It’s our experience that many top executives in communications and marketing feel undervalued, underappreciated, or even misunderstood. You may be the last people to know about a new strategy, product or a brewing crisis. Maybe you feel like the rope in a game of “tug of war.” Perhaps you’re overwhelmed with work, but gaining little traction and headed toward burnout. .. If so, it’s time to take stock of your own position with your organizational fabric and understand just how your team is perceived by others in your enterprise. These four questions that, if answered honestly, can help you build your team’s own brand and drive toward more efficient and effective communications strategies and operations. And by doing so, you will be perceived more as an integral part of the management team instead of an order taker.
Does your CEO and/or key leadership fully understand the value of your team/department?
If yes, stop reading. If the answer is, “no” (and it frequently is), there are other questions to ask. How did this happen? Have we taken the time to prepare and involve key leadership in discussions about the choices you’re making and the path you’re paving to answering key objectives. And how can we take steps to engage top leaders in our work (without subjecting them to the minutiae of your operations). This is not an exercise in list-making. You must impress upon them the value of your work and the ways in which you are contributing to their ultimate goals and objectives, and yes, the bottom line.
Do you fully you understand your organization’s larger objectives?
Do you fully understand what your enterprise hopes to achieve in the next few weeks, this year, and a decade from now? If you’re at arm’s reach from executive leadership, you may not even have been engaged in strategic planning processes and sessions. Assess how you can become a greater part of the discussions and consultations that help formulate your enterprise’s overall objectives and strategies.
How do you tie what you’re doing to the organization’s larger objectives?
It’s important to analyze and assess everything you do under the lens of its value to the overall purpose, vision, and value of your firm or organization. For help in evaluating you individual tactics and vehicles, see our post on Scoring Your Communications Assets and use the Wainger Group SCORE© Card.
How can you become a greater part of the discussions and/or consultations that help formulate overall objectives and strategies?
Every communications director must answer this question individually, as you must respect not only your assignments and responsibilities, but the character and personality of your organization or company and the people who run it. But here are a few tips:
- Make sure you keep your CEO and other key leadership informed, not only about what you’re doing, but how what you’re doing is serving the association’s objectives.
- Say no. If you are the orchestra director, you are responsible for bringing together a wide arrangement of programs, needs, and audiences, developing and maintaining a strong brand position, and keeping your enterprise front and center in the minds of key audiences. You are not the person who cleans the flutes. (In other words, even if you’re a great editor, you shouldn’t be the one everyone turns to for editing).
- Define and write down your organization’s value proposition. Refer to it often. Make certain that you refer to it with every stroke at the keyboard.
- Review or make a Communications Plan. See our post about this essential here. And enlist outside help if you need it.
For more about how Wainger Group can help you communicate your own value, reach us at [email protected].
