Monday, September 22, 2014

Your Role as Chief Communication Officer: How do you rate yourself?


Today we have a guest blog from Lauren Owen:

External Communication

If you are like most leaders, you probably have a high standard for all of your company’s external client communications. Your standards might look like these:
  • We respond ASAP to a client email or phone call.
  • We regularly update our clients and customers with company news.
  • The customer is always right! Or, at least deserving of very patient listening to his or her point of view, followed by a thoughtful response.
  • We take their suggestions seriously, acknowledge them and let them know how and when they will be incorporated, or if not, why.
Internal Communication

But what about your internal communication?  If you are completely honest, you will admit that most likely there is a discrepancy between how you communicate with your clients and how you communicate with your co-workers. For example,
  • Do you have the same response standards for internal emails and phone calls?
  • Do you inform them of company news? Ask them for feedback? Let them know if and how you used their suggestions?
  • How often is communicating with employees pushed off to the bottom of our lists, especially when you get busy or stressed?
Jim Hessler, author of Land on Your Feet, Not On Your Face: Building Your Leadership Platform, titles this leadership role: Chief Communication Officer, or CCO. Jim notes that as a leader, you set the tone and quality standards for the rest of our company. While it’s hard to measure the costs resulting from this disparity between internal and external communication standards, here’s an example of some compelling positive ramifications when one leader decided to take his role of Chief Communication Officer seriously.

One Leader’s Story

Richard Brown, General Manager of The Box Maker, headquartered in Kent, Washington, was frustrated about his inability to effectively reach his employees, who are scattered throughout two states in seven different locations.  Working with producer Lucas Mack at 4th Ave Media, he launched a weekly internal video newsletter, Inside the Box, to spread news and information, share coworker success stories, and keep his people up-to-date on the latest happenings at the company. The results?  After just two months and twelve episodes, he notes that:
  • Productivity and innovative ideas coming from employees are up significantly
  • Turnover and absenteeism are both down throughout the organization; and to his immense delight,
  • “For the first time I can walk through one of my plants and people actually come up to talk to me instead of avoiding me.”

Call to Action:

So, how are you doing as your company’s Chief Communication Officer?
How would your employees rate you as CCO?
What’s the one thing you could put into place in the next 30 days that would have the biggest impact on your communication effectiveness?

What is the impact of doing nothing?

LAUREN OWEN:


Lauren Owen, Redpoint Succession and Leadership Coaching

Lauren works with businesses leaders who want to develop and execute succession plans, sharpen their business practices, strengthen their leadership, and create long-lasting value in their businesses. She is a certified Marshall Goldsmith Stakeholder Centered Leadership Coach. She is also a leader of the Excell Puget Sound Southend Group.

(206) 427-2856, (253) 245.3518

No comments:

Post a Comment