Making an impact as a new comms leader

Making an impact as a new comms leader

How do you set the foundations for success during the first few weeks in a new role? Jane Sparrow, senior manager at Internal Communication and Change at Sony Europe, makes the following useful suggestions:

Step 1: Get to know key stakeholders Use a variety of techniques such as one-to-one meetings and roundtables to understand more about your stakeholders needs, views of communication and attitudes. Go cross-level, cross-attitude and talk to people one level below the board. Ask agencies and consultancies that the company has used recently to talk about key stakeholder needs and aspirations.

Step 2: Understand business goalsFind out as much as possible about the aims, objectives, strategies, key issues and priorities within the organization. Identify where communication has the biggest potential return on investment. Read annual reports, intranet sites, past newsletters and other communication. How effective has communication been in the past? Ask external organizations for their view of the company and its priorities, get their view on quick wins, organization strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.Identify where communication has the biggest potential return on investment.

Step 3: Identify movers and shakersAsk yourself who the influencers are? Where do key stakeholders go for council and advice? To whom do they listen? Once you’ve identified these people, build relationships with them, ask their views and position your work with them.

Step 4: Assess communication issuesAsk your team to present the current communication strategy. Study data from employee opinion surveys, communication surveys and measurements. Look for issues, opportunities and benchmarks. Conduct a “quick” media audit. Find out what channels exist to communicate which messages, at what frequency. Ask which are the most valuable channels during other formal and informal conversations with people.Find out what channels exist to communicate which messages, at what frequency.

Step 5: Find out how you will be measuredAsk your boss how he/she will know that you’ve been successful. Get a clear understanding of how you will be measured so that you can focus your efforts accordingly. Once you understand business priorities and stakeholder needs, show you’re proactive and you know your profession by suggesting other measures that you believe will be important.

Step 6: Be visible across the organizationTalk to, and be seen by, as many people as possible. Ask to attend department meetings to introduce yourself and gather views. Talk to people at the coffee machine. Walk around and introduce yourself to others.

source: http://www.melcrum.com