Talking Internal Communication...

The building blocks of a successful f2f strategy

Facilitating and improving face-to-face (f2f) communication is arguably the single most important aspect of what we do as internal communication professionals.

Study after study shows that face-to-face is the communication channel most preferred by employees for certain types of information. It is the key to unlocking engagement, to building internal trust and commitment and to creating a culture and climate for success.

To build a robust and effective face-to-face (f2f) communication strategy, you  need to focus your time and effort in three key areas:

1. Leadership

Senior leaders have a vital role to play in setting the tone within organisations and your face-to-face efforts will only succeed if they demonstrate their support through their words and actions.

Empower your leaders by creating opportunities for them to interact with employees, by playing to their own unique style and capabilities, by giving them feedback on their communication performance, and by challenging them if there’s an obvious mismatch between what they say and what they do.

2. Managers

Managers represent the front line in the battle to improve f2f communication. As communicators we rely heavily on them to provide context, to translate strategy into action, to build trust, to create ‘line of sight’, to communicate performance and to listen to and involve frontline employees.

Help managers by providing clarity about their roles as communicators and by explaining what they are accountable for. You can support them through coaching and skills development (though be careful not to patronise them by labelling it ‘training’). As with leaders, you can observe them in action and give them candid feedback on their performance.

3. Tools, resources, and techniques

The other big area to focus on is communication ‘stuff’ – content, materials, templates, formats, processes, resources and training. You will need to work hard to create the right briefing pack – one that captures the key messages succinctly, yet allows for local interpretation. Managers, in particular, will look to you to help them structure their team meetings and find unusual way to break the ice, capture feedback, bring the numbers to life or involve participants in business planning.

The good news is that, for the most part, you’ll be knocking on an open door. Many managers and leaders feel ill equipped in this area and welcome robust knowledge and practical suggestions that help them engage their people more effectively.

Lee, Gatehouse

Absence, stress & depression in the workplace – line managers may hold the key

A recent study from NICE, the National Institute of Health & Clinical Excellence, caught my eye.  Reported on the Management Today website, it  suggests that poor line management is responsible for rising levels of stress in the workplace.

NICE reckons the total cost to the UK economy of work related stress, anxiety and depression is now a staggering £28bn - more than 14 million work days are lost every year due to these conditions.

It says that businesses can make their employees happier, reduce costs and boost productivity by following a few basic guidelines - like giving positive feedback, encouraging flexible working and giving days off as a reward.

And it’s not the only study to highlight this issue recently. Recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark found that 91% of employees are stressed at work - and worse still, seven in 10 are too scared to raise their concerns with their bosses. And back in the Spring a Finnish study concluded that poor team spirit at work can increase the chance of developing depression by more than half.

Now line managers clearly aren’t solely to blame for rising levels of stress and depression at work – the state of the economy doesn’t help - but their actions can play a big part in reducing or encouraging it. 

And it’s often the little things that make the biggest difference – like saying hello to team members in the morning, recognising and celebrating successes, communicating regularly as a team, listening, providing constructive performance feedback, ensuring employees are clear on what they need to do by when and promoting a sense of ‘esprit de corps’. These are all practical things that line managers can do to help create a healthy and happy workplace.

Again and again in study after study the pivotal role of line managers is underlined. They hold the key to so many aspects of organisational success and, in my mind, represent the frontline in the battle for hearts and minds – and health - in the workplace.

If they are not already, I believe internal communicators should be focusing the bulk of their time, resources and energy on enhancing the quality of line managers, equipping them with the right skills and information and directly engaging them. As my old boss used to say, happy people + happy customers = successful business – and the first part of that equation rests largely in the hands of line managers.

Lee Smith, Gatehouse

Playing to your leader’s style

There was an interesting article in PR Week last week, on the subject of leadership communication. Entitled ‘Get the best out of your boss’ it outlines six of the most common leadership styles and suggests how communicators can best play to the personalities of their leaders. It’s a nice reminder of the breadth of styles we have to work with and provides some useful pointers on how to play to your boss’s particular strengths.

