Transcript Anne Gregory

Putting it into Action: Leadership
in Corporate Communication
Professor Anne Gregory
Centre for Public Relations Studies
Leeds Metropolitan University
Chair Elect Global Alliance
A starter for 10….
The elevator test.
What is your role as
a strategic
communicator?
3 minutes only!!
Leadership in corporate
communication
Strategic Role
Operational
focus
Personal
Presentation
Strategic role
Recent research on manager roles
Monitor and
evaluator
Key policy &
strategy adviser
Trouble-shooter/
Problem-solver
Issues management
expert
And does some high level ‘technician’ work
(Moss, Newman and DeSanto, 2005)
Strategist
(Everett and Steyn, 2009)
Manager
Technician
A point of strategic inflection
Digital commons
Myriad,
empowered
stakeholders
Global economy
a new way of operating that has communications
at its heart…. the key is authenticity
Roles & responsibilities
• Collaborate with stakeholders; create &
influence an ‘ecosystem’ of advocates
• Shape strategic direction and brand
• Clarify and disseminate values, shape
culture & behaviours
• Empower employees as communicators
• Deal in organisation focused measurement
The ‘Authentic Enterprise’ report
Four new priorities and skills for which the Chief
Communications Officer must now assume a
leadership role in:
• Defining and instilling values
• Building and managing multi stakeholder
relationships
• Enabling the enterprise with “new media” skills
and tools
• Building and managing trust, in all its
dimensions.
How strategy is formed
•
•
•
•
•
the first step in strategy formulation process
collect/interpret information on stakeholders
details of issues and events that are occurring
anticipation of trends
consider threats & opportunities
the lynch pin between the organisation
and the stakeholder environment
How CEOs make decisions
•
•
•
•
•
a collaborative decision-making framework
strategic thinking is conversation-based
the CEO’s and their senior colleagues…
…and specialist experts outside the inner circle
such talent is highly valued by CEOs
So…
“Strategy is essentially concerned with a process
of managing the interaction between an
organisation and its external environment so
as to ensure a best fit between the two. From
this perspective it can be argued that
boundary-spanning functions can play a key
role in the process of managing such
environmental interaction.”
(Moss and Warnaby, 2003)
Those involved in decision-making
Decision-makers
Proposers
Experts
Decision-analysts
Facilitators
So what do CEOs think about?
Your CEO’s
obsessions
The top five
Five minutes!
Lesson one
Attach yourself to the C Suite
agenda
Operational focus
How do you spend your
time?
• administration and
finance
• doing operational
comms
• analysing and
campaign planning
• working with other
staff
• developing own
skills/knowledge
• other activities
Our work?
Strategy (10%)
Thinking (30%)
Just do it (60%)
CEO’s expect
• Forward intelligence
• Externally and internally
connected
• Problem-solvers
• Coaches and advisors
• A narrative
• Technically competent
Comms and strategic management
INTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
EXTERNAL ENVIRONMENT
Corporate & business
Identify key strategic issues
strategies
Identify implications
What must be
Policies
of issues on
Synthesis
communicated
Internal Issues stakeholders
Prioritise
issues
Strategic
communication plan
How must it be
communicated
Media plan
Employee
Comm plan
Stakeholder
plan
Analysis
Crisis comm
plan
Specific communication plans/campaigns/programmes
Steyn, 2008
The strategic approach
Strategy (60%)
Thinking (30%)
Just do it (10%)
Lesson two
Attach yourself to the C Suite
agenda
Personal positioning
Paint a picture of your ‘ideal’
communication leader
• What do they do?
• How do they
behave?
The current context crunch time!
When decisions about an organisation’s
response to the environment become
more novel and non-programmed,
communication practitioner roles
change to become more strategic
(from technician to manager)
Think like a consultant
Why bother?
Cynicism about consultants
“People who borrow your watch and tell you
what time it is and then walk off with the
watch.”
Bob Stott, MD of Wm Morrisons
You already are one?
If you need to build relationships with
people in your organisation;
understand their business
requirements; influence and present
business solutions…then you are
operating in an internal consultancy
role.
A CONSULTANT’S TOOLKIT
The consultant’s role
Reliability
Empathy
Independence
Credibility
Key facets of the consultant
Mindset
Knowledge
Process skills
Competencies
Mindset differences
Consultant
Employee
Client
Employer
Project
Job
Proactive
Reactive
Impact
Activity
Models of consultants
Standard Process
“Doing”
Nurse
High degree of
client contact
User-friendly; establish
procedures; hands on
Pharmacist
Low degree of
client contact
Supervision of low-cost
delivery team;
established procedures;
expert input
Customised Process
Diagnosis
Therapist
Diagnosis of complex, illspecified problems;
refers work on
Brain Surgeon
Innovative solutions to
one-off problems;
Critical interventions
Models of consultants
Brains
requires leading edge profession/technical
knowledge; innovation/creativity; provided by
highly skilled practitioners; one off.
“Hire us because we’re smart”
Grey hair
degree of customisation but less innovation;
requirement not unfamiliar; experience &
judgement.
“Hire us because we’ve done this before”
Procedure
familiar requirement; client could do but outsources for efficiency.
“Hire us because we can do this effectively”
Consultant roles
Brains
Grey hair
High intensity
diagnosis
Procedure
High intensity
implementation
Highly
customised
Formulaic
High client risk
Low client risk
Few qualified
practitioners
Many qualified
practitioners
Commodity
pricing
High cost
Expertise
Experience
Efficiency
Attach a value to what you do
……doing what counts
Value mapping
W
h
a
t
High
Value killer
Value winner
y
o
u
v
a
l
u
e
No value
Low
Value sleeper
What the organisation values
High
Lesson three
Attach yourself to the C Suite
agenda
This should be our time
when decisions about an
organisation’s response to the
environment become more novel
and non-programmed,
communication practitioner roles
change to become more
strategic…and important