Internal communication in today’s business paradigm
There are many forms of leadership and internal communication — but how does a company adapt when the storm hits?
The waves strike the hull hard, sweeping across the deck in time with the lurching of the manoeuvres needed to ride out the weather. The constant creak of the rigging is barely audible over the roar of the thunder, and one flash of lightning after another does nothing to lift the crew’s spirits.
So much for the more or less poetic description of a changing, complex and demanding environment — the kind any ship must face in a storm, and the kind any organisation faces in the compelling times we are living through.
A great deal has been written about the business paradigm organisations now confront. We have reflected at length on the VUCA environments — volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous — through which companies must navigate. And on leadership, that indispensable tiller which ensures the strategic objectives never drift out of sight. As for digital transformation: the treasure map we are all determined to follow, in search of a competitive advantage that will help us stand out.
But the purpose of this article is not to address the grand themes of management. My aim, rather, is to concentrate on one aspect that many would consider trivial, and that very few identify as a potential competitive advantage: leadership and internal communication. And yet, is it not contradictory to overlook this area of organisational management when its whole purpose is to bring order out of chaos? Internal communication may look like a secondary concern in running a business, but without it the effectiveness of any strategy is compromised, the organisation’s credibility is called into question, and the exercise of leadership can become an impossible task.
An open and transparent dialogue
As a professional function, internal communication is the multidisciplinary work of organising and managing the flows of information moving through a company’s internal channels, formal and informal alike. Internal communication should reach every member of staff, with the aim of aligning their work with the objectives everyone shares. How could anyone ride out a storm if the orders do not arrive clearly, or if fear and rumour drown out the information being passed along?
For this reason, current thinking on internal communication centres on adapting to an environment that changes ever faster, in which digital channels and tools are steadily gaining ground, and in which the dominant approach is defined by a commitment to communication in every direction, to putting people at the centre, and to holding on to talent.
It means managing an immense jigsaw of different kinds of piece — messages, channels, information flows and stakeholders — until every member of staff, and senior managers above all, has the information they need to make the right decisions within their remit. Ultimately, the purpose of internal communication is to promote open, transparent dialogue among the various internal stakeholders who make up the company.
Leadership, ethics and internal communication
Companies face challenges they have never known before, and they face them in a volatile environment where change follows change at dizzying speed, and where the ability to anticipate and the flexibility to adapt to new scenarios are as difficult as they are crucial. Something similar has happened in communication: the old one-way models are obsolete, and the challenge of multilateral communication now presents itself as the only option capable of responding quickly and effectively to organisations’ shifting needs.
Yet precisely because organisations are caught in a genuine storm, there is no avoiding the need to reinforce the basic pillars of managing a business. One of those pillars is leadership. Far from losing its importance, it stands as the most powerful tool companies have for reaching their objectives. Leadership, together with internal communication, becomes the foundation on which a company’s continuity rests in stormy times.
Communication that flows in every direction is everyone’s job. But it is the leader who must drive the cultural change needed to replace old approaches with new ones, in which transparency and openness to participation become the defining features. Leadership that is emotionally intelligent and marked by a strong ethical character thus becomes the best driver of dialogue within a company.
The importance of credibility
It is unquestionably of the first importance to share with the members of an organisation the information they need to do their work effectively — and also the information that makes them feel part of achieving the overall objectives. Transparency and openness should not, however, be confused with broadcasting every kind of message indiscriminately, in all directions and to all recipients. The point is to be selective, acting with judgement so that what each person receives is what they genuinely need. This is why companies must have a clear approach to leadership and to internal communication, and never more so than in stormy times.
Too much information can be as useless as it is bewildering, and may produce exactly the opposite of the intended effect. If a poor internal communication policy leaves employees saturated and resistant, the messages will lose credibility — their effectiveness diminished, and considerably more effort required to win it back later.
Credibility is one of the decisive factors in achieving the objectives of an internal communication strategy. Leadership must therefore guard it like treasure, without yielding to the temptation of half-truths, still less to the siren song of a short-term solution built on a lie.
Organisations work hard at being credible to the outside world, forgetting that their internal credibility matters far more — a credibility that cannot be faked, because it is under continuous scrutiny by every one of their members. A leader must be credible first of all with their own team, and that is possible only through sincerity, transparency and consistency.
Ten principles for the credible leader
By way of conclusion, I will close with a simple set of ten principles. It may serve as a reference for anyone wishing to embark on this compelling adventure, and to become a point of reference for their own teams through the ethics and credibility of the way they communicate:
- They lead by example in their own work and stay true to the commitments they have made.
- They express their views sincerely and without ambiguity.
- They listen to their team’s views and acknowledge their contribution to shared results.
- They practise active listening and remain open to learning from others.
- They give positive, encouraging feedback based on clear, objective criteria.
- They value sincerity in the people they work with, and are grateful for the feedback they receive.
- They apologise sincerely for any harm caused by their own mistakes.
- They share with each person the information needed to achieve their objectives.
- They are discreet in how they handle sensitive information.
- They explain the reasons behind every goal they ask their team to pursue.
