Be Seen, Be Aligned, Be Valued: changing the way you’re perceived as a #commspro

by Adedoyin Jaiyesimi:

I was recently engaged by an organization that wanted to fix a reputation problem and
critical communications gap. They wanted me to help them figure out the way forward.

“What do we need to do to solve this reputation problem and connect strongly with our
audiences?” This was one of the questions the Vice Chairman put forward as we
discussed their organizational needs.

To answer this question and the others I had noted from conversations with the
executive team, I did some communications research which involved getting insights
from both internal and external stakeholders. I also did targeted research into the
industry to understand the opportunity areas and potential threats that this organization
could face going forward.

The results were very revealing. There was a key structure problem internally that
negatively impacted on engagements with key stakeholders. There was also a clear gap
in communication – the messaging and content did not appeal to the new audience they
wanted to attract while they were not speaking to their existing audience on the
platforms that mattered most to them.

I presented the findings and data from the research to the executive team. Their sole
communication professional was present in the room.

At the end of my presentation, the executives expressed shock at some of the findings.
After demonstrating how the gaps observed from the data was impacting on their
bottom line, I gave my recommendations, specifically highlighting what they needed to
focus on to improve organizational performance.

The sole communications person was mostly quiet for the larger part of the
presentation. She only spoke up when invited by one of the executives to give her
comments.

“Well, these things are not new to me. I have been saying we should do this for a long
time but no one listens to me or takes me seriously.”

I felt her pain as I have heard several in-house communications teams express this
same frustration. In the course of engaging with her after the presentation, I realised
what the problem was. It wasn’t that her recommendations were not good enough, she
had failed to show that the activities she did on a daily basis were actually making a
difference to the organization.

How was her work helping them to meet their organisational targets and goals? She
couldn’t show this and it just looked like a lot of money was being spent on
communications activities, yet they weren’t seeing the results in improved reputation,
better engagement with their target audiences and most importantly, in product sales.

I know we talk a lot about how organisations and business leaders do not value the
communications function and think of us as an afterthought. While this is the case in
certain scenarios, I believe there is a lot more that we can do as communications
professionals to ensure that we lead with the value and position ourselves as internal
advisors that our colleagues and executives cannot do without.

This can be achieved on three layers: Be seen, Be aligned and Become valued.

Be Seen – If you work in an organisation and you are not actively engaging with
employees across multiple functions, you may struggle to show your value. This is
because active engagement with employees and executives helps you to gain insights.
You get a better understanding of what departments are trying to achieve which will help
you to see what role communications can play in the bigger picture. You also get to
know what the top priorities of the executives are which will help to shape your strategic
approach.

So, you have to speak up. You have to ask questions and you have to engage. Being
seen also means communicating how your work is making a difference within the
organisation. This may mean having a weekly or monthly, “Here’s what Comms has
been up to” report which shows tangibly how you are moving the needle.

Be Aligned – After getting the important insights, you need to ensure that your
strategies and the tactics you implement will help you to achieve visible business
results.Your activities and outputs must lead to business outcomes that solve the
organisation problems that are a priority to your executives.
Communication is a key driver of organisational performance. However, if your
communication objectives and strategies are not aligned with the overall organisational
strategy and goals, you’ll struggle to get tangible results that will be appreciated.
So, create a pipeline for gaining valuable insights and feedback that will drive your
strategies. Without a data-driven approach, alignment will almost be impossible.

Become Valued – When you are seen and aligned, it is not guaranteed that you will be
valued. I know, it looks like a no-brainer but there is still one more step. You need to
communicate your results in a language that your internal stakeholders will understand.

The communications personnel in the organisation I highlighted previously was doing a
lot of work quite alright but she was not showing how the posts published in a niche
industry magazine were converting to real clients for the organisation. She could not
show this because she wasn’t measuring. She couldn’t say which platforms had been
effective in driving leads for example.. With no data and constant evaluation, she
couldn’t tangibly define how she was contributing to the overall business goals.

We become valued in our role when organisations and business leaders can tangibly
see how communications is making a difference. This can be achieved through the
effective use of data, measurement metrics and reporting in a language that they
understand.

To be valued internally, we have to remain aligned in our work and to be aligned, we
have to be seen, which means engaging across functions to understand what the
problems and challenges are and coming up with data-driven solutions that bring the
right results. This is when we will become trusted advisors that organizations cannot
afford to ignore!

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Adedoyin Jaiyesimi is the Co-Founder of The Comms Avenue, Africa’s largest professional development community for communication leaders.

Based in Nigeria, Adedoyin is a Communications Advisor and Corporate Trainer, and is a #WeLeadComms honoree.

Written by: Editor