Talking Internal Communication...

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.