I’m currently preparing my thoughts as I’ve been asked to speak with the students studying for Kingston Uni’s year long post-graduate diploma in Internal Communications Management.
Regular readers will know this is the course I graduated from in January, and I’m looking forward to returning to the classroom to meet the current group of Internal Communications (IC) professionals. I’m speaking on conducting research and the importance of IC professionals using/understanding social media. As part of my presentation I’d like to close by sharing the thoughts of my blog readers and Twitter users.
So it’s over to you… I’m looking for your number one piece of advice please. What has really helped you in your career? What book or website could you simply not do without? What is your top tip students should know? I’d love to hear from you and know the class will too.
Please send me a tweet (@rachallen), comment here or ping me an email (rach@rachallen.com). Thank you.
When I was an internal communications specialist with a billion-dollar corporation, the number one thing I learned was to always share the news with your employees BEFORE you release it to the public, the media, or your customers. I saw this mistake happen over and over again, and there’s nothing worse for employee morale than to read breaking news about your company somewhere else first.
Don’t confuse internal comms with journalism – they’re very different animals. Think about internal comms as building business-focused relationships, not being a publisher of news. There may be an element of the latter involved, but effective internal communication is getting other people talking rather than always holding the loudhailer.
Thank you for your thoughts Amy and Mark. Both really important points and I will include in my presentation for the students.
Be a chameleon – if you’re going to be voice of both staff and the organisation you need to meet people on both levels. Professional, credible, astute trusted advisor to your clients, and “one of us” to employees (and everything in between). Book smart is one thing, but never underestimate the importance of emotional intelligence.
Great advice Ellen thank you. Will be strange to go back to our classroom! Hope you’re doing well, Rachel.
My top tips are: Read widely, network lots with other in-house IC practitioners and never ever ever pay for IC consultancy.
Thanks Jon, definitely agree it’s important to read widely and network lots. Interesting view on IC consultancy, will be interested to see what the reaction is to that one from the students, Rachel
Sorry Rachel, I can’t help it. We need a touch of controversy in our lives to keep things interesting 😉
If it’s not too late, the top tip is to tell the truth. It’s the most effective way to gain trust. If you’re not familiar with the “Page Principles,” they’re worth reviewing http://www.awpagesociety.com/site/about/page_principles/
Thanks for your comment Paul, I checked out the site you linked to.