Multiple Face Of An Internal Communication Professional

Submitted by: L.Smith

Internal Communications professionals closely work with leaders, managers and in-house communicators, at the place and globally, to help shape their organization s culture, mobilise employees behind change and bring values to life by delivering high quality internal communications that create real, tangible results.

Internal Communications professionals have to play multiple roles to ensure real and tangible results as he has to be work with wide variety of sectors, including professional and financial services, FMCG, travel & leisure, utilities, government departments and regulators etc. One of the key things that jumped out namely the multifaceted and diverse nature of the roles of these professional and the fact that, as communication professionals, we are expected to be so many things to many people.

Here are few of the points discussing the above facts

Communicator as matchmaker – building relationships across the organization, connecting individuals and teams, sparking conversations

Communicator as politician – building consensus amongst diverse board members, circumventing the org chart, oiling the wheels

Communicator as educator – building employee understanding and appreciation of business issues and challenges, organisational performance, etc

Communicator as listener – developing feedback channels, building champion networks, conducting research, tuning into the grapevine

Communicator as facilitator – getting the most out of a dysfunctional group, making forums work

Communicator as fixer – responding to employee questions and suggestions, making life easier for the CEO by making things happen, taking action, doing stuff

Communicator as bridge-builder – linking leadership to employees, making the top team accessible, breaking down barriers between teams and functions

Communicator as coach – being a trusted advisor, helping leaders and managers communicate more effectively (and appropriately), telling it like it is.

Communicator as fire fighter – dealing with assorted crises, tackling issues, cleaning up the mess when everything goes wrong

Communicator as conscience – encouraging people to tell the truth, championing transparency, fighting spin, living values, being ethical

Communicator as artist – coming up with innovative, creative concepts and campaigns, delivering ‘beautiful’ communications

Communicator as business person /all rounder- understanding how the organization works, being able to understand the financial statement and turn it into plain English

Communicator as know-it-all – being able to answer any employee question on any topic, knowing how to deal with those obscure calls that the people on reception don’t know how to handle.

Inside many organisations, but particularly in those undergoing transition, we usually find that a significant number of employees are apathetic they have largely switched off to corporate messages and are instead focused on protecting their patch and safeguarding their individual futures.

Others are aware but lack appreciation they know something is happening but they do not really understand it. Some understand your plans but do not actively support them. A small number are demonstrating the right behaviors (in line with your values), but are not proactively recommending and championing the business to others.

You will inevitably have employees at every stage of this journey. Where employees are dictates your communication approach. Moving people from appreciation to action, for instance, requires very different tactics to moving them from awareness to appreciation. The former demands a high level of face-to-face communication, whilst the latter can largely be achieved through electronic and print channels.

The model also underlines the fact that internal communication is all about hearts and minds you have to first satisfy employee s rational information needs (by creating awareness and building appreciation) and then gain their buy-in (by engaging them emotionally) in order create advocates.

About the Author: Lee Smith is associate director with

gatehousegroup.co.uk

, an internal communication agency, provides consultancy services for internal communications, for internal communications,internal comms research, audit, jobs, and employee engagement.

Source:

isnare.com

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