Why You Need A Leadership Communications Strategy

Every leader needs to have a strategic approach to communication to be effective in their role. The bigger the organization, the more complex the structure, the more purposeful the leader’s communication must be. And this applies across all spectrums of leadership – whether in private or public sector, NGOs, faith-based or institutional.

Anyone who leads a team or organization of hundreds of people, needs to have a purposeful communications strategy that is aimed at making him/her more visible to the organization and an inspirational figure that motivates the people to think and act, perform and deliver in a certain way. A good leadership communications strategy should also deliver a feel-good to the people i.e. make them feel good about the work they do or become even more invested in their continued future in the organization.

Why is this important?

It is important because people are at the heart of every human endeavour and they can only deliver to the extent that they are inspired, taught, motivated and encouraged to do. Having an intentional approach ensures that leaders communicate in a way that is beneficial to the purpose of the mission or agenda of the organization. Without an intentional approach, it is likely that there will be insufficient attention to communication or some areas are over-prioritized to the detriment of others.

What does a strategic approach to Leadership Communications look like?

1. Objective: It starts off with a clear objective for the leader? What does he/she want to achieve in terms of the business and organization over a particular period i.e. month, quarter or year?
2. Audience: Who is the target audience? Is it employees? And how should we categorize or segment these employees. For instance, for some communications outreaches, field staff may be more of a focus than those in the offices – whereas for other initiatives – both are equally important. It is important to identify the key audiences, map and profile them to have an understanding of what their expectations of the leader is and what their position is on key issues/agendas that the leader wants to pursue. This information can be gathered through surveys, interview sessions or open questions at staff gatherings. But it is important to understand the target audience
3. Message: Then comes the message. What does the leader want each employee to know about the mission of the organization or a specific project and agenda and what ACTIONS are required from them in terms of performance, delivery, compliance, safety, sales, marketing, revenue, productivity and profitability? All of this has to be communicated on a corporate level to all staff for them to get an understanding of the overall goal and how their specific roles fit into it. And it is the leader/CEO that is in the best position to do this. As everyone else is likely to only talk about their own patch of the garden.
4. Platform: The next thing is to determine the platform that is best to deliver this message in a way that the desired outcome is achieved. In some cases, it could be a virtual townhall for instance – and in others it would have to be face-to face. It is important to think carefully about the location for the communication and engagement. For instance, not every message should go through email. The best platform is that which works best for the type of conversation you need to have and the specific outcomes you would like to achieve.
5. Outcomes: A strategic approach to leadership communications would ensure that the desired outcomes from every inreach to staff is clear about the results that would signal that the communications was effective i.e. either through changes in behaviour, performance or improvement in certain areas where there were identified challenges.

All of the above should be detailed into a document that is developed by the communications specialist/generalist and approved by the leader in question. And the above forms the overall strategy after which you can then develop a plan with dates, events/programs and activities to implement the strategy in a tactical form.

And that is how you take a strategic approach to leadership communications.