As soon clock struck midnight a few weeks ago on January 1^st, many of us vowed to change ourselves for the better. We thought, “Ah January, a fresh start to a brand spankin’ new year. 2011 is out and 2012 is IN BABY!”  We vowed to lose weight, eat healthier, and take that trip we’ve been talking about for years. We made a COMMITMENT to self-improvement otherwise known as a New Year’s Resolution.

Yet as WeightWatchers programs and gym memberships increase this month, we all know how this story ends. Right about now, we start to forget our resolutions and revert back to our old habits. “Better luck next year, thanks for comin’ out.” Usually, I’m as guilty as the next guy — but NOT this year. This year is different. This year, I’m taking a new approach starting with these steps:

1. Define the goal – It’s tough to accomplish any goal if you don’t know what it really is. For example, instead of trying to “lose weight,” chose a definitive amount you want to lose.

2. Be realistic – Baby steps, guys. Most people become discouraged and ditch their resolutions because they set the bar way too high. Set realistic acheivable goals.

3. Create an action plan – Once you know what you want to achieve you need to consider how you will get there. You need to understand the actions necessary to accomplish your goal.

4. Write it down – This is the most important step of all. Putting goals on paper makes a resolution more tangible, more real. When you physically see a goal your chances of staying the course improve.

In my experience, resolutions don’t stop at improving our personal lives. We also want to improve professionally. If you’re reading this blog post, chances are you want to improve as a communicator. As we know, simply saying, “I’m going to improve,” won’t get you anywhere. Use the system that works with personal resolutions and apply it to your professional life. Take your personal development one step further and use CEC’s Individual Development Plan. 

Now is the time to set clear expectations for your career and discuss a direct approach to improvement with your manager. Here are a few resources you can use to create a solid IDP:

• Skill Development Grid - Use grid to define your goals - Where do you want to go with your career? What are you trying to accomplish? You can think big with longer-term goals. But understand that it takes a series of short-term, realistic goals to get there. Use our to set CLEAR expectations for different levels of skill development.

• Skills Maturity Assessment - Not sure what skills you need to improve? Use this assessment to find your development areas.

Mangers – if you want individuals on your team to improve, use this IDP to set concrete expectations and a plan of attack. Communicators – if you want that promotion, use this IDP to go get it. Trust me, defining your goals, understanding what it takes to get there, and writing it down will get you there. To see what this looks like in practice, take a look at these four examples:

Individual Development Plan: The Presenter

Individual Development Plan: The Influencer

Individual Development Plan: The Consultant

Individual Development Plan: The Coach

Related CEC Resources

Skills and Roles Topic Center

Modern Communicator’s Skill Set webinar

How to Guide Your Career in Communications

Own Your Professional Development

By now, you’ve probably caught on to our theme for the year: Change. When asking the question, “has your company gone through change recently?”, there isn’t a single CEC member who has said, “Nope. Everything is the same as it’s always been.” I think we all agree that Communications is paramount in times of change. In fact, if you take a look at CEB’s Executive Guidance for 2012, the number one priority for a company’s success is having a clear and consistent communications language. We’ve also learned from our study “Building a Change-Ready organization” exactly what drives employees during times of change and what Communications can do about it.

But how do we measure our impact in times of change? How can we prove, without a doubt, that Communications is driving the bottom line in an ever changing environment? Take a look at the following scenario: Read More »

I think we can all agree that our overarching goal in communications is to influence others. We want to get people do what we would like them to do. What we’ve seen through years of researching how to influence stakeholders is that over time, the game has changed. The old approach of sending perfectly crafted messages to targeted audiences through the specific channels we control doesn’t pack the same punch as it once did. As a result, not only do we need a new approach to influencing stakeholders, we also need to take a fresh look at how we approach communications planning.

Well, it just so happens that the CEC recently hosted a webinar on “Taking your Communications Planning to the Next Level.” I highly recommend watching the replay. Also, look out for our step-by-step, strategic planning toolkit. But for now, here are a couple of key insights from our session to help make your communications plan more robust.

Where we fall short:

More often than not, the biggest reason we fall short in communications is because we simply do not take a fresh approach. Instead, we tweak plans we’ve used in the past. These tweaks tend to focus on communications goals rather than actual business objectives. If we don’t take a fresh look at our organizations priorities as a whole and we only focus on what our comms team is trying to accomplish, our value to our business partners falls by the wayside.

Another reason is that we focus on output instead of outcomes. We assume we know our audience well and therefore we jump to tactics and channels we assume will get our message heard. Instead, we should be looking at which channels will help produce a certain outcome. We need a more stakeholder centric approach. Consider what our audience is trying to achieve and THEN the channels and tactics that best support that outcome.

How We Can Succeed:

1. Engineer Goals from Corporate Strategy

Don’t just focus on your goals from a communications perspective. Start with what your organization is trying to achieve, and then determine how communications can support. If your plan is rooted in outcomes the business is trying to achieve, it will be much easier to demonstrate value. Read More »

Generally speaking, when I have conversations about social media with CEC members, they usually start one of two ways:

1. “We know how important social media is, but we can’t convince senior leadership.”

OR

1. “Our senior leaders told us to we need to ‘do’ social media…What now??”

