The full and original article was published by Alive With Ideas
As an Internal Communications Manager, a crucial part of your role is to ensure that your line managers are adequately coached and sufficiently developed in the fine art of communication delivery.
You need to ensure they are fully prepared to deliver comms in the most impactful and meaningful way. So to help them help you, we’ve put together five ways that you can support your line managers’ development as skilled communicators.
1. Be the Three Cs
That’s Clear, Consistent and Continuous.
A clear agenda’ or a planning toolkit may be helpful as these are a great way of keeping the messaging on track.
Consistency will help drive mutual engagement between you and your team, as being accurate, informed and the ‘go-to’ person for any possible concerns will be highly reassuring.
Continuity will also be crucial. It’s vital that channels of communication remain open and unbroken between you and your team; if you say you’ll provide more information if / when you have it, ensure you make the time to do it. Everyone likes being kept in the loop.
2. Be a two-way street
‘Two-way communications’ isn’t just an on-trend buzz phrase; it’s what internal communications is all about. The flow of communications is a relationship – not a dictatorship – between you and your team. Encouraging them to bring their thoughts to the table will help build their confidence in you and increase their allegiance too. Genuinely listen to people.
3. I (not necessarily) before E
I is for Integrity. It’s tricky to put into words, but if you have it, people will see and hear it. As far as integrity goes, faking it until you make it isn’t an option – if you’re honest and believe in what you’re communicating it will be absolutely apparent.
E is for Engagement. It links back to being part of the loop; your integrity and the trust people have in you. By establishing and encouraging involvement, your team may still question the communication, but they won’t be questioning you.
4. Don’t cut the TAPE
As in Treat All People Equally. It’s a basic human right to have an opinion and internal communications can drive and divide these. And that’s a positive thing. If your people are confident in speaking up, they are confident in you and your ability to listen to what they are saying.
5. Be a good translator
Messages don’t always come prepared in neatly packaged boxes, ready to simply pick up and pass on, so translate information into something relevant for your team. You should acknowledge the need to interpret the language and the key points into something you know your team will be able to understand and digest.
The full and original article was published by Alive With Ideas
