Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. Today's question comes from close to home, from a reader in Dublin who is working as an Internal Comms Manager. "My leadership team has basically told employees that we're expected to 'use AI for everything' to save time and money. I get the efficiency argument, but it doesn't feel right to run our whole comms function through AI. Am I being a dinosaur, or are my instincts right? is there a real case for keeping some...
17 days ago • 4 min read
Hey Reader, When I was 11 years old, my teacher told us about a new train that was running between England and France. She told me it goes under the sea. Young-me was baffled. How was it going under the sea? Did it not leak if you opened a window? Could you pet fish as you went by? I think I was picturing something like this: My teacher was, of course, talking about the Eurostar train that was running through the Channel Tunnel, an incredible feat of engineering that enabled people to travel...
24 days ago • 5 min read
Hey Reader, Last year I went viral on LinkedIn for a post I flung together quickly on a whim, but that clearly struck a nerve: It talked about the absolutely suffocating, overwhelming and confusing environment most employees find themselves in, pulled from one platform to another and expected to navigate multiple tools and platforms simply to keep up to date with what’s happening in work. It’s exhausting, isn’t it? This kind of fragmented workplace has been a serious problem for years and I...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's question comes from Ontario, Canada, from an internal comms manager who is feeling a bit tired and fed up. "I love my job and I work hard, really hard! I am able to work fast and efficiently and am good with helping lots of people in the company. I get lots of positive feedback from colleagues on my work. But I don't think the leaders in my company take me seriously or see me as someone who does a job that...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader, and this week's comes from a senior internal communications specialist in Australia. "I've been in internal comms for years and I'm good at what I do, but I work on my own and lately I've started to feel like I've plateaued. There's nobody around me who really gets the work, I've no one to bounce ideas off, no one to learn from, no one in my corner. How do you keep growing in this field when you're doing it solo?" I...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's comes from someone who's clearly feeling the squeeze, and I suspect a lot of you will resonate with this question: "My leadership team is completely sold on AI and clearly have an expectation that it'll make everything faster and easier, especially for us in the comms team. But sometimes I can't tell if AI is actually helping us or just adding more work and tools to the pile. How are comms teams getting...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's question comes from a Director of Internal Communications in New Zealand who wrote: "Presenting to senior leaders is the part of my job I find hardest. I want to come across as credible and strategic, but I worry I either drown them in detail or fail to connect what I'm doing to what they actually care about. How do I get better at communicating with leaders?" Thank you for sending this in, you'd be...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's comes from an Internal Comms Lead in Bristol who asks: "One of our big initiatives this year is to launch a new set of company core values. I haven't done this before and want to do a good job. Have you any advice for rolling out values so that they actually stick?" Ahhhh I must be a total nerd because this topic actually makes me so excited. Is it just me that loves big meaty tricky projects like this?...
2 months ago • 6 min read
Hey Reader, Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's comes from an internal comms manager in Germany who's wrestling with something I think you'll all recognise: "One thing I often struggle with is saying no to colleagues, especially someone senior to me. I'm a manager and I can't imagine saying no to a leader in the company, but sometimes they ask me to do things that I don't think are right, and I really should figure out a way to say no. How can I do this...
2 months ago • 6 min read