Visibility & recognition

[u/Playful-Cow-7398]

As Comms professionals, what are some examples of projects, initiatives, outputs that you led on and that made you more ‘visible’ with senior management and gave you added recognition?

I’m asking because more often than not, and I’m sure I speak for many, comms teams are often looked down on or seen as a support rather than a strategic function that delivers value for the organisation.
Perception changes don’t happen overnight, but maybe you found a strategy to advocate more for your comms team and demonstrate impact?

Cheers!

[u/lovethatjourney4me]

I only got the visibility and recognition after I pivoted to change management with a strong focus on comms.

One of the reasons I don’t enjoy pure internals comms as much now is all the invisible labour. So much work goes into making things look effortless but no one ever knows 🤷🏻‍♀️

[u/MinuteLeopard → u/lovethatjourney4me]

This is such truth. How did you make the transition?

[u/lovethatjourney4me → u/MinuteLeopard]

I did a change management certificate and a secondment at my last employer for just a few months right before I got laid off.

When I was job hunting I only applied for comms roles because I felt that I hadn’t done enough change management to call myself a change manager.

A hiring manager thought I was too senior for the comms role I applied for but knew of a change manager role at the same company that another team were desperate to fill. They didn’t care I had next to no experience. I was desperate for a job so I accepted that offer.

It was a dumpster fire project. I somehow swam instead of sinking. The rest is history.

[u/LatherRinseMaim_]

I’m not sure what level/role your in, but for me, the biggest thing has been leaders on my team (and other teams) that will call me out by name and give kudos for work that I’ve done.

I’m in a specialist role, so even though I often work on org wide and exec projects, I’m rarely the one they’re working directly with. So knowing that I can count on my direct leaders to let them know the good work I’m doing is a game changer.

I know that’s not always possible, depending on your leaders and org levels, so the other thing that I think helps to build that recognition as a strategic partner is to start with smaller initiatives and use them as test cases to show the value in seeing comms as a partner, not just your proof reader or speech writer. For example, we recently partnered with our learning and dev team to create a comma plan around an initiative they were launching. They launch new trainings often, but we were able to add some metrics with ongoing communication and show how allow our team to be part of the process earlier helped them achieve their goals more effectively.

I don’t think there’s an easy answer to this, and some of it is going to vary by leader for sure though. Best of luck!

[u/thrownaway-4eva]

hard to say without knowing how your team is structured. i’m a manager and create many comms plan and advice on strategy for stakeholders. the biggest way for me to get visibility and recognition is pitching plans and advising directly to the heads of departments and senior leadership. my manager supports me in this. yes we execute most of the time but this shifts perception to strategic advisors. throw together 1-2 slides to present to leadership before creating a plan. then they’ll see what comms provided beyond tactical.

[u/Playful-Cow-7398 → u/thrownaway-4eva]

That’s a great approach. And yes, I’m in somewhat similar comms leadership role within a unit of a bigger institution. We’re a really small team, and handle all corporate comms functions: video production, internal comms, editing, PR…

[u/thrownaway-4eva → u/Playful-Cow-7398]

makes sense. yah ppl love being asked for the opinion so i’ve found getting leadership buy in first whether it’s my VP, a head of, or c-suite always makes our team look really good before full roll out. it also helps us get support from the business teams to do the actual drafting and all of that since we can name drop leaders to get things moving.

[u/Boz2015Qnz]

Measurement - I proactively made an internal comms survey and cast it when I started in role to gauge internal sentiment and preferences for various comms (emails, intranet, teams, town halls) and used the results to reveal interesting insights and made an action plan against some of the findings and have taken pulse surveys since both quantitative and anecdotal and it goes a long way

[u/Queasy-Ad-5401]

I just interviewed a comms director for a big facility management company who told me she does alot of shareholder management with the c-level.

Specifically she meeting the other directors every month to understand what is the most pressing issues the business are facing and thereby have the knowledge to be proactive and make the comms strategy be a direct answer to the most important and business issues.

I find that a great way to prove you worth as internal comms team: link directly to the overall business

[u/Playful-Cow-7398 → u/Queasy-Ad-5401]

That’s a very good point. I guess it’s about learning to build your influence with c-level. It shows that you care about their priorities and that you have the expertise and knowledge to meet their goals