For the first question – It almost goes without saying, but social media is not a fad. Since it ain’t going anywhere, you might as well start using it for the good of your company. If others don’t feel the same way, use our resources to educate them:  Make the Case

But what if you are asking the second question? What if your team has the green light to start using social media, but aren’t sure how to use it effectively? Here are a couple of baby steps you can take to get started. Read More »

Measurement has always been a pain point for communications. We have struggled to educate our colleagues about the meaning of metrics and we try our hardest to create direct links between communications activities and business outcomes. For some, measurement is so frustrating and difficult that we don’t even try in the first place. For example, I recently came across an article showing that even though more than 80 percent of companies use social media, less than half actually measure their efforts. But as lord Kelvin stated, “if you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it.” With the increasing pressure to demonstrate our impact as communicators, we need a better approach. Here are three things to consider:

1. Make measurement part of planning.

Too often, we see companies think about measuring success of a project after they have already started. Wouldn’t it be easier prove value when you already know what success looks like from the start?  Once you’ve determine an outcome you want to achieve, ask yourself, “why is the outcome not already happening?” Gain a firm understanding of the drivers behind that outcome, and use that information to select the right metrics and shape your measurement strategy during the planning process. Read More »

How to best structure the communication function is a question that arises quite a bit here at the CEC. “Where does Internal Communications sit?” “What are common reporting lines?” “How do global companies structure their communications teams?”….the list goes on.

Recently, there has been a lot of chatter in our Employee Communications Forum around organizational structure, and in particular, the structure and reporting lines of internal communications. Take a look at the original question here. You’ll see that despite a few common answers, there are a wide range of responses. So with so many different possibilities, which structure is the best?

One member expressed that their internal communications team sits within the Finance group. They also added the caveat that their structure is “admittedly unusual, but it works very well for us given the culture of the organization.” AHA! That’s it!

No, I’m not suggesting that everyone house their internal communications team within Finance or restructure their communications function to mimic this particular member. It’s the second part of the answer that should be noted. Different structures work for different companies. Often, companies see a problem and quickly jump to reorganize. But when the dust settles, they realize that a lot of the same problems that drove them to reorganize persist. Why? Because more often than not, issues are embedded in process, not structure. So, before you jump the gun on reorganizing, here are a couple of questions and resources to consider first: Read More »

As part of our ongoing effort to help organizations harness the power of social media, the CEC hosted a discussion a few weeks ago with our Social Media Networking Cohort. The virtual meeting was designed to be an informal discussion where we were able to talk about challenges, test ideas, share experiences and brainstorm on topics surrounding the social media frontier. With over 20 companies participating, it was a great way for all of us to learn what others are doing beyond our own industry, business model, and geography. Here are a few smart tactics, interesting strategies, success stories and challenges that came out of the conversation:

It can be hard work, but create a social media policy…and make it simple.

Whether your company is starting to slowly dip its toes, or has already taken a dive into the deep end of the social media pool, one of the first things we strongly recommend is creating a social media policy. Creating a policy will help protect your company against legal and reputation risks by outlining the Do’s and Don’ts of social media for employees. One participant of our discussion said their greatest successes in the social media space was creating a simple social media policy (that was finally approved by Legal). Originally, they had created a very thorough (read: long and complicated) policy to be the security blanket their senior leadership needed. However, their complicated policy actually handcuffed their employees from fully leveraging social media. Once they simplified their policy and created something everyone could understand and adhere to, the company was much more effective with their social media efforts.

CEC related  resource: Create Your Own Policy.

Want to take control of rumors?  Try blogging.

We all know what can happen when a rumor starts to spread about our company. “Well, my friend has a cousin who knows a girl who is married to a guy who works at that company…so it must be true!”  Rumors spread more quickly than ever before and they become so distorted that they can negatively impact your company. To take control of the rumor mill, one participant’s team uses company blogs as a way to either confirm or deny the rumor. They can then take readers to a place where they can get the right information. It’s a quick, easy, and informal way to take control of the situation before anything gets out of hand.

CEC related resource: NI’s Conversation Matchmaking System and Managing Reputation in Online Conversations Read More »

I love going to the movies. There’s something about walking into a dimly lit theater, jumbo popcorn in hand, and sinking deep into the chair for two hours of pure entertainment. Back in college, there was a fantastic old movie theater in town that charged practically nothing if you had a student ID. Needless to say, my roommate (who now lives in LA working in the film industry) and I would see any movie under the sun. Seriously…any movie. We didn’t care if the film was up for best picture or if we knew the movie would be comically terrible. We went anyway.

Since relocating after school, the ticket prices are slightly more than what they once were. By the time I’ve bought my movie ticket, jumbo popcorn, candy, and 3D glasses (since it seems that every movie is shot in 3D now), I feel like I should have walked over to the bank and applied for a loan before handing the cashier my credit card. So, my love for movies hasn’t changed, but my willingness to pony up the dough and actually go to the theater has. Now, when I see a movie trailer, I find myself more frequently asking the question “Is this worth seeing in the theater or should I wait until the DVD release?” And now that we are in the thick of March Madness and NHL and NBA playoffs right around the corner, there are more and more reasons to wait a few months until the DVD releases. So what does influence me to go to the theater? What other, non-official sources say. Read More »