The road ahead for internal communication skills and competencies
In an interview with Melcrum's Black Belt Trainers, Sue Dewhurst, Adrian Cropley and Geri Rhoades discuss professional development trends for the internal communicator. They do so with the IC Competencies Framework in mind. Find out which of these 12 competencies are missing from IC functions today, which have become more prominent and how – if at all – they'll change in the coming years.
1. Which of the six stereotypical roles in How to develop outstanding internal communicators do you most commonly see practitioners trying to
move into?
Sue Dewhurst, The SD Group, says, “’Trusted advisor’ is the term many European practitioners use and generates the most interest.” She adds that people commonly ask, “How do I become a proactive partner instead of simply reacting to customer requests?” Black Belt 2 quotes Nancy Klein, “Even in a hierarchy, people can be equals as thinkers.” Although “trusted advisor” is seen as the place to go, how many really mean it? “Producing things is much easier because you don’t have to challenge people,” she says.
Geri Rhoades, Rhoades Communication, says some US practitioners are finding it hard to let go of tasks before moving into the next area. “Many are still specialists. They have a hard time seeing themselves as valuable unless they’re producing something tangible. They believe the only way to do that is by being a specialist.” She believes the situation arises because some communicators do not want to let go and customers want to see something tangible. Like Dewhurst, she says practitioners want to move into the advisor role, but do not always have the concrete evidence of being viewed this way. “They have a lot of work to do to make that happen,” she adds.
Recently, more people have become involved with managing organizational change and the role for the internal communicator is drifting more in that direction
Adrian Cropley, Cropley Communication, sees a difference in Asia and Australia. “More people have generalist skills because of their organization’s size,” he says. “Therefore they have to play all six roles, which certainly include giving strategic advice and having coaching skills.” He sees a trend for practitioners to develop their leadership capabilities and drive the IC role. “We’re seeing people move across disciplines, external relations as well as IC, making it a dual role. Many Black Belt delegates are managing a dual function of internal and external communication.” He sees a growing trend for communicators to work at a strategic level and advise business leaders. “People are looking to develop those skills,” he says. “Recently, more people have become involved with managing organizational change and the role for the internal communicator is drifting more in that direction, for example in providing ways to communicate change.”
What is the most common motivation behind professional development plans?
Black Belt has been running for about four years in the UK and Europe. Dewhurst acknowledges that people come to IC from many places and may think, “I’m not a proper communication person,” or their boss or customer does not think they are. “They need reassurance that they’re doing it right,” she says. “The course gives them confidence and affirmation, while the tools give them structure and credibility.”
In the US, Black Belt has been running for two years. Rhoades says the reasons people come and what they gain are different. “They come for tangible skills and processes to improve their work, which they get. But what they leave with is a new ability to step off the treadmill.” She gives an example of one client attending with her entire team. “It gave them a renewed way of looking at things and got everyone on the same page in process terms.” Rhoades says delegates want more skills and to progress their career. “They need to think bigger and beyond being a specialist.”
Black Belt has been running for three years in Australia and Asia. “Getting the right balance of what people want has been an interesting journey,” Cropley says. “But we haven’t changed much from the original program. We’ve had to cater for the generalist and those operating at a higher organizational level. People come on the Black Belt course to get tools, techniques and become a more strategic communicator.” But he says they often want a prescriptive process for how to do it. “Moving into consulting and advisory roles requires having the maturity to manage relationships at all levels. It’s not based on a standard template.”
The research suggests tactical expertise is still important no matter how much strategic skills are being prioritized. Does this ring true from conversations with course delegates?
Dewhurst lists the three levels of relationship: tactical, strategic and trusted. “The tactical level is where you earn your stripes,” she explains. “You must be able to do the craft work or you can lose your licence if you let people down. You can have the best strategy in the world but if your tactics don’t work what’s the point of your strategy?”
Rhoades says the tactical need is very present for emerging social media. However, most practitioners already believe they are good tacticians. “We’ve had IC in the US for a long time,” she adds. “The real push, which people aren’t quite getting, is a better business focus and knowing how to coach. These are the two main skills that’ll elevate our role.”
The real push, which people aren’t quite getting, is a better business focus and knowing how to coach. These are the two main skills that’ll elevate our role.
