Establishing A New Communications Role

So you have been given the opportunity to establish a new role as a Communications Manager for part of a large organization – how do you begin?

Of course you take a look at the job description and you have many conversations with your manager and other senior leaders to understand what are their objectives and the expectations for your role. But as the days go by, you find that what really gives you the best window into your new world is getting a good understanding of the organization, it’s goals, people, culture and past attempts at communications. And how do you begin to do that?

I have been there – it is fascinating, energizing and most importantly it gave me the chance to breathe new life – to bring that breath of fresh air, to excite leaders on how to make everyone be part of what is happening. To make everyone understand that communications play a key role in building success and organizational culture.

On day one, I felt like an artist sitting in front of a large blank canvass with my palette of colors and brush in hand. What do I paint and what do I want my final painting to look like?

So I began talking with everyone around me to get a sense of how I could support their projects and each one had his own idea of what the communications role should be so that did not make my job any easier. There was a mix of marketing and organizational needs, it seemed. Further there was nothing to benchmark against since the position was now being established. As the days went by, the only thing I knew is that I wanted to make this my own. I wanted to maneuver my ship safely over the high and unpredictable seas! I was going to create that benchmark for which all future incumbents will be measured against. That was itself exciting enough to drive my passion for the job.

As a child, I hugged story books and my parents gave me them by the dozens. In high school I began writing poetry. In college I wrote short stories. My first job was in radio where I worked with clients to schedule air time. I sat in the console room with the technical operators; I recorded some of my stories for broadcast and I even played the main character in one of my stories! During graduate school, I was always excited to write and research on organizational communication. I was captivated by the many facets of human behavior seen in multicultural and gendered communications. Ultimately, my passion has always been and will always be communications.

So with this reflection, I knew that establishing and proving the worth of communications could not be such a hard task. With time I became the “go-to person” for the organization. I was the conduit between corporate and affiliates; I counseled the supporting business partners and I took incentive programs to a whole new level.

When it was time to shift the mindset and operational paradigm of the business, I was behind the branding and cascading of the new vision. I worked passionately with the executive leaders to create a brand, run the campaign and build materials that not only drove home the new messages and direction of the business, but everyone got involved. With one simple logo and consistency across all messages, employees were engaged. Everyone was excited about the new momentum. Everyone – from top to the guy in the plant could eloquently speak of the business objective in five words – yes that was the elevator pitch and it was what the logo expressed symbolically.

When people are excited and feel part of the business, and when messages are coined for every level to easily understand and relate to, there could be nothing more satisfying than success and return on investment. This is the value-added component of having a communications role.

Ultimately, it was neither the job description nor the expectations of my business associates that justified the communications role - it was the many ways I worked communications into supporting the business. The results were tangible and measurable.

So today, four years later, I can see what I started to paint on that blank canvass! And I will paint many more whenever I have that chance.