By Paul Matalucci, ABC, and Ed Kamrin

The following notes were collected on February 26, 2010, at the seventh meeting of senior communicators who met initially on June 10, 2009, at the close of IABC’s World Conference in San Francisco.

Past meetings have addressed Social Media tools, pandemic communications, strategic communications planning, Social Media policy, and courage of the communicator.

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 Create a managers’ newsletter/news brief.

• Include no more than 4 items
• Optimal timing: every other week
• Keep it concise: headline, summary, action, deadline, whom to contact
• Hyperlink items to longer write-ups
• Always distribute from the same email address

 

Institute all-manager teleconferences.

• Orient managers to subjects they will discuss with their teams
• Capture a list of questions and answers from the meeting, since those questions will likely echo employee questions
• Use quick polls with employees to confirm that managers shared the content in meetings vs. simply forwarding the meeting slides/notes
• Send managers advance notice of company-wide communications (even a day or two ahead, if timing is tight).
• Put managers “in the know;” position them to be an information sources for their team(s)
• Give them time to raise (and answer) their own questions and objections
• Create an additional quality control step to catch issues that other reviews might miss
• Use them to earn managers’ trust, goodwill, and buy-in

 

Consider the role of manager training.

• Often includes external communication (e.g., speaker preparation) but frequently does not cover communicating with employees
• Managers may need basic training in interpersonal communications – career advancement is often based on technical competence rather than “soft” skills
• Help managers understand basic persuasion strategies, such as answering the “me” in employee questions before focusing on the “we”
• Managers should ask themselves: Am I telling you enough, and am I asking you enough?

 

Segment managers into audience types, similar to those used in benefits communications:

• Sherlock Holmes – a manager who looks into every detail
• Company Knows Best – doing whatever the company says
• Family Knows Best – doing whatever the family (unit, department) needs

 

Leverage technology.

• Consider a manager portal with tools, resources, and the opportunity to exchange ideas and perspectives
• Yammer and Salesforce.com Chatter (in pilot mode) can enhance communication and manage talent (i.e., where to find skills/knowledge among current employees)
• Blogs can offer an opportunity for interaction via the comments feature
• Internal discussion channels can help prevent problems from being aired externally

 

Beware of the potential pitfalls.

• Actions must match words – messaging will mean less if behavior doesn’t match
• Timeliness is critical or credibility will suffer (for both the manager and company)
• Hierarchy—where rank determines who can say what and where—can be an obstacle. One solution is to segment and schedule manager meetings according to grade level.

 

Be wary of managers who inappropriately bond with employees.

• The relationship should not undermine corporate objectives
• Departing managers may take their teams with them
• Use surveys to measure both the quality of the employee-manager relationship and whether employees know the company strategy – both are important.

 

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