Hey Reader,

Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week's question came in from a Corporate Comms Manager in Canada who asks:

Ah you are not alone my friend. I think everyone who works in comms has, at some stage in their career, been stuck in a cycle of being seen as the team that "sends stuff out" or “makes things look nice” rather than the team that helps the business succeed. I’ve definitely been there, and I remember how frustrating it felt, especially when you know you have so much more to offer.

This is a topic we tackled recently in The Curious Tribe, where we were joined by the very wonderful and extremely impressive Priya Bates, founder of Inner Strength Communication in Toronto, Canada. Priya has worked in internal comms for decades and she joined us to share the story of how she joined Canada's largest private sector employer and transformed the internal comms function into a strategic business function with a seat at the table.

Working in internal comms is awesome. But it can also be really hard.

​Maybe you're the only internal communicator in your organisation. Or maybe you're a communications leader who is expected to have all the answers. You're probably facing challenges that other people in your organisation rarely understand.

​Finding peers who truly get your work and can help you can be difficult.

​The Curious Tribe is my membership community for ambitious internal communicators who want to transform into strategic advisors, while connecting with peers who understand the real challenges of internal comms.

The tribe has 70+ members from all around the world with an NPS score of +81. 90% of members renew for a second year or more.

Here's some of the upcoming events we've got coming over the coming weeks, all available both live and on-demand exclusively for members.

Are you the next member of The Curious Tribe? 👀

How did it start for Priya?

When Priya first joined the business, she joined a small team who had a reporting line buried under HR. It was all a bit rough and ready; no digital tools, very little understanding of what internal comms could do and definitely not a place where comms was treated as a strategic function.

But within five years, Priya had grown that team from 3 to 20, moved the reporting line from HR to the Chairman's office and then into a centralised corporate affairs team and she became part of the trusted group of people in the organisation who knew about major business decisions before they happened.

That's a hell of a transformation. How did she do it??

Well this is what she shared with us in The Curious Tribe. She gave us a deep dive, candid look at how it all unfolded and what she did to make it happen. Here’s some of the top takeaways from her session:

Put your hand up for the stuff that matters

Priya's team didn't wait to be invited to work on the big strategic projects. They put their hand up. When the Chairman's office needed a company-wide newsletter and an employee feedback channel, Priya's team said "we can help with that." They volunteered for the work that would give them visibility and prove their value. They realised quickly that they didn’t need permission to be strategic, they simply needed to identify the right project and offer their expertise.

Ask: "What happens if we DON'T communicate this well?"

Priya recommends asking your stakeholders a crucial question at the very start of a project: “What happens if we don’t communicate this properly? What are the risks to the project if people don’t understand this or take action on this?” This coaxes your stakeholder to articulate the risks of ineffective communication upfront and helps them realise the importance of getting this right in order to make the project successful. It helps them connect the dots between the overall project and the comms side of things.

Learn to brag (yes, really)

Most of us working in internal comms like being behind the scenes and we don’t like to toot our own horn. But Priya had a strong take on this: you absolutely need to brag about what you do and connect it to the business. Her team applied for (and won) Canada's Top 100 Employers award and that external recognition gave the whole team a platform to talk about what they were doing, how it mattered and how much value they create in the company.

You can start today

If you want to take steps to becoming more of a strategic partner in your organisation, why not pick one of Priya’s pieces of advice above and start there? For example, you could identify one important project in your organisation and put your hand up to help with the comms on it. This might be a change programme, a leadership initiative, a new strategy launch... something that you know your leaders care about. Offer your expertise, deliver brilliantly, and then don’t forget to brag. Make sure people know about the results and your contribution.

It's one project at a time. One relationship at a time. One win at a time. Priya's team didn't go from 3 to 20 overnight. It was a steady build of trust, credibility and proven impact over a period of years.

This is really just the tip of the iceberg that Priya shared in her session – if you want to watch the full recording, it’s available in The Curious Tribe video library, exclusively for tribe members. Join us here.

Btw if you’re not following Priya on LinkedIn yet then I highly recommend you do. She is smart, switched on and generous with her expertise. You can find her here.

Thanks for reading and stay curious,

Joanna

Find me on YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn and check out my book​

Want to work together?

• Join The Curious Tribe. This is my membership community for ambitious, curious communicators who want to achieve more in their roles and have fun at the same time. Membership allows you to work directly with me for 12 months, make deep connections with other communication pros who 'get it' and improve your skills through training and learning. More info here.
• Ready to review your channels and content but don't know where to start? Download my practical Internal Comms Audit Playbook to guide you through a DIY audit - no expensive consultant needed.​ This has ready-to-use templates and checklists to give you a systematic way to do your own audit which you can repeat every single year. Get it here.
• Take a shortcut. I've developed a collection of tried-and-tested templates, checklists and how-to guides for the key processes you'll need in your role as an internal communicator. You can download my Internal Comms Cheat Sheets here.​

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