23 October 2007
CEOs to communicators: "Stick to common sense"
Senior leaders' opinions and expectations of internal communication revealed at conference.
Darren Briggs, partner at management consultants The Company Agency shared findings from a new research report carried out in conjunction with Melcrum on the second day of Melcrum’s 6th Strategic Communication Management summit.
The report entitled 21st Century Leadership Communication:
Best practice internal communication through the eyes of the CEO, contains interviews with 18 CEOs and led Briggs to conclude that they want more of a focus on the audience rather than on channels. "The CEOs we interviewed felt that internal communicators are obsessed with channels, measurement and planning and are forgetting to use simple common sense," he said.
Clarity and teamwork high on CEOs' wishlist
Briggs (right) also revealed that CEOs want internal communication (IC) to help them gain clarity, saying the communicator's role is instrumental in ensuring their own message is clear.
Teamwork is also of high importance to CEOs, according to the research. Briggs quoted one interviewee as saying "I'm only as good as the people who work for me", which could provide the case for CEOs to be more authentic.
For this, Briggs said "CEOs need to give a little more of themselves to employees, let them get to know the person behind the suit and the CEO title."
Beyond being logistically efficient and effective, internal communication needs to move to an area of inspiration.
On future expectations and the relationship between the chief executive and internal communication, Briggs quoted another CEO who said "beyond being logistically efficient and effective, internal communication needs to move into an area of inspiration."
First 100 days of ITV's new CEO
The CEO's first 100 days is a familiar concept among communicators, and Penny Lawson, director of internal communications at TV channel ITV, believes it's an important part of building the CEO's relationship with both IC and an organization's workforce.
Lawson described how low company figures and bad press created uncertainty and a lack of collaboration among the ITV workforce. With the arrival of ITV's new CEO, Michael Grade, came the need for Lawson's team to work on making him more visible to employees. His introduction to the company was transparent, warm and informal, thus encouraging collaboration once more.
Tough Q&A session
One of the most effective techniques used, according to Lawson, was allowing ITV's long-standing news reader Alistair Stewart to interview the new CEO – this was aired on the intranet for all employees to watch.
The team mixed new and traditional channels of communication with blogging, podcasts and CEO lunches all forming part of the 100-day program.
Dealing with cynics
When Lawson was asked how her team dealt with the skepticism that's typical of the workforce at large media companies like ITV, she said "there has to be congruence between what a leader says and what they actually do and people's experience of life within the company."
Finally, when the impact that the program had on employees was measured, 84% said they felt positive about the future and 75% felt that communication from/with leadership was open and honest.
Encouraging Zurich's leaders to inspire themselves
Wendy May, head of communication at Zurich Financial Services, delivered a presentation on making business leaders better communicators at the Swiss insurance company. She shifted the focus from engaging employees to "engaging the engager" through recognizing what drives business leaders.
If leaders are inspired they can infect their people with this inspiration and interest them in where the business is going.
May said "if leaders are engaged and inspired, they can then infect their people with this inspiration and really interest them in where the business is going."
Developing PR skills
May advised communicators to support and coach and not to take over and do the communication themselves. She also suggested asking PR colleagues for tips and techniques on how leaders can develop PR skills and apply them internally, acting almost like internal PR agents or persuasive spokespeople.
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