Research reveals conflicting priorities for communicators and CEOs
This is one of the key findings in a new report, 21st Century Leadership Communication, produced by Melcrum and The Company Agency. In frank interviews with 18 CEOs and senior business leaders from a broad spectrum of organizations, CEOs stressed the central role of good internal communication to good business performance, but warned that internal communicators may be focusing on the wrong areas and activities.
The CEOs interviewed suggested that the most important role of internal communication is to make sure everyone working in the company understands the business strategy and knows what they need to do personally to deliver it. For these CEOs, any other tasks that internal communication professionals perform are secondary.
“Internal communication is the only way of ensuring that people right the way through the organization understand what our business objectives are and what’s going on at a particular time,” says Paul Walker, Chief Executive of The Sage Group.
Skewed objectives
The report proposes that the internal communication industry’s objectives may have become skewed in the last decade. Once viewed as a secondary business function that distributes information in a production-line manner, internal communication has worked hard to widen the scope of its role to take on more “strategic” activities, planning and managing complex communication programs.
But, the report suggests, in doing this, internal communicators may have abandoned the discipline of “drafting and crafting”, an activity that the CEO regards as truly strategic and really wants assistance with when it comes to constructing the core business messages.
“It’s content more than the vehicle,” says Hugh Harvey, Managing Director of Comet. “There’s no point having fantastic vehicles for communication and then sending out the same drivel.”
Authentic communication
Another strong theme to emerge from the research was the desire for more authentic communication from those at the top. “Internal communication,” says Rona Fairhead, CEO of The Financial Times Group, “is about making people feel part of an organization – rather than cogs inside a big machine who don't really know what they’re moving towards.”
The report suggests that in the past, internal communicators have focused on “openness and honesty”, while the CEOs interviewed say that communications now need to go a step further. Not only do they need to be truthful, they need to be authentic – genuine, sincere and, as Michael Critelli, Executive Chairman of Pitney Bowes puts it, “more revealing of how senior management thinks”.
The CEOs suggest that one of the key routes to authenticity is “keeping it personal” – particularly now that employees have increased access to information and communicators need to break through the “noise” to connect with and engage them. “I think a lot of us are coming down to a sleeves-rolled-up, sit-on-the-corner-of-the-desk approach, with 20 or 30 people at a time,” says Keith Butler-Wheelhouse, CEO of Smiths Group. In addition, “even if you’re talking to lots of people,” advises Paolo Cavalieri, CEO of Hollard Insurance Group, “you want them to feel as though you’re talking directly to them individually.”
Other aspects of the relationship between CEOs and internal communication explored in the research include the level of influence of internal communicators, the impact of social media, and the need for other ranks of leadership to step up and “carry the communication can” more. The report also includes a list of recommendations for internal communicators to help create consistency between their goals and vision for communication, and the CEOs.
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Notes for editors
21st Century Leadership Communication is a new report produced by Melcrum and The Company Agency, which explores the attitudes and priorities of CEOs and senior business leaders when it comes to internal communication.
It is divided into two parts:
- An executive summary, including recommendations for CEOs and senior business leaders
- A detailed exploration of research findings, with recommendations for internal communicators.
The report closes with an Afterword by Malcolm Higgs, Professor of Organization Behavior and HR at the University of Southampton School of Management, which places the key research findings in the context of broader leadership research and thinking.
The research is based on in-depth interviews with 18 CEOs and senior business leaders from a broad range of countries:
- Keith Butler-Wheelhouse, CEO, Smiths Group plc
- Paddy Byng, CEO, Smythson
- Paolo Cavalieri, CEO, Hollard Insurance Group
- John Conover, President Americas Distribution, Trane
- Michael J. Critelli, Executive Chairman, Pitney Bowes
- Rona Fairhead, CEO, The Financial Times Group
- Iain Ferguson, Chief Executive, Tate & Lyle PLC
- Val Gooding, Chief Executive, BUPA
- Paul Gray, Chairman HM Revenue & Customs
- Hugh Harvey, Managing Director, Comet
- Jeremy Hicks, Director, Audi UK
- Lori LeBas, Senior VP, Strategy and Business Operations, ESPN
- Wim Roelandts, President and CEO, Xilinx
- Peter Rogers, CEO, Westminster City Council
- Truett Tate, Group Executive Director for Wholesale and International Banking, Lloyds TSB plc
- Jean-Pascal Tricoire, CEO Schneider Electric
- Mike Turner, CEO, BAE Systems
- Paul Walker, Chief Executive, The Sage Group plc
For further information contact:
Daniel Gregory
Tel: 020 8600 4670 e-mail: daniel.gregory@melcrum.com
Or visit our website
About The Company Agency
The Company Agency was founded in 2003 to provide communication consultancy to leaders and to ensure their communication is focused, compelling and consistent. Its offering falls into four categories: Focus on Leaders, The Corporate Story, Focus on Senior Management and Employee and Investor Programs.
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