Each week in this newsletter I answer a question from a reader. This week’s question comes from an internal comms manager in the UK:
“I know my team does good work but I struggle to explain how or why. My boss keeps asking me how we compare to our competitors or to high performing teams elsewhere and I don’t really have a clear answer. How do you know what a good internal comms team looks like?”
I like this question because it's one we've all asked ourselves a million times. How do we know if our team is doing a good job? How do we stack up against other teams? What does 'good' even look like for an internal comms team?
This is a topic I've been mulling over for some time. And now that I've been consulting for nearly 3 years, I've had the pleasure of peering inside the comms teams of organisations all over the world. I've seen what they're doing well, what's working for them and I've begun to notice patterns.
In this newsletter let's look at the four key areas I've noticed are common across high performing internal comms teams. You can begin to assess your own team across each one and see how you're doing.
Chloe Slim joined The Curious Tribe with a deep desire to learn and grow.
She was the only person focused on internal comms person in her organisation and she wanted people to bounce ideas off. She felt ready to level up her skills and influence and knew that having real-time peer advice and support was the way to do it.
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➡️ Achieved an internal promotion
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➡️ Become the person people come to with tricky comms problems
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The Curious Tribe is my membership community for ambitious, curious internal comms pros who want to achieve more in their career and have more impact in their job. If you're looking for a place to connect, upskill and accelerate your career in internal comms, you've found your people.
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Ok let's get into it, four key areas that separate good internal comms teams from great ones.
1. Clarity
The best teams have absolute clarity about why they exist. Not just “we do internal comms” or "we keep employees informed" but a real, tangible, specific purpose that everyone on the team can articulate in one sentence. The team is on the same page and it's clear to stakeholders what the team is there to achieve and how this matters to the company.
This matters because without a clear purpose, you end up trying to be all things to all people. You become a catch-all for every random request that comes your way - you're cleaning up slide decks, ordering the sandwiches for the social events and being lumped with every task that doesn't have a proper owner. And that’s exhausting and unsustainable.
Here’s a quick test: ask everyone on your team to write down the purpose of your function in one sentence, do this individually and silently and then read them out and compare. If you all write something totally different, that’s a sign you need to get aligned. If you struggle to write anything at all, then it's time for reflection and the creation of your purpose statement.
2. Systems
Good teams don’t work ad hoc, reinventing the wheel with every request or scrambling to get organised. They have systems in place to make their work smooth and clear, for example an overarching clear strategy that guides their focus, a well-designed channel ecosystem and shared ways of operating efficiently as a team.
The strategy piece is crucial. When you have a documented strategy that’s aligned to business goals, you have something to point to when you need to say no to requests that don’t align. It stops you being reactive and helps you focus on the work that actually matters.
And if you don't have clear ways of working in the team, you might find that stakeholders will bypass you (if you're likely to say no to their request) and go to someone else on the team (who might be seen as a softer touch). It's important the team all have shared ways of working so that you're consistent, efficient and all working to the same goals.
3. Strategic partnerships
The best internal comms teams aren’t just executing requests, they’re positioned as advisors in the business. Stakeholders come to them for strategic counsel and to get help solving problems, not just to get slide decks into the branded font or to get a poster made. Teams who have mastered strategic partnerships are involved early in projects rather than being brought in at the last minute to “do comms” after all the decisions have already been made.
If you’re constantly dealing with last-minute asks and being overruled when you push back, it may not be about your capability, it may be about how your team is positioned in the organisation. It may be about how stakeholders see you and what your reputation is. And that’s something you can actively work on changing.
4. Impact
Finally, the best teams measure what changed, not just what they did. They look at the impact they're having on the organisation. It’s not enough to create a dashboard that says “we hosted 4 town halls and sent 10 newsletters this quarter, we were very busy”. That’s activity, not impact.
Impact means knowing what success looks like for each project before you begin executing. It means using data to make decisions and improve. And it means treating measurement as an ongoing practice, not a once-a-year scramble for your annual report.
Think about how you work with stakeholders and how you manage your own projects and campaigns. Do you start every project by asking "what would success look like? What will have changed as a result of this communication?" If not, then this is where you start. By asking these questions and getting clear on what you're trying to achieve before you start.
How does your team stack up?
These four areas [clarity, systems, strategic partnerships and impact] are sort of simple but also quite tricky. There's a lot in there to get right. So if you're not doing all of this yet then don't worry. Your starting point is to honestly assess where you are right now and where the gaps are.
Want to do this with your team?
If you want to get support assessing your team, identifying your strengths and gaps and creating an action plan to move you from good to great, I can help you with that.
I can run this as a team workshop for you either in-person or online. Before the workshop, I'll send your team a short survey that benchmarks where you are across all four areas. This means when we come together for the session, I’ve already analysed your data and I can show you exactly where your strengths are and where the biggest opportunities for improvement lie and we can build the workshop around this so that it is tailored specifically for you.
From there we work through exercises together, have honest conversations to unpack your challenges and leave with a clear action plan.
This workshop is for you if you're curious how you can improve this year, if you're wondering how your team stacks up against these key high-performing areas and if you want to take your team from good to great.
If you’re interested in this team workshop, just hit reply to this email and let's chat.
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.​