Coco the Clown and the Man Who Wanted Windows

This is a true story. I once saw an ex-boss lock herself into a cupboard rather than confront the bobble hat wearing would-be editor who turned up for a job interview at our creative comms agency. As the candidate - looking more like Coco the Clown in her equally shocking, bright stripy tights, mismatched skirt and tie-dye top - cycled across our courtyard, there was nothing else for it. It had been a long, tiring day of interviews and my MD was laughing so hard that tears were coursing down her face and she simply couldn’t face this candidate and take her at all seriously for a client-facing job. So into the cupboard she hopped. An extreme reaction perhaps but often people find it hard to imagine how important first impressions are to a potential employer. It’s the same with the bit at the end of every interview when your ‘maybe’ next boss asks you if you have any questions? Asking about holiday entitlement or salary as the only question or, even worse, not saying anything at all are a definite no-no. Particularly if you are going for a communications role. Equally unimpressive are questions of no relevance whatsoever. A candidate once asked me whether our company had windows. It was the only question, it was the early 90s, so I assumed he meant the Microsoft Operating System. But no, dear readers, he was talking about the glass variety you can see out of. Apparently his current office had no natural daylight. A shame. However, as I was potentially employing him as a comms consultant I felt there were way too many other more strategic and insightful questions he could have put to me – old fashioned future employer that I was. And, as I showed him the door, I really couldn’t imagine him working with any of our clients, asking them the right questions or giving them the best solutions. So my top tip if you can absolutely not think of anything worthwhile to say is to just say this: “What are the key objectives you would expect me to achieve in the first three to six months?” True it can flummox them but switched on folk should be able to respond. Just don’t say it wearing fancy dress!

Top tips for IC people - please add yours!

People who know me know how much I loathe all the hot air around internal comms, engagement, call it what you will. It's usually coming from the sort of people who have never actually got their hands dirty and wouldn't be tempted out of bed for less than £2k a day.

Still I guess you gotta earn a living. Yesterday, in my bid to make my office a clutter-free zone, I found a copy of an article I'd written in an industry mag which connected with some of the comments I have seen on Linked In and Twitter recently from new IC people looking for tips and advice on the job.

I wrote the article for Melcrum last year with the key points I felt were worth sharing with other comms practitioners about the role of internal comms and the people helping to make it effective.

They asked me to write it (and no, sadly it didn't involve chocolate or cash incentives) because I have been doing this stuff for a wee while and happened to have a particularly challenging role at the time heading internal communications for Royal Mail in the UK.

What was interesting about the exercise was having to hone down what I felt were the most relevant points bearing in mind the job has changed so much in recent years as have business leaders' expectations. And, naturally, I had a bit to say. 

Thank goodness for all those years as a journo and the invention of the bullet point. Yes, the resulting piece had a bit of an 'IC manifesto' look about it, but it is a true reflection of what I believe are the key ingredients for good IC and great IC people.

For this post, there are a couple of points from my 'Ban the fluff in your function' IC manifesto (!!)  which I always keep top of mind. Please feel free to have a look at the full post and add your own.

• Don’t be afraid to say what you are thinking and challenge the status quo. Big organisations have a tendency to say they tried your suggestion in August 1985 and it didn’t work. 

•  Get back to basics – don’t overlook simple ways of communicating for something fancy with bells on it. Conversation is best so do what you can with that in mind.

• Prioritise your priorities or you will soon find there are not enough hours in the day. If you match your comms strategy to business priorities that’s a good start.