No one seems sure of the skills required to manage internal communications


I believe that you don't have to have a professional communicator as the head of internal communications. But you do need someone who can ˜feel' what is happening in the business and knows enough to get things moving, briefing the professional communicators to do their job. My view - and one that has gained considerable credence in recent years - is that internal communications needs to be staffed by line managers (who may be on assignments from their other roles for upwards of 12 months). There is no reason why marketing, manufacturing, legal or finance people cannot play a role in this catch-all position. They will bring a sense of the ˜real world' with them and in turn will expand their own understanding of the organisation.

Too often, and here top management can take at least some of the blame, it is assumed that people in communications need to be able to write. No they don't! They need to have access to people who can, but they themselves need to know about the content of messages and understand the workings of the organisation well enough to hear the beat-on-the-street and how to respond to it. They need to be able to kick down the CEO's door and say ˜Fred, we have to do something about this - quick.' Twenty-five-year-olds fresh from college or making coffee in the marketing department are not going to cut it. You need a seasoned professional who can ˜smell' trouble. Supporting them you can have all the writers and marketing communications you want, either internal or external, depending on your budget.

My view - but I am biased , because I have spent 20 plus years making my living at it - is that it pays to go outside and hire horses for courses. For example: your vice-president of marketing is going to speak to a global marketing conference. Get a writer who can place your vice-president's message into the context of the world that those marketing executives inhabit. Similarly, if your CEO is going to speak at the Davos Symposium, get a writer who can put his comments into the context of the economic and political issues of the day. If your head of information systems is going to a technical conference in Palm Springs, get a writer who is steeped in tech lore (don't call me on this one, please !). Twenty years ago, all the big corporations had teams of writers on staff. Now, mostly, they have none. They go and find a writer who fits the bill. Also - as I have discovered - getting old and a little grey is great. I can go to a CEO and tell him honestly that I think his idea for a speech is a lousy one. Twenty years ago, I couldn't get away with it, I had to grow a moustache to make myself look older and more serious!




The New Rules of Engagement(c) Life-Work Balance and Employee Commitment
Performance Tuning for Linux(R) Servers
ISBN: N/A
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 131

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