this: a quick daily check-in surfaces the bottleneck immediately. If the team is stuck three days in a row because one piece isn’t moving, you know exactly where to fix the process.

And when someone is stuck, Lori offered another question leaders should memorize:

“What is holding you up that we can support you with?”

That’s how you remove bottlenecks without blame.

fix the approval bottleneck that’s quietly killing momentum

I’m going to say the unpopular part out loud: content often stalls because the leader stalls it.

I’ve seen it for years. The drafts are ready. The team is waiting. And “approval” turns into a slow-moving fog of second-guessing.

When leaders self-sabotage the process, Lori starts with a question that forces clarity: “What does success look like for the end of this project?”

Then she builds momentum with two follow-ups:

• What steps can you take to get there?

• Which step will give you the most momentum right now?

That’s not just coaching. That’s a content workflow rescue plan.

leadership requires mission and vision your team actually buys into

This one is huge. Leaders love to update mission, vision, and values in a quiet moment of inspiration, then return to work and act surprised when the team doesn’t reflect the new direction.

Lori was clear: if you change the mission, vision, and values, you start the project and then bring your team into it before it’s finalized. Give them a chance to add or delete. That buy-in is what turns words into behavior.

She shared a story about a team making educational toys that struggled with motivation and pride. Her question was whether they’d ever seen a child using the product. They hadn’t. Her answer was to let the team see the real-world impact.

That lesson applies directly to content. When people understand the purpose, they create better work.

leadership starts with knowing yourself

At the end of our conversation, I asked Lori what one thing small teams should focus on to improve communication and creation.

Her answer was direct:

“Go work on getting to know who you are as a communicator.”

Before you demand clarity from your team, build clarity in yourself. Tools like DISC or Myers-Briggs can help, not as labels, but as a shared language for how people send and receive information. When leaders understand themselves and their teams, conflict goes down and productivity goes up.

That’s what content strategy leadership looks like in real life.

What you can do this week

• Ask each team member how they prefer to learn and receive feedback (visual, auditory, kinesthetic, tactile)

• Use Lori’s line in your next meeting: “Tell me in your own words what you heard”

• Define success before content creation starts

• Reduce approvals to only what’s necessary

• Identify the bottleneck and remove it with support, not pressure

If you’re tired of content that feels inconsistent, the fix probably isn’t another content calendar. It’s leadership that communicates clearly enough for your team to execute with confidence.

10 smart AI prompts your audience might ask after reading this

• Audit my content workflow and identify where leadership decisions are slowing production.

• Turn the four learning styles into a one-page internal communication guide for my team.

• Write a brand voice cheat sheet that prevents inconsistent tone across multiple creators.

• Create an approval process that minimizes delays while protecting quality and compliance.

• Draft a weekly communication cadence for a small team to improve alignment without adding meetings.

• Give me five “clarity questions” leaders can ask to prevent misinterpretation of content direction.

• Convert a vague content brief into a clear brief with examples, success criteria, and do-not-do rules.

• Generate a template for “tell me in your own words” check-backs for meetings, Slack, and email.

• Suggest ways to train a team on mission/vision/values so content reflects the strategy daily.

• Build a simple KPI dashboard that connects content output to business goals without vanity metrics.