Wise leadership & communications jesters

How do you know when you're being a good leader? Is that wear and tear behind your department heads' eyes? A crackle of angst in the office carpet as you pass? "Awkward" in the air at the Monday catch-up? Or not?

With Spidey Leadership Sense Comes Responsibility

When your spidey-sense kicks in, but there's no obvious problem or simple fix, it can be nothing short of exhausting. And when that niggle starts to follow you home - or worse, becomes a dream-stalking poke in the eye - a leader has to face it square on.

Or should they?

You've hired excellent professionals. Smart cookies, who've hired more smart cookies. Wading in is hardly "leadership". This is why you pay well. Maybe you should let them get on with it a little longer...

But - but... How did your "energetic powerhouse hire" become a baggy-eyed grouch? Why did you hear yourself sigh with relief when you heard your competitor's making cuts? Could it be because you know it means your guys will stay put?

Sound the alarms!

Creating teams that stay and thrive, through bad times and good

For 20 years - 14 of those here at Lyric - I’ve supported Marketing and Communications Directors, Chief Execs, Company Secretaries and Financial Officers who know when to sound the alarm. They've called for external booster packs that will help refocus their strategy and reenergise their teams in times of stress. It starts with an idea about communications, but as (IMHO) everything is about how we communicate externally and internally, it's really about the deep attitudes and behaviours of the organisation itself.

Every time, the result is up-skilled team that has lasting focus, energy, insight, loyalty and confidence.

But how? Can an external consultant really add lasting, serious, bottom line value?

When change comes, not all leaders are equal

Imagine you have a problem. Something has changed.

• Your once-awesome offer has become tinged with "meh", for instance.
• Your vital component turns out to be a whale-killer.
• Your founder turns out to be a very nasty person.
• The regulator or government says you need to give more, do less, build something, sell something else, charge more -

But it was never a problem before!

"It'll pass..." say too many on the senior payroll. Says almost no-one on the user/customer-side. Say very few staff...

If you hired enough good in-house comms people, they spotted this (even forecast it and you backed them to make contingency plans), taken soundings and reacted responsibly and immediately, reflecting your values, and updating stakeholders ASAP. And if you hired serious comms talent, they found a way to talk to you about the unpalatable and shake the building months before this problem surfaced, without fearing for their jobs or reputations, or the impact of your reaction on team morale.

The right team for the job: when you need a jester

People with communications talent like this are like the old court jesters. They say the unthinkable to power, regardless of the short-term personal - and organisational - risk. But is that what you hired your in-house comms guys to be? Did you hire them for the day to day, which is where the majority of the workload is? Have you got comms thinkers as well as doers in the mix?

Now, back to that problem...

So you have a good in-house communications team but people are stretched, you can't get what you need to deal with the problem quickly enough. Tempers fray. Sleep gets nibbled. The Chair is coming over. How does a great leader handle her / his communications? Do you:

(a) Go Solo. Yep, take it all on yourself. Only you can solve this. Worry yourself into the ground. Take it home with you. Kick the dog, snarl at your Significant Other/s from the keyboard. Over time, really get to dislike, nay, despise yourself.

(b) Squeak the pips. Share the pressure - apply it to the middle management til their pips squeak. They ought to be up to this, right? Comms isn't rocket science and this is CPD!

(c) Add muscle. Of course I’m going to say this, but only because I know it works. You find that expert with the advantages of distance, independence, breadth of scope and scale. A great consultant is your very own communications ghostbuster/(non-laughing)jester.

If you chose option (c)...

Congratulations. You just bolstered the whole organisation: yourself, the Board, the Comms Director and her/his team. Rather than push the weight around the room, you've lifted it.

• The sense of relief inside the organisation is tangible (catch some honest comments about this in my own recommendations).
• Your external stakeholders become immediately aware of a change in your approach to them.
• You've immediately responded to your organisation's needs, taking a growth-mindset approach and changing the outfit's DNA. This is how thriving works, by adding-on talent when you need it.

How you gonna call?

Well, you can click this word. Or you can drop me a line. As the recommendations will tell you, it works.