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Have you ever wondered how to improve leadership communication in your organisation?
It’s been a challenging area for IC pros for a long time, being ranked as top priority for 6 years straight.
Here at H&H, we’ve helped many of our clients to take their leaders’ and managers’ communication skills to the next level, to get employees buzzing with productive brilliance. And we love sharing our expertise and know-how with the wider IC community, so we can help internal communicators achieve above and beyond what they ever thought possible.
That’s why we published a wealth of advice and best practice in our 2018 leadership communication report, to give IC professionals actionable strategies to transform leaders and managers into exceptional communicators. Featuring insights and inspiration from 50 global IC thought leaders – as well as some of our own resident IC specialists – we’re proud to say it’s made some pretty big waves across the profession, being downloaded over 1000 times in more than 40 countries.
This lead us to May 29th 2019, when we hosted our first global online IC conference involving over 600 worldwide practitioners, who took to the digisphere to watch 14 IC superstars sharing their unique perspectives, advice and ideas on what truly makes great leadership communication, and network with their IC peers from around the globe.
So what did we learn from the fabulous line-up of speakers who took to the virtual stage on the day? Read on to find out – there’s plenty of inspirational insights coming your way!
Missed any of the speakers? Here’s a little taster into some of the superb talks!
Amit Joshi
Communication Consultant
Yorkshire Housing
Communication Consultant Amit Joshi revealed 3 golden rules that he has stood by over his 15 years in the industry which will help internal comms professionals to earn that all-important seat at the top table. ‘We need to build relationships, we position ourselves, we collaborate and put out informed communications through all channels – you will earn a seat at the top table!’
-Golden rule number 1: Develop and nurture a relationship with Senior Leaders
-Golden rule number 2: Position and collaborate across the entire organisation
-Golden rule number 3: Use all the information you gain from this to establish yourself as a trusted adviser, and influence your comms strategy!
Find out more about how to apply Amit’s three golden rules in his talk…
Stephen Welch
Communications Consultant
Communication Consultant Stephen Welch shared his fascinating insights at our conference with 6 influencing styles that us as internal communicators can practice when we communicate and engage across different organisations.
Here’s Stephen’s inspiring RECIPE for great influencing:
R-Reward
E-Exchange
C-Connect
I-Inform
P-Picture
E-Exit
The importance of these communication styles is to recognise each individual style and when you can use them in best practice.
Find out more about how you can apply Stephen’s RECIPE communication style…
Dr Kevin Ruck
Owner & Director
PR Academy
Dr Kevin Ruck Director of PR Academy shared his research and discoveries on how important employees feel it is to be listened to by their leaders.
‘Employees felt that leaders should listen to what they have to day and this is a sign of a progressive organisation.’ It has been proven that where leaders listened to their employees that this had a positive impact and these employees felt valued as individuals.
Find out more about how listening to employees is a powerful communication skill…
Priya Bates
President
Inner Strength Communication Inc.
Priya Bates shared with us the famous waiter analogy and why internal communicators should have a seat at the top table having that involvement in the decision and discussion making.
Priya uses the waiter analogy to discuss why IC rightly deserve a seat at the top table. In this insightful talk Priya questions – Do you want to be sat at the table involved in the conversation and involved in discussions and decision making or are we taking the orders, taking them away and delivering them?
Find out more on how you can secure your seat at the top table…
Don’t worry if you missed any of our fantastic speakers – you can catch them all here!
IC chat café conversations
Over on our IC chat café conversations flowed throughout the day. IC folk shared those burning questions, personal experiences and challenges they face in the world of IC.
Question for Anna O’Sullivan: What were some top challenges that you’ve come across when communicating change as part of a global group, or alongside colleagues from so many different cultures?
A: there are a number of challenges in a global organisation with different cultures. Firstly, the sheer orchestration of communicating change across multiple locations to multiple teams and ensuring the pre-work is completed in terms of stakeholder buy-in and sign-off and awareness of their own role. For this to be successful there has to be ownership at many different levels. I would also say that having that change network of HR and comms teams across the different locations is important – both in terms of that orchestration, but also in terms of sense-checking plans and representing the different cultures or working styles to say if a plan will land as you intended it to. I also think it’s important for communicators to build up their own knowledge of the different cultures and things to take into account when communicating to different employee groups.
Question for Kevin Ruck – What do you think is the best way for leaders to demonstrate their authenticity?
A: With so and so I think employees can detect authenticity very quickly. It’s about being yourself, not sticking to ‘messages’ or a script. Engaging in a conversation and showing that you have listened to what has been said.
Question for Helen Deverell: Many leaders struggle with sharing human stories about themselves, but we know as IC professionals it’s a great way to connect them to colleagues. Do you have any tips that offer small steps, so leaders don’t just shut down the idea of storytelling?
A: It’s about helping them understand the benefits. Understand what they want to achieve and help them see how storytelling can support that – and use examples of other leaders who have used it to great effect.
Here’s some of the lovely feedback we’ve received from fellow communicators
Thank you for the stimulating talks and discussion and to H&H organising this. – Monique, Participant over in our IC chat café
Massive congrats and thank you for this event! I’m impressed and inspired. It was very refreshing, and I hope more is coming soon 🙂 – Karolina, participant over in our IC chat café
It has been a wonderful experience to be able to meet new and avant-garde points of view on internal communication this day, thanks to all – Alejandra, Participant
Great effort! You’ve got me engaged with H&H – survey response
Thank you to the team for organising the conference, it was brilliant and I’m in awe of how you pulled it all off so seamlessly – Anna, Speaker
It was very easy to do, and Kris was great for the build-up. Enjoyed a couple of the other talks on YouTube too – Rufus, Speaker
Congrats on a brilliant conference and thanks for asking me to take part – Annique, Speaker
Get to know the superb speakers and catch up on their inspirational insights and advice on leadership communication over on our global online IC conference site!
