The 5 competencies of highly effective comms leaders
Ragan CEO Diane Schwartz writes in Fast Company about how communicators can move from being treated as order takers to valued strategists.
As the state of work continues to shift amid a recession and changing labor market, so too must organizational strategy evolve to create an employer brand that puts culture front and center and is modeled by leaders. Ragan CEO Diane Schwartz believes the communications industry is at an inflection point. “The communicator is the heart and soul of the workplace,” Schwartz recently wrote in a piece for Fast Company. “They are the secret ingredient to employee retention.”
Schwartz goes further to explain how effective communication boosts employee retention:
Those involved in employer branding strategies know that it’s an inside-out challenge requiring effective employee communications. It demands transparency from the CEO, better manager-employee communications, and a culture in which employees believe in their company’s purpose.
All the best-laid plans around benefits, corporate mission, and career opportunities are lost on most employees if they are not communicated properly. A company’s strong earnings or growth trajectory is great for the shareholders, but disgruntled employees can take a company down in a New York minute.
After explaining how the CEO-Communicator partnership drives culture, Schwartz opines on the five key competencies that communications leaders can develop to strengthen their strategies:
- Relationship building
- Business fluency
- Strategic project management
- Writing
- Storytelling
Check out the Fast Company story for Schwartz’s thoughts on how each of these competencies contributes to strategic communications.
