Continuity is king

We have barely begun our period of mourning and our grief is raw. There is some comfort to be had.

Just go!

Senior leaders who stick around after they have said they are leaving are rarely an asset for an organisation or institution. And, they are the cause of a real headache for any internal communicator trying to establish a new strategic narrative if they do.

Single point of failure

There are many ‘single points of failure’ in internal communication practice, which have the potential to stop us in our tracks and render what we do ineffective. Leaders can be one of them, but properly defining and understanding a SPOF in internal communication is the key to overcoming it.

Plastic personality

If the authentic personalities of leaders are a complete turn off for employees, should internal communicators help them to curate a more acceptable online or virtual persona, which may be inauthentic or downright fake? A plastic personality.

No strings attached

Why can’t some leaders just say thank you, without any strings attached? As internal communicators draft their organisation’s end of year message from the leadership team, our guiding principle should be unconditional kindness. After the year we have all endured, workforces need to heal, and this time there is no place for a thank you with strings attached.

No seat required

One of the more enduring myths in the world of internal communication is that you need to have a ‘seat at the boardroom table' to be an effective and influential internal communicator within organisations. This simply isn’t true and the reality for most internal communicators is that they will never achieve this lofty and privileged status.

Get chartered and save the world

The world is in a mess and it seems that a complete absence of leadership, decent ethics and strategy is driving poor decision making at every level in our society and the consequences of this are immeasurable human suffering and torment. Having a few more chartered public relations practitioners might just tip the balance towards some more considered decision making by leaders which would benefit everyone and possibly save the world. However small our numbers and influence might currently be, small positive actions can collectively drive big change.

Curtain falls

As a globalised civilisation we were seemingly completely unprepared for the occurrence of a pandemic. The failure of leadership which helped the coronavirus proliferate has caused a day of economic reckoning and restructuring which will fundamentally change the contexts in which we all live. What are the career consequences of this for internal communicators as the curtain falls on significant parts of the old world we once knew?

Pulling the plug

As internal communicators what stops us shutting down channels which don’t work anymore? I think there are three main barriers which we must overcome to be more comfortable with switching off a dying channel’s life support and pulling the plug on it once and for all.

What to do when leaders don’t listen

You’re an internal communications genius, right? So why is it that leaders sometimes don’t listen to your ideas? Maybe it’s because you’re having the wrong sort of conversation with them, at the wrong time and in the wrong places. Here are four ideas to help you change the conversation with leaders to gain their active support.