Becoming a Trusted Advisor
Being a trusted advisor allows you to widen the influence of communications within the organization. From advising the CEO on message delivery to helping HR colleagues increase retention, we all know how great communications can impact the organization.
Internal relationships are key to finding these opportunities and by aligning your communication toolbox with your colleagues’ objectives you can demonstrate the impact of your approach.
What is a trusted advisor?
Everyone knows someone they can trust. Someone they turn to for advice. Imagine for a second who that person might be in your life and consider what characteristics and traits they have. What is it about them that inspires your trust? Are they a good listener? Are they authentic? Are they supportive, helpful and knowledgeable?
Why is trust important?
It’s in our DNA. Humans depend on communities and relationships that have deep cultural roots in reciprocity. As Robert Cialdini noted in his book, Influence and the Psychology of Persuasion, an increased sense of reciprocity is a powerful tool in creating group interdependence. It also serves to increase Oxytocin levels, a known marker for pro social bonding, as demonstrated by the research of Neuroeconomist Dr. Paul J. Zack.
All this to say the same applies in a professional context, and time invested in adding true value to relationships creates strong partnerships.
As communicators, we understand the value and importance of trust. But how can we foster and strengthen key relationships to amplify the value of great communication, and the impact it has on organizational health and profitability?
Why now?
Research has indicated that, on average, 40% of employees have stated their intention to leave their current jobs within the next 12 months. We all know how much it costs to attract and retain talent, which is why communication is central to your Employee Value Proposition (EVP), acting as the glue that binds the organization.
Great communication makes a difference. It can align and inspire a workforce, empower change, and have a truly positive impact at an individual level. When the full value of a strategic communication function isn’t realized, the resulting (and frustrating) underinvestment creates a sub-standard employee experience that severely limits the EVP.
Right place, right time
The communications function has an enviable position at the heart of the organization. This allows us to move across workforce silos with an active interest in everything that involves the most valuable asset of any organization – its people.
With this comes opportunity and responsibility. We must develop unique and valuable relationships that enable the capabilities of communications to be recognized and used effectively across the entire organization. To do this, we need others recognize the utility and relevance of our super powers.
What’s in the toolbox?
The communications toolbox ought to be far-reaching and multi-faceted, yet if it’s incomplete, and its full impact unknown, this will limit your reach and influence. It’s therefore critical that every layer of your organization understands its value.
That said, value is viewed differently across any organization. A CEO would benefit from knowing how to make a message effective, for example, a recent acquisition may require mass behavior change, or L&D might benefit from understanding channel effectiveness to drive engagement in learning tool adoption.
All these potential opportunities (and more) depend on two things:
- A sound and well-structured communications strategy that is grounded in, and aligned to, the overall direction of the organization.
- A complete understanding of your audience and the available communications landscape.
Creating true value
A communications strategy needn’t be overly complex, but in our roles as communicators, it’s vital that we root our activities in, and align tightly with, the organization’s direction of travel. This drives our why and provides the context we need to form an approach and outcome-focused initiatives that create impact.
Every organization has measures and KPIs that relate to both long and short-term goals. Dig into these themes and understand them from multiple angles. How do they impact different functions? What behaviors are required to drive change in the workforce at a granular level? When we’re able to prove that our communications are impacting the bottom line, we’re well positioned to have more commercial conversations that cover cost, time, effort and resource – using language that the senior leadership team will appreciate.
Finding and forming relationships
With Function heads and senior leaders as your customers, you can follow a basic consultative process to understand how you’re able to help them. What are their current objectives? What are they being measured on? How can your tools help deliver these outcomes?
Use open-ended question techniques, such as the TEDW approach outlined below, to increase your understanding of the challenges they are facing:
- T – Tell me more about…. Encourage the story.
- E & D – Explain and describe the detail… What are the key points?
- W – Walk me through some examples… Get concrete examples and understand behavior or real impact (time, cost, effort, department progress).
This is an active listening approach where you not only increase a deeper understanding but you’ll also tune into subtle cues of how emotional this topic is. This approach also helps the other person feel understood, which further builds trust.
The opportunities may be small at first, but supporting someone in their pursuit of an objective is a worthy, meaningful goal.
Practical and action-oriented
While certain aspects of communications impact are obvious to you, they may not be to others. People are busy and often don’t have the headspace to consider the many different ways you could help them. More than anything, they need practical solutions, such as the kind of support that makes them look good in the next meeting, or increases their chances of achieving a measured target. How might you do this?
Current impact and action plan
Before you take action, it’s vital to benchmark where you are now. Ask yourself these questions and be honest with your answers.
How would you rate the current communications function in these areas:
- Alignment of communications strategy
How well do you know the overall direction and objectives of the organization? Take the time to align your communications objectives with these goals, maintaining a keen focus on outcomes (not just outputs). You can then work backwards from each outcome to ascertain the behaviours and measurable activities needed to get you there. - The communications elevator pitch and value proposition
Reframe your communication superpowers in the language of the organization, clearly outlining how your work impacts strategic objectives. - Current communications sphere of influence at all levels
What’s the current level of communications impact? Why might this be? What is holding you back? Do you have an ambassador at senior level, someone who sees the value of effective communication? - Superpowers and knowledge
Do you know your audience inside out? Are you confident in the effectiveness of your channels? Are you limited by technology? Make friends with HR and learn what they already know and understand about the audience - how do they segment? What key health metrics are they using for attrition?
Widen that circle
Now you’ve identified the areas in need of improvement, create a plan to close the gaps in your delivery. What upcoming projects or initiatives provide opportunities to get started?
By using some or all of the techniques listed above you will be on your way to becoming a trusted advisor. In great communication, we have an opportunity to impact the success of an organization. This is a superpower the organization needs — it just doesn’t know it yet.
See how our internal communications consultants can help you today, and contact us to discuss the tangible differences we could make to your organization.