Dewhurst also observes that social media tactics are a big conversation topic. “This is something that’s changed. When we first started Black Belt, social media didn’t exist,” she says. “In its early days, we ran a session covering the basics about blogs, RSS, wikis and so on. Now we don’t have a specific session on social media any more than we would on newsletters or intranets. They’re all included in a single ‘tactics’ session.”
Cropley has some concern that tactical skills could get lost. “While the focus is on strategic competencies, people assume they’re already good at the tactical side. For example, planning channels and understanding audiences,” he says. “When we delve into these areas, we still spark ‘Ah ha!’ moments.” He sees writing as an assumed skill, but delegates lack a widespread hunger to develop it. “The bigger need is getting more reach for the message.” He believes some basic skills are being ignored, which might be a generational issue. “But on the other hand, some communicators are so comfortable with technical skills, they find it hard to move up to the strategic level.”
Although all three interviewees have seen cutbacks in IC during the recession, none of them has noticed a specifically big push towards outsourcing tactical work.
What changes do you see in IC people’s basic skills from the BB course?
Dewhurst says the big change is the move from outputs to outcomes – doing things for a purpose rather than simply for the sake of it. It means constantly asking, “What’s the biggest business priority?” and avoiding jumping to solutions too soon. “By the end of the course delegates start thinking about needs and objectives before tactics,” she explains. “On Black Belt 2, the biggest thing people take away is the power of questions. Asking rather than telling, so that clients can discover things for themselves.” A popular Black Belt 2 session helps practitioners build confidence.
Cropley says practitioners change how they work with senior managers and develop an ability to have different conversations with the business. “When someone asks for advice, practitioners see it as an opportunity to consult and find the best method to solve a business problem.” Practitioners understand how to apply measurement and feed back evidence of how effective communication has supported the business. “This increases their credibility as a communicator and steps up their value in the organization. It’s been surprising how many have had real change happen and grown their teams.”
“Coaching and consultancy” are still important competencies for IC over the next few years. How does this compare with the skills delegates are seeking from the course?
Dewhurst says many practitioners attend Black Belt 2 because of its emphasis on becoming a trusted advisor. “But often people would benefit first from the Black Belt 1 grounding in business needs and outcomes focus,” she says. “For example, using effective communication planning builds a powerful argument with a customer for doing things a certain way. “Black Belt 2 doesn’t offer concrete models and frameworks. It’s more about the skills of influencing, facilitating and giving feedback.”
Rhoades says practitioners want “coaching”, “making it happen” and “planning”. But she believes they need “business focus” and “listening” as well as “coaching”. “They may want to be coaches because they would like the relationship, power and decision-making they believe goes with coaching,” she says. “But true coaching doesn’t have the answers and delegates have a tough time with this concept because they want to be the ones that know. What they really want to be is a consultant, but they think they should be coaches. There’s a big distinction.” For some she thinks the transition will be difficult. “Each person must be willing to take the journey to figure out what it’ll take for them to be a real coach. Being a top advisor means knowing how to coach.”
In Australia and Asia, Cropley is seeing more HR professionals coming on Black Belt courses to build their IC competences. At the same time, many IC departments are taking cultural change and engagement into their role. “In the program, there’s going to be a need for more skills in employee engagement and maybe organization design and culture,” he says. Since becoming involved with IC 15 years ago, Cropley has seen the pendulum swing several times. “IC began as an HR role and then developed an external focus from marketing communication and PR. Now the pendulum is swinging back towards HR and the difference IC makes to employees. This might be the product of the global financial crisis or the organization’s maturity. When we started the Black Belt program, many people came from corporate communication, marketing or
PR backgrounds.”
Which of the 12 competencies are the “top 3” based on what course delegates most want to achieve from the course? Are there changes in these suggesting an emerging trend?
Dewhurst says “consulting and coaching” is the delegates’ number one, with “planning” second and “listening” third. She would also add “building relationships” to the number one spot. In contrast, her number one is “business focus”. She sees an emerging trend around social media – although this is a tactical skill rather than a fully defined competence. “Who’s got the voice and how do we encourage dialogue?” she asks. “How will our role have to change from being the controller and deliverer of messages to becoming a facilitator of conversations? We’re no longer entirely a message distributor, but an enabler. We’re helping connect people to have conversations.” She feels there may be an emerging competence around community building that was not obvious, say four years ago.
