Many years ago I was working in an office where I felt I was doing a really good job and was proud of myself. I was really busy every day, I felt accomplished ticking off my handwritten to-do list as I ploughed through the tasks and my work was high quality.
I felt great and I loved that job. Until one day I didn't.
Because I overheard a conversation that wasn't meant for my ears, and although they weren't bad-talking me, I found their words upsetting.
I was walking past the break room when I overheard two senior managers discussing an upcoming organisational restructure. One of them said, “We should probably get Joanna to design some nice graphics for the announcement.” The other replied, “Yeah, she’s great at making things look professional and she'll get it done quickly for us.”
I mean, these aren't cruel words by any stretch, they were praising my work. But I found this upsetting because I realised something: nobody actually understood what I really did for a living or how I added value beyond making things look nice. I was just the email-sender, the graphics-maker, the reliable pair of hands to get things out the door quickly.
And I think in my heart of hearts I found this so distressing because it was TRUE. I was so completely focused on tasks and activities and ticking off that bloody to-do list that I hadn't realised that I was (a) spending all of my time on executing tactics, (b) spending honestly very little time linking my work to the bigger picture or questioning why I was doing certain tasks and (c) investing exactly ZERO time explaining to people what the internal comms team is there to do and why it matters.
Working in internal comms can be really bloody lonely. I know, I've been there.
​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.
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Now back to what I was saying.
When I overheard this conversation, I was young and I was ambitious and I wanted to forge a great career in communications. And I felt embarrassed overhearing this conversation, because I wanted to be more than just the content creator or the person who made things look nice.
In typical redhead style, I silently plotted my revenge against the two managers I had overheard (kidding - sort of) and decided that day to start making some changes. One thing became alarmingly clear immediately: despite all the good work I was doing, I had never taken the time to actually explain what internal communication is and what it can do for the business. I'd never really thought about that or written it down anywhere. And I'd certainly never had that conversation with a single stakeholder in the company.
I’d been so focused on doing the job that I’d forgotten to educate people about what the job was all about and why it was so valuable.
Silly me. It suddenly seemed so obvious, but I'd been too busy to even consider it.
And I know I'm not the only one.
Maybe this is you, too. Maybe you are firefighting all day long and so busy churning out the work that you forget that part of our job is educating stakeholders on what we do, why we do it and how we add value.
Is it annoying that we have to educate people on this? Yes. Do we have to do it anyway? Absolutely yes.
I was thinking about this over the last few days after grading some student assignments, because this came up time and time again in my students' reflective learning journals. Students told me stories of similar moments they've had and how they've come to realise they need to focus less on tasks and more on internal education and marketing.
One student shared that her CEO asked her to “just pop together a quick newsletter” for a major upcoming change. No strategy discussion, no audience consideration, no clear objectives; sure just make it look good and send it out to everyone.
Another student told me how her stakeholders constantly bypassed her for “urgent” communications, then wondered why they weren't seeing the results they wanted. They saw her as a bottleneck rather than a useful partner and didn't understand her value or why they needed her.
I heard tale after tale along similar lines and the underlying issue was always the same:
Wed need to educate our stakeholders about what we do and why it matters.
Some of my students have been doing this successfully with my guidance and seeing really promising results.
One student, let's call her Susan, began to use her curiosity as a tool to educate stakeholders on how she works and the value she brings. When a colleague in HR asked her to make an infographic, she asked questions instead of immediately adding it to her to-do list. She asked really simple yet powerful questions like:
- What are you hoping to achieve with this infographic?
- Who’s the audience for your message?
- How will we know if it’s successful or not?”
Now Susan found this difficult at first because she had always just said 'yes' to requests like this before and that's what her stakeholders expected. And initially, her HR colleague was frustrated by all the questions. But after a few weeks of consistently using this approach, something began to change. Her colleague started coming to her earlier in the planning process, asking for advice and guidance on plans and ideas rather than just asking her to create content.
Another student, let's call him Larry, told me how he used the “cost of poor communication” approach with his leadership team. He presented data showing how unclear messaging was leading to duplicated work, wasted time and confused priorities. This was a smart way of educating his leaders that communication can help improve productivity and efficiency in the business, rather than just acting as a service to simply disseminate information. With this approach, Larry began to shift how leaders understood the importance of internal comms in the company.
All of this matters an awful lot. Because when our key stakeholders truly understand our role and our value, everything changes. We get invited to the table earlier. We get the resources we need. We get to do the work we’re actually there to do.
Your assignment (if you choose to accept it)
This week, I want you to think about one stakeholder who doesn’t quite “get” what you do. Maybe it’s your boss, maybe it’s a department head who always asks for last-minute “quick favours", maybe it's your CEO. It can be anyone.
How can you begin to educate them on what you do and why it matters? Is curiosity a tool that will work for you? Or do you want to talk them through what the internal comms function does and how it links to business priorities? Maybe you could link your work to the business outcomes they care about most?
Pick your approach and give it a go. I'd love to hear how you get on.
Because sometimes we get so stuck in the tasks and the to-do lists that we forget that people outside the comms team really don't understand what we do. And it's up to us to communicate that effectively.
Want me to answer your question in this newsletter? Hit reply and tell me how I can help you.
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.
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