Employees are the center of every organization’s success, but zoom in a little closer and you will see the unsung heroes, the employee communicators that keep the circle intact.
Real Talk: Internal communications is the most valuable position in a company.
Why? Well, let’s look at how information and experiences travel through an organization. For a company to grow its circle of influence, it must start at the core, and at that core are your employees.
Also read: Why Communication Boosts Employee Retention (And How to Get Better At It)
We’ve all heard this, but when employees feel empowered, valued, and well, simply thought of, this manifests itself in ways that grow your company’s circle of influence. Your customers feel what your employees feel and the public feels what your customers feel. Good employee relations = great customers relations = fantastic public relations.
But there’s another, secret layer. It’s the role of the mindful internal comms wizard.
You see, without the interpersonal communicator, carefully choreographing the company’s messages, the core develops cracks that trickle throughout the entire business.
Internal Comms are Often Forgotten
As we work with more and more internal communicators to help engage their employees, I’m finding that this position is often forgotten and goes unrecognized. Internal comms folks are drowning in this cycle, making them feel as though they are on some sort of unspoken JV team. They aren’t in the sexy digital marketing group, but not in the important role of human resources either. They fall through the cracks and in some cases, wind up bogged down in tactical nonsense.
Responsible for communicating all that is going on in a way that makes employees feel special, heard, and valued is a tall order for a position, especially for a person that feels forgotten and undervalued.
For all their usefulness, underrated and overwhelmed employee communicators don’t just fill cracks, they can create them as well.
Find Your Core
If you are the internal communicator, what’s at your core? If we as internal communicators aren’t taking care of ourselves personally, then what are we manifesting? Employees feel what you feel, they give those feelings to your customers who give them to the world. If you feel worn out, undervalued, and demotivated, that will manifest itself in your whole being showing up in every communication or face-to-face interaction.
Overwhelming? Yep. You are the most important person in your company. Even if nobody realizes that…yet.
Also read: How Your Core Values Impact Your Employee Retention
I once had our sales team give me all the reasons why their prospects weren’t buying. After analyzing every word of the demos, I received answers like they are worried about money, overwhelmed, lack focus, etc. I heard them and asked,“Is that how you are personally feeling?” Silence, then a surprised: “yes.”
What you are feeling will manifest itself in what you communicate to the core of your company, the employees. Alright, gut check, how do you feel? No really, how do you really feel about your position as an internal comms professional? If it’s anything less than “freakin’ awesome,” let’s change this.
Center Yourself to Excel
Here are a few ways to center yourself to get to employee communication excellence:
- Seek ways to demonstrate your value, raise your position, and stay inspired in the face of haters.
- Look for ways to move tactical, repetitive tasks off your plate.
- Clear your mind to get your strategy swagger back.
- If your employees aren’t engaging with your communication, go talk to them. Write how they talk.
- Look at your own Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, what are you missing, personally and professionally? What is your ‘why’?
Zooming in a little closer to the layers of yourself will unearth a new found passion for the core of your work. Remember, YOU are always the first employee to engage.
As your personal engagement for your why, your work, and your wizardry grows, so will your own circle of influence. Leading from within will round out your internal comms world making real change in employee engagement.
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