⛳ The Arnold Palmer Principle: The Power of being Proactive

10 Strategies for Succeeding as an Internal Communicator

Mar 12, 2025

Early in my career, I learned the power of proactive work from Maude1, an Executive Assistant who mixed “Arnold Palmers” for the CEO before he asked for the drink. As she poured the lemonade and iced tea combo named for the iconic golfer, I observed with curiosity.

When I asked her what she was mixing, she explained that our boss liked his afternoon drink at a specific time so she prepared it for him without being asked. When she delivered the drink, I watched him smile in appreciation.

At that moment, I realized the power of being proactive at work — if you think ahead, it will be appreciated and rewarded in return. I call this lesson the Arnold Palmer Principle in honor of that afternoon drink, Admin extraordinaire and sweet CEO.

Here are tips for applying this principle to the ways we communicate and connect at work with best practices from leaders featured on The Switchboard and me. This top 10 list focuses on maximizing time, writing, thinking, getting approvals and being kind:

⏱️ Block Your Calendar to Innovate: Blythe Yee
📅 Ask the Deadline, Plan Ahead: Julia Levy
🪶 Be the Documentor: Brie Wolfson
📚 Develop Templates and Toolkits: Jesse Comart
📖 Take Learning Seriously: Zofia Ciechowska
🚧 Ask Yourself the Hard Questions First: Cath Anderson
✈️ Pre-Flight Feedback: Julia Levy
⚓ Make Recommendations with Resilience: Tracey Pavlishin
🧱 Build Relationships Before You Need Them: Elizabeth Rasberry
🪀 Bring Joy: Michelle Lee

⏱️ Time

1.⏱️ Block Your Calendar to Innovate: Blythe Yee

I think a lot about personal energy and how that affects my work. I block time when I do my best work so that I can think about the future and invest in strategy without interruptions. That uninterrupted time is make or break for innovation and anything that requires deep thought.

2. 🛣️ Ask the Deadline, Plan Ahead: Julia Levy

When you’re asked to take on a project, it’s natural to start working on it quickly, but pause to ask for a deadline. This will help you prioritize and set your pace. From the due date, work backwards on a timeline. Share it with the requestor to ensure alignment. Save time for creating, drafting and reviewing.
To manage your time, think in calendar sprints – tomorrow, next week, next month. Set a 30-minute recurring meeting with yourself daily and spend 10 minutes on each time block. Try to schedule this in the late morning or early afternoon to meet your deadlines.

✏️ Writing

3. 🪶 Be the Documentor: Brie Wolfson

The other role I see great internal communications professionals play is that of a company poet/scribe. I think a lot about this letter George Saunders wrote to his students in the pandemic–he puts forth what I think is a really beautiful question around "who will write this?" I've definitely noticed that companies are getting more excited about "writing this" (as in, documenting their lore, putting pen to paper on operating principles, articulating the company pulse at a moment in time, etc.).

4.📚 Develop Templates and Toolkits: Jesse Comart

If you can put some goals and norms in place ahead of time with the C-suite and legal, you’ll save yourself the headache of reinventing the wheel with every reactive scenario. I think it'll free up your time and headspace to be more proactive.…You can’t predict the micro moments, but if you can have some standards set about what we communicate and why, you can try to follow those in the moment and not get consumed by that.

🏫 Thinking

5. 📖 Take Learning Seriously: Zofia Ciechowska

Be a voracious learner who listens, analyzes, debates and writes daily. Learn faster than others. Have a bias for action. Your goal is to become encyclopedic about your customers, the business, your product and key metrics. You need to be eager to discover root causes, never settle for the first answer, and know how to think in systems and see all of the parts connect. Curiosity is key.

6. 🚧 Ask Yourself the Hard Questions First: Cath Anderson

Most importantly, you need to be able to have hard conversations and say things that might not be popular, but that's the only way you can actually be strategic and prepare your leadership for the crisis moments. I always look to poke holes so that I can shape the best narrative.

✅ Getting Sign-Off

7.✈️ Pre-Flight Feedback: Julia Levy

Let’s say you have a big presentation or a proposal that you’re sending to leadership. Share it with your peers for early feedback. Ask their questions to unblock potential roadblocks. Once it’s ready for the final review, invite any key stakeholders besides the final decision-maker to review your project. Getting their stamp of approval early will ensure your success.

8. ⚓ Make Recommendations with Resilience: Tracey Pavlishin

When I was a fundraiser, I learned that no doesn’t always mean no—it often means not right now. In my current role, I pitch a ton of ideas and they don’t always get implemented, but I don’t get rid of them. I revisit them every few months by reminding leaders: “We talked about this a few months ago. It wasn’t the right time, what do you think about now?

♥️ Be Kind

9. 🧱 Build Relationships Before You Need Them: Elizabeth Rasberry

You can’t just sit at your desk and write, you’ve got to pick up the phone, ask questions, have virtual coffees now, to find out about their department. It might not be until months later that you tap into that relationship but keep in touch to be able to reach out when the time is right.

10.🪀 Bring Joy: Michelle Lee

Joy keeps people coming back. This can take many shapes. Joy can surface as a source of inspiration — playing games together, taking a field trip, inviting employees to share a weekend highlight at the start of a meeting or creating an internal communications channel where they can share what’s inspiring them in the world. Joy is also about celebration. It's very easy to jump from project to project, but we need to make sure we also take time to stop and recognize the contributions that everyone's making.

I hope that by applying The Arnold Palmer Principle you can be even more proactive at work. By incorporating these 10 actionable tips from Switchboard leaders into your day, you may enhance your productivity, strategic thinking, writing and relationships. It's these small actions – like Maude's thoughtful Arnold Palmer delivery – that can leave a lasting impression. But, keep in mind — there is such a thing as being too proactive. I’ll save that for another edition, I don’t want to be too eager.

What tip would you add to this list? Share your suggestions below.

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