Effective internal communication starts at the top: help executives understand the need for clear, concise communication

Communication World, July-August, 2005 by Rodney Gray, Larry Robertson

Third, communicators must be coaches, working closely with executives, not in isolation. Remind them that they're leaders and role models--that effective communication is a core leadership quality and a two-way process that is about informing as well as influencing others. We should demonstrate that we want to help by giving executives the confidence, motivation and tools to be able to communicate well. Have the courage to keep them up to the mark. If we're reluctant or unable to do so, we should bring in outside experts. Search for opportunities, formal and informal. Face-to-face communication works best, as do smaller events.

We need to explain to our colleagues that in communication, like most things in life, what goes around comes around. So executives have to recognize that if they want to be listened to, trusted and respected, they have to reciprocate.

Measuring results

Clearly, no single activity or event will achieve this. As with any worthwhile journey, it takes time, persistence and resolve. A dose of humility helps too.

Results are the measure of organizational success, and each organization, whatever its nature or purpose, is a people organization. However brilliant the idea, product or strategy, executives can't achieve their organization's goals on their own. To succeed, they must strike a balance between tasks and people, and so bring their employees on the journey. But employees will only come along if they're clear about where they're headed and why, and if they trust and feel appreciated by those taking them there.

As I put it to a CEO recently, "This company's success depends on the quality of its daily conversations." And communicators must take the lead in enabling these conversations.

Perhaps it's time to review those media training budgets (how many in your organization really have to, or indeed should, speak with the media, anyway?) and to allocate more time and resources to developing communication skills such as engagement, conversation, listening, negotiation, collaboration, conflict management, facilitation, emotional intelligence and, yes, presentation at all levels.

In short, there is much evidence that we can get a greater "bang for our buck" by putting an effort into improving executive communication. And there is much that we can do.

CEOs seem to be listening

A recent survey of 500 PR practitioners conducted by IABC and PR News provides some hope for the future of executive communication. While research may well show that employees in many organizations think communication with their senior executives can improve, most heads of corporate communication think their CEOs at least have the right attitude. Fully 80 percent of PR heads believe their CEO "understands the importance of communication, not just when there is an issue or crisis." However, one in 10 do not.

Moreover, 70 percent say their CEOs "see PR as an investment in the future, not just a cost." And two-thirds say the CEO "usually accepts my recommendations." But again, one in 10 say their CEO does not.