Effective strategic communication is a critical component for the success of any business. A clearly defined message serves as the backbone of a company’s identity and articulates its future vision.
Edward Clift, assistant professor of communication at Woodbury University, believes it is a mistake to consider communication as a
separate entity that exists apart from the fabric of a company.
“Strategic communication seeks to align an organization’s goals with its communication practices,” he says. “It is about creating a coherent mindset that values differences, handles conflict constructively, operates according to larger ethical principles of community and minimizes the destructive effects of bias and stereotyping.”
Smart Business spoke to Clift about using strategic communication to motivate employees, the importance of having a clearly defined
strategy and the dangers of poor communication.
What are some effective methods of communication that can be integrated into a company by the CEO?
Communication, even when it’s not the subject of a CEO’s self-reflection, saturates all organizations. It is what defines corporate identity.
Once the CEO starts to self-reflect about communication practices, then corporate communications can become subject to modification and
improvement.
I recommend that CEOs start at the top by learning how to listen before they lead. Concentrating only on the effectiveness of communication, however, will limit the growth of the company. One should focus instead on maximizing the full potential of all interactions so that
the company can find ways to direct its own change.
How can effective strategic communication help motivate employees and aid retention?
The idea behind strategic communication is to align corporate interests with the full range of messages distributed to the public,
employees, the media and others. Employees want to understand how their labor contributes to the success of a company, and this alone
will motivate them and increase retention.
Because of flatter of management in the corporate world, employees are increasingly responsible for their own oversight. The
employees that survive in such a world are those who grasp the strategic mission of the business and make it their own. An effective strategic communication policy will help employees identify and understand the vision of the company.
How can a CEO or business owner be sure that employees are satisfied with the company’s communication program?
People are satisfied when they feel like they’ve contributed to the environment that they work in. You want to build an organization that
is open to the input of all the employees. This can be designed into the corporate communication policy, but it has to begin by recognizing
that people are sometimes scared of their own ability to influence the world.
You not only need to create the avenues but also find ways to encourage participation in those communication practices. Concrete ways
to measure how satisfied employees are would include feedback forums, participant observation, anonymous surveys and quality control
indicators.
Why is it important for senior management to have a clearly defined communication strategy?
No company can compete in the Information Age unless it reflects upon its own communication practices. If you develop a well-defined
communication strategy, you can link your corporate goals to your way of knowing and interacting with the world as a business.
The relative success of one business over another is in large part attributable to the communication strategies it chooses to implement.
This is why many investment professionals choose to buy the management team of a company rather than the product; they want to
know that the communication strategy internal to the corporation is aligned with their business goals.
What are the dangers of poor communication in business?
The goal of a CEO is to create a coherent vision of a company that articulates a mission that matches what it is doing. Otherwise, you say
one thing while doing another, and people don’t trust you.
This is one reason why many corporate reorganizations and mergers fail. You can’t just make a structural change and expect the communication practices to also change.
The dangers of poor communication do not end at the door of the company. Huge external risks face all organizations, but especially
those operating on a global stage. These include natural disasters, forced changes in ownership or management, powerful stakeholders,
ideological challenges and direct attack.
Strategic communication dictates that any business become conscious of these potential perturbations to its viability. It should then
use its observations to strategically design a robust set of internal and external communication practices.
EDWARD CLIFT is an assistant professor of communication at Woodbury University. Reach him at (818) 252-5197 or through the university’s Web site, www.woodbury.edu.
