Talk Internal Communication

Has an employee ever come to you with a problem to which you helpfully answer, , “If I were you, I would…” You may feel satisfied that you have helped but you may well be storing up trouble for yourself.  The reality is that when this employee came to you they had a problem. You helpfully took ownership of that problem and relieved your employee of responsibility for solving the problem themselves. As a manager this type of action trains your staff to come to you with their problems instead of trying to resolve the issues themselves. This can lead to you becoming embroiled in office politics taking you away from your role as a leader. Beware! The key is to actively listen and allow staff to think through, analyse and arrive at solutions themselves. 

I was lucky to present at Bledcom in Slovenia, an International Public Relations Symposium that has been organized over the past 17 years to provide a venue for public relations scholars and practitioners from around the world to exchange ideas and perspectives about public relations in all its forms. This year the focus is on Internal Communication. It was a great conference and the debt of knowledge presented at the event shows how seriously internal communicaiton is now being taken. My paper, “Internal communicators who fail to talk the facts and figures of the corporate suite" was the first time I presented the main findings of my PhD research. Here is the abstract to my paper: Abstract Business leaders and internal communication managers inherently understand that effective internal communication is a business imperative. It builds staff morale, motivation and engagement. It also builds a healthy organisational culture and helps facilitate change, all of which delive...

Research by Angela D. Sinickas, demonstrates that front line supervisors are not always the preferred source of communication within an organisation. The preferred source for receiving communication changes depending on the information to be communicated. Sinickas outlines that a soundly designed communication audit should ask: Which source of communication is currently your primary source of company information on X? Which source of communication is your preferred primary source of information on Y? The X and Y should include but is not limited to company objectives? Department goals? Quality improvement? Benefits? Safety? Company financial situation? Reasons behind decisions? New products or services? What the competition is doing? News from other locations and departments? People changes and recognition? Other subjects that are important only at your own company? When the questions are asked individually by subject the choices of preferred methods of communication...