The six leadership styles – and the supporting descriptions (I’ve paraphrased) are:

1. Visionary leader – the classic rock star CEO who sets the big-picture and excels at moving people towards a shared vision. These leaders are superb public speakers and enjoy life in the spotlight. Barack Obama is a good example.
2. Affiliative leader – this type of leader wants to be your friend. A collaborative figure, the affiliative leader focuses on emotional needs and is most likely to ask ‘how are you?’. Angela Merkel is held up as an example. 
3. Coaching leader – holds long conversations that often extend beyond the work place.Good at helping employees identify their strengths and weaknesses and linking these to career goals. Step forward Dr Who.
4. Democratic leader –these are the great listening leaders, though this is sometimes at the expense of decisive action. Favourite catchphrases include ‘what do you think?’. They like to show the way without pushing people in a particular direction. Lord Sebastian Coe is a good example.
5. Pacesetter leader – most likely to say ‘copy me’, these hard working leaders never shirk a challenge and lead by example. One downside is that they often expect employees to automatically get the picture. Step forward Margaret Thatcher…
6. Commanding leader – an old-school taskmaster who brings the dynamics of the playground into the boardroom. Very command and control in style they stick to one clear direction and refuse to consider an alternative routes or messages. Montgomery Burns is a good example. 

The communicators quoted in the article, among them David Ferrabee and James Harkness, provide lots of useful advice on working with these types, including:

• Providing visionary leaders the right platform and sufficient time to explain their vision to others and gather feedback. High profile tactics like webcasts and regular publication profiles go down well with these types, but they may sometimes lack an eye for detail and require specific IC support in this area.
• Identifying opportunities for affiliative leaders to show their steel. Tactics like back to the floor are useful here, as are structured team meetings which focus on sharing constructive feedback. One classic issue with these types is their desire to communicate only the positive messages.
• Playing to the strengths of coaching leaders by encouraging them to host small, intimate sessions and focus on helping people turn strategy into action. These types are not great at big picture, but excel at one-to-one.
• Creating high-involvement forums for democratic leaders – workshops, online forums and blogs are particularly powerful. Clear, decisions communications help overcome this leader’s tendency towards indecision. Arm them with insights and intelligence about the workforce and they should respond well.
• Encouraging the pacesetting leader to be more inclusive, more considerate of the feelings of others and creating plenty of listening opportunities. Inclusivity is key here and tactics like recognition programmes and use of social media channels can be useful.
• Context is critical for the commanding leader. Rather than just explaining the what to people, they need to focus on building understanding around the why. Big picture strategy is important here – and tactics like learning maps and visuals and strategy toolkits can be very handy.  Listening channels are important too – and employees may require anonymity as commanding leaders can breed distrust and fear. Coaching in body language is also useful. 

Unfortunately you can’t access the article online unless you’re a registered PR Week subscriber, but there are also a few good video clips you can watch.

Lee

CIPR Inside leadership comms event this Thursday - new speakers just added

We have just confirmed two great new additions to the panel of business leaders and communicators lined up for the CIPR Inside leadership communication event taking place in London this Thursday (22 January). 

In addition to the excellent speakers already confirmed (see below) we will now be joined by Simon MacDowall from HMRC and Nick Henderson from Guardian GS LLP.

Both Nick and Simon bring different and unique perspectives to the leadership agenda and will further strengthen the panel, promising a lively and informative debate. I, for one, am really looking forward to it.

Here's a little more about them:

Simon MacDowall is currently Director of Communications and Marketing for Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC), one of the largest government departments with 90,000 staff and a budget of £4.25 billion. Although responsible for both external and internal communications, the challenge of leading a programme to engage and motivate people at a time of restructuring, budget cuts and annual reduction of the workforce is probably the greatest.

Previously he was Director General of Media and Communications at the Ministry of Defence and Communications Director at the Department for Work and Pensions. Before joining the Civil Service in 1999, Simon was Chief of Public Information for NATO in North-western Europe; following on from a career in the Canadian Army, during which he saw service in Canada, Germany, Bosnia, Kosovo, Nicaragua and Honduras.