Similarly, Rhoades’ number one is also “business focus”. “Nothing will happen without it,” she says. “To elevate our role, we must know what’s going on from a business perspective.” With reference to social media she says, “There are no more lines in the sand. With the internet and social media, everyone is crossing lines. The more we try to control, the more trouble we’ll get. We used to be able to shield employees and we can’t do that anymore. We’ve become jugglers and integrators and we need to listen. There’s a lot of power and importance in that.”
Cropley agrees that “business focus” is the top competence needed now, followed by “relationships”, “consultancy and coaching”. He feels that “cross-functional awareness” is less important. “The profession now understands similar principles apply whether communication is internal or external. On the external side, organizations are more open and consider audience emotions as much as IC does.” When he first started in IC, external messages tried to control the environment and IC was about forming employee relationships. “External communication is now more about relationships with the advent of social media. The two disciplines are moving closer and now almost apply the same principles.” Like Rhoades, he sees “listening” as a key competence, particularly in facilitating change. He sees a further shift. The “developing other communicators” competence is becoming broader to include developing others to communicate – managers in particular. “It’s about developing the communication maturity of the organization by developing communication skills more generally.”
Based on conversations with course members,
are there competencies outside the framework that might appear in a revised version – now or in five years?
Dewhurst hesitates to say “social media” because it is a tactic. “I think there might be something around being a connector, facilitator or enabler in bringing communities together. It builds on cross-functional communication and works with different audiences who now have a voice because of globalization and the tools we’ve got. We never used to think about how to connect people across time zones and make virtual relationships work.”
Cropley says cultural issues are a huge area for the future. “As companies grow, develop and become more global in outlook, cultural communication will become a bigger need,” he says. “Although it’s not a specific topic in the Black Belt program, we’re always mindful of how things get interpreted from a cultural perspective. Being more culturally sensitive and aware is now on many people’s radar. Segmenting the organization by markets and countries seems the way to go. Even though this is a decentralized model, there’s still a need to build cultural awareness in IC.”
True personal power comes from how well you know yourself
From your skills and development observations and insights, are there noticeable trends you see from your experiences with course delegates?
Rhoades sees a trend towards working with many more different types of people. “Perhaps we used to be more sheltered if we reported to the CEO or HR. For years, we’ve talked to business leaders about working with us because we’re beneficial to them. Now we have to know how to do this well. A big trend IC struggles with is the necessity to work with IT, who have a very different style.”
Cropley sees a trend in building the value of IC in the organization. “I wouldn’t exactly term it as marketing yourself, but there’s something around demonstrating your value to the organization,” he says. “There’s a need to understand how to be seen as valuable. It relies partly on having a consulting mindset and providing measurement to prove a return on IC.”
Feedback from several Forum study interviewees suggests IC would benefit from a better understanding of human behavior. Is this an area course delegates are interested in?
Dewhurst believes many practitioners are interested in human behavior, and is studying for an MSc in psychology. From her studies, she is introducing new content on both Black Belt courses based on how minds work. Black Belt 1 will examine how concepts such as attention and memory can guide how to develop and support meaningful messages, while Black Belt 2 explores “fixed and growth” mindsets, based on the work of psychologist Carol Dweck.
Rhoades agrees behavior is an important area, but says delegates are often looking for easy answers. They may be focusing too much on how to change other people rather than asking, “What can I do to understand?” “True personal power comes from how well you know yourself,” she suggests.
Cropley believes that understanding behavior supports the push for better engagement. “We’re seeing IC taking on what was traditionally HR’s territory. This includes the psychology of what makes people tick, how they’ll respond to messages and how to help the organization in what it wants to achieve.” He finds a lot of interest in how to create behavioral change and engagement. “I was with a client recently where the IC department within HR is now responsible for culture and engagement.” He sees communication as vital in bringing about behavior change.
Is there a shift in the internal “clients” or partners course delegates are working with?
Dewhurst says that engagement is a new area for IC, where even job titles are changing. “Do we own engagement? Are we engagement experts?” she asks. “IC wants to expand and have a broader role.”
Rhoades says IC is now working with more people across the organization, which tends to differ by organization and practitioner. “If you add value, you’ll be brought in,” she adds.
Cropley says people are coming on the Black Belt program having already established good relationships with leaders. But the question, “How do I get there?” still remains for some practitioners. As IC is being seen to deliver value on the big-ticket agenda items such as culture and engagement, he believes it will be asked to do more.
Have your say
Do you see your role evolving to become a "trusted advisor"? Which competencies do you think your team lacks and which are most commonly found?
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