The Trusted Advisor: How to become your company's hero
Behind every great leader, you'll probably find a trusted advisor - an individual who can act as a sage counsellor and discreet sounding board. With their candour and expertise, the trusted advisor is a pivotal player in the exploration of new ideas, discovering solutions to critical problems, illuminating organizational blind spots and navigating the road ahead.
Key Points:
- A trusted advisor is in an excellent position to help shape business strategy and how it is executed and communicated, thereby establishing their credibility and influence. However, this position must be earned.
- Being proactive in demonstrating an understanding of where your internal customers are coming from - and what their problems are - is paramount, as is proving your value to the business.
- Gain credibility by having the confidence to push back and disagree with leaders when required.
It's easy to see why becoming a trusted advisor to the CEO and/or senior leaders is akin to the Holy Grail for many internal communicators. After all, the benefits from a development perspective are clear: the professional who is the first port of call for the solution to a business problem is in a tremendous position to help shape the thinking, build a deeper understanding of the situation, and to establish strong credibility through the discussions. In other words, they will be in pole position to not only influence what is done, but what is communicated and how it is said.
But becoming a trusted advisor doesn't happen overnight. The position must be earned - and this takes time and investment of effort. So, how do you build this type of relationship and become a trusted advisor to the CEO? And how do you go beyond your "comms expert" label and become viewed by top management as a critical partner in making the organization's most important decisions?
A businessperson who talks communications
We've all seen them, the communicator that delivers internal messages, and the communicator that helps shape the business. But what differentiates the two? Quite simply it's having knowledge of your business, and the ability to be proactive, says Sue Dewhurst, managing director of the SD Group, and a Melcrum UK Black Belt trainer.
Demonstrating an understanding of where your internal customers are coming from, what their problems are and conducting conversations from that perspective is a fundamental part of being a trusted advisor. How a communicator is viewed varies depending on the type of conversations the internal customers are used to having with them. A leader is undoubtedly going to find greater value in the communicator who speaks the language of the business and tries to achieve the business objectives first and foremost. "Quite often what happens is communicators go in and have 'communication conversations', and I think it doesn't quite match," says Dewhurst, on identifying blocks to achieving trusted advisor status.
It's surprising then that many let keeping abreast of the business strategy fall by the wayside. Yes, internal communicators may feel like they already have hundreds of things on their to do list, but could failing in getting to know the business be the reason why they often find themselves as the deliverer of organizational messages, rather than cultivating them? "Although internal communicators want to do this, I think they quite often place the blame at the foot of their internal customers," says Dewhurst. She often hears communicators complain that they're not involved in decisions until it's too late, or that their advice isn't being listened to, but, she adds: "There's no smoke without fire, and if they're not being treated as advisors, it's because they've not achieved the right to be there yet."
When positioned as trusted advisors, we become a management tool to help drive the business, which in turn helps drive employee engagement.
From reactive to proactive
Equipping yourself with knowledge of your business means you can take a proactive stance in helping meet its objectives. Those who are usually sought out tend to have proved their worth and built a reputation on looking for opportunities to achieve business goals, regularly talking to internal customers and understanding what's going on in their remit. "It's not about sitting there and waiting for the customers to come out and ask you to do something," says Dewhurst. "If you know your business, you can see where there's potential for an issue or something that needs support, and you proactively go out and offer your help with solving that issue."
For Kelly Vandrine, head of communication at healthcare company Bupa Australia, knowing her business and using her specialist skill has seen the function transform from one that simply sent out company announcements, to one that today works with people across the business to develop comms strategies. In practice, this means that when someone submits a project for review or sign-off, they have to state early on what internal communication support they need.
"It means we have a view of what's coming up the rest of the year, that we wouldn't otherwise know about," says Vandrine. She regularly works with the CEO and directors to provide advice and consultation on projects and helping them achieve their objectives.
Transforming the role and function
Vandrine emphasizes that the need to demonstrate value - and how you can support the business - is essential in positioning oneself as a trusted advisor. She agrees that brushing up on business knowledge and being proactive is key to paving the way to doing this. "You can only be a trusted advisor if you have any idea of what you're talking about, because otherwise [senior leaders] will completely dismiss you, even if your idea is sound, because they won't think you understand their challenges," she says.
To widen your knowledge of the business, Kim Beddard-Fontaine, vice president, internal communications at Schneider Electric, asserts the importance of getting involved in management meetings, as well as asking for time with different members of the leadership to get input on what their needs are. "You have to start opening the door yourself," she says.
This was one of the first things Vandrine did when she first moved into her role, setting up one-to-one meetings with each of the directors at Bupa Australia, to gauge their views on what they saw the role of IC being, their top five priorities for the next year, as well as her views on the function's role in the business.
"I didn't position it as being about me, I tried to position it to what I could do for them and support their teams," she says.
"The first time I asked, 'how do you think internal comms can support the business in meeting its objectives' some of them looked at me blankly, as if to say 'internal comms can support the business? What are you talking about, don't you just send emails?'" A common reaction, no doubt, for many communicators.
Members can read the rest of the article here.
Have your say
Have you positioned yourself as a trusted advisor to senior leaders in your organization? How have you done this? What competencies do you think a communicator needs to become a trusted advisor?
Recommended resources:
Coaching BP's IT managers to engage their teams
Coaching managers to create open dialogue at Flextronics
ONLINE LIBRARY 
Access all Manager and Leader Comms articles