Capitol Communicator Thought Leadership Series: Susan Rink of Rink Strategic Communications, discusses executive communications with Limor Schafman in a Capitol Communicator TV video sponsored by West Glen Communications (www.westglen.com). The Capitol Communicator TV Thought Leadership Series podcast is up in iTunes now. The video and transcript of that interview follow:
Limor: Welcome to Capitol Communicator TV. I'm Limor Schafman, and with me is Susan Rink of Rink Strategic Communications. Susan, thank you so much for joining us.
Susan: Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.
Limor: So you are an expert in executive communications?
Susan: That’s correct.
Limor: And we live in very interesting times right now, and executives need to be doing certain things in terms of communicating to their staff, to their internal community.
Susan: Yes.
Limor: What are the three things that they should be focusing on when they're doing that?
Susan: When a company is going through peaks and valleys, as an executive is looking at coming out of a valley and going into a peak, they need to focus on three specific aspects. They need to look at re-branding themselves and their leadership, re-energizing their workforce to get them back on point, and re-engaging the workforce to make sure that the employees still feel connected with the company, especially after going through some difficult times.
Limor: Well, let’s start with that re-branding. So you're talking about the executive re-branding him or herself?
Susan: That’s correct.
Limor: What does that mean?
Susan: Well, and it holds true, I'm talking about executive communications, but honestly it could be just the manager of a team. You know, the challenge with any type of difficult time is that leaders tend to be put under greater scrutiny than they would in other situations. So everything they do or say has been analyzed and over-analyzed to the point where they sometimes turn out to be less than they want to be perceived by their employees. So this is a great time for them to say, “Okay, I want to start fresh. I want to start a new book. We’re going to start again on page one and I'm going to go out there as the leader who is visible. I'm going to go out there and build on my own personality and not try and be somebody else, but maintain my own authenticity, go out there and project who I really am to these employees so that I'm no longer just a name on a letterhead or an email address or a photo in the annual report.”
Limor: It sounds like there's a lot about trust involved in this where you're trying to rebuild that connection--
Susan: Absolutely.
Limor: -- and that trust element with staff.
Susan: Absolutely. And how do you build trust? You build trust by showing people who you really are, and what motivates you, and what makes you excited about the organization, and why you want to be a part of that organization. You don’t want to be just some nameless, shapeless face that sits in a corner office that people never hear from unless it’s to tell them that lay-offs are happening or the company’s being acquired or, you know, God forbid, there's a crisis.
Limor: Well, you say something very important, because actually it takes a lot of courage to put yourself out there.
Susan: Yes, absolutely.
Limor: And it takes some communication skills. I mean, not everyone feels comfortable stepping out. So what are some things that executives should be thinking about doing in order to go out there and get themselves out there, and feel comfortable around that, and being comfortable about feeling authentic, because a lot of them don’t even feel comfortable being authentic.
Susan: Right.
Limor: They're not quite sure what that means.
Susan: Well, I think that’s a great point. And the first thing that any leader needs to understand is there is no one answer. Look at political figures. I mean, you can look at the current President and the past President and then the President before; these are three completely different types of people and completely different styles of communicators. They're all authentic in their own way and they can all build their trust in their own way, so I would say a leader who is very engaging and open and able to speak in very broad strokes, they're great at the rally/town hall environment and being able to go out and do-- you know, like the 40 cities in 40 days type road show, they’d do very well with. Leaders who are a little bit more reserved tend to be more cerebral perhaps, or not quite as comfortable in large crowds. That would be the type of person that I would say would be more appropriate to do a small group meeting or even a series of one-on-ones, supplemented by interviews and video interviews etc, so that employees get a better feel for that person. The worst thing that any executive can do is try to be something they're not, because employees are smart, they're going to pick it up really fast when the leader is playing a role, and you’ve lost any momentum that you might’ve gained in your re-branding effort.
Limor: So let’s go to re-vitalizing your employee staff.
Susan: Yeah.
Limor: Very key situation--
Susan: Absolutely.
Limor: -- because now, everyone’s kind of afraid, there’s a lot of fear in the office today. How should executives be looking at using communication skills to break through that?
Susan: Well, the first obvious answer to me is find good news to communicate about the organization. Even if it’s one small, tiny incremental improvement, get out there and tell employees that it’s happening. Take every opportunity to show where the improvements are happening and recognize who’s driving those improvements-- the employees in that area-- and make sure that people understand that, you know, the things that were done in the past were done to keep the company on track and to be in survival mode. They’re out of survival mode now; now it’s time to re-focus and get ready for the next wave. It’s like a team; you’ve had a game, you’ve played a game, you’ve fought hard, you go back to the locker room, the coach gets in there and they give them the pep talk, and they get out there and they’re ready to fight another day. That’s what a leader needs to do. They need to be able to find ways to tap into their employees’ energy and celebrate the very small victories that can then build upon other victories.
Limor: So now you’ve actually started speaking about re-engaging, the third element.
Susan: Absolutely.
Limor: So what are some of the ways that executives can find out what are the points that are going to cause the staff to re-engage?
Susan: Right.
Limor: I'm sure that there are ways that you need to be communicating, actually, so you can find out what's important to those staff members, plural, and also perhaps on an individual level.
Susan: Absolutely.
Limor: So what should the executives be doing?
Susan: If there’s any one thing that I would tell them to do, it would be to listen. Employees are going to tell you. All you have to do is ask them; they're going to tell you what they want to know, they're going to tell you what motivates them, they’re going to tell you what makes them want to come into that organization and work on a daily basis. So the executive needs to listen and needs to hear what's being said, whether it’s via a focus group feedback that maybe the communications team or the HR team is doing, or spot surveys on an Intranet site, or feedback on a post-event [ph?] survey, regardless of what it is. Smart executives listen and they take to heart what their employees are saying. So in order to figure out how to re-energize your workforce, you’ve got to hear from them what's important to them and what's going to make them want to not only come to work, but come to work ready to take on the day and ready to make the company better, beat the competition, go out to the next level.
Limor: Susan, really wonderful insights. Thank you so much.
Susan: Thank you.
Limor: I want to make sure that everyone’s going to be able to find you, so tell us about your website and your blog, and any other ways that we can be in contact with you.
Susan: Absolutely. Well, my website is www.rinkcoms.com, for Rink Strategic Communications, and I do a weekly blog called Take Note; it’s available on Wordpress. And I also do a video series Take Note, a series of podcasts that are on iTunes and on YouTube.
Limor: Wonderful. This is Limor Schafman. Thank you so much for joining us. You’ve been watching Capitol Communicator TV.