Nick Henderson is currently the CEO of Guardian GS LLP a strategic risk mitigation company. Guardian provides intelligence and information to large corporations and family offices on how to mitigate people risk.

Prior to joining Guardian Nick was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Coldstream Guards for 24 years. His last appointment was as Commanding Officer.  In the course of 2005 he was responsible for all aspects of security, governance, reconstruction and communications in Basra City, Iraq which included the much-publicised rescue of 2 Special Forces operatives from the Iraqi Police in September of that year.

In Iraq Nick established a comprehensive and structured training plan for the Iraqi Police Force which included all military and civil agencies, national as well as international. This plan has subsequently been adopted by the British Army.  Additionally, he established new procedures to combat the rising threat from roadside bombs and suicide bombers within the city.  He specialises in evaluating threats and establishing teams to implement security measures to neutralize these threats.

Nick has extensive experience at the international and strategic level having worked in the UK Ministry of Defence, with NATO and with the UN.

In addition to these two new speakers, the session will also feature:

• Jonathon Scott, former Group Head of Internal Communication at Royal Sun Alliance
• Sally Costerton, Chairperson and CEO, Hill & Knowlton EMEA
• Richard Dennison, Senior manager - social media at BT plc
• Henri Forde, Head of Internal Communications, City & Guilds Group

The event will take place at Hill & Knowlton's offices (20 Soho Square, London W1A 1PR) from 1600-1830. Tickets cost just £25 + VAT (£28.75) for CIPR members; £35 +VAT (£40.25) for non-members. To reserve your place simply email ciprinside@ntlworld.com.

I hope to see you there.

L

CIPR Inside event: Leadership Communication & Authenticity - London, January 22

Do leaders really understand internal communication? Do internal communication practitioners really understand the challenges that leaders face? Do we even speak the same language?

As we face a dramatic economic downturn – with many organisations restructuring, consolidating their operations and laying people off – what role will internal communicators play in helping their leaders respond to these difficult challenges?

If you happen to be in London on Thursday 22 January and are free during the late afternoon/early evening, why not come along to our next CIPR Inside event to find out the answers?

Organised and hosted by my committee colleague, Hill & Knowlton's Scott McKenzie, 'Leadership Communication and Authenticity' aims to explore the role leaders play in creating a conversation culture inside their organisation, how they establish an authentic voice internally, and the nature of their relationship with professional communicators.

This will be a free-ranging session with experienced practitioners and business leaders on our panel. A facilitated discussion will draw out key themes and issues, before these are hotly debated in open forum. The debate will be followed by a Panel Q&A and then networking drinks.

The event will take place at Hill & Knowlton's offices (20 Soho Square, London W1A 1PR) from 1600-1830. Tickets cost just £25 + VAT (£28.75) for CIPR members; £35 +VAT (£40.25) for non-members. To reserve your place simply email ciprinside@ntlworld.com now.

I hope to see you there.

L

The Authentic Enterprise - free report/white paper

Here, courtesy of Simply Communicate, is an excellent free report from the Arthur W.Page Society on authenticity in leadership and corporate communications.

It's a substantial document, but well worth a read as it reaches some interesting conclusions about the role of communication professionals. It's also a project that has been led by an impressive and very credible task force. 

I consider this report a must-read for anyone interested in getting under the skin of that much-loved buzzword, authenticity.  

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Leader as weather man?

I came across a lovely example of leadership communication today...

Apparently every morning a member of the senior leadership team at the Met Office  stands up in the atrium at its Exeter HQ and shares the weather forecast for the day with the gathered employees.

I don't know whether this is true, but if it is it strikes me as a really nice and very relevant way to make members of the top team visible and accessible, and to ensure everyone is aware of information that is central to the organisation's purpose.

It's also a great example of a new custom or tradition (I assume the practice started when the Met Office relocated to Exeter in 2003) that will, over time, become part of the organisation's culture.

Sometimes when senior leaders attempt to 'connect' with frontline employees it comes across as contrived and fake. Far better for them to communicate something useful and interesting like this.