Is there a strategy to communication?

I had a wonderful conversation with a colleague this morning about how communication fails in organizations. Whether you are a one man band or a conglomerate, there is a need to be able to effectively communicate with your staff and your clients. Do you know how to do that? According to Kim Mozingo at the Conwell Group, there is a lot that I need to know about strategic communication and here’s how it can help your company.

Know what it is and what it isn’t

Strategic communication is how your organization communicates a core message in a clear and direct way. For your communication to be strategic you have to make sure that your words match your actions. Remember that there needs to be deliberate attempts to communicate with stakeholders (clients, employees and industry) through the things your company does and the things that it says.

You have to know your long term goals

Small businesses are notorious for not thinking past our short term goals, the problem with this thinking is that we miss opportunities to grow and increase our revenue because we don’t know where we are headed. The key to strategic thinking is to make sure you are clear about where you organization is headed and how you want to get there.

Don’t get lost in the delivery of the message

Sometimes the way we deliver our messages creates a disconnect from what we are trying to say. To be successful at getting a message across, we need to be sure that we are using a method that our clients understand and use themselves. This kind of continuity helps us understand the best way to get the message out there and it forces us to make sure that our message is consistent with the things our clients need to hear and understand.

You are accountable for what your company does and says

The most important thing to understand about strategic communication is that you are accountable. When you have a message, people expect you to be able to explain your message in a variety of mediums. When you fall out of step, you are expected to explain the misstep and how you are going to address the mismatch. Be sure that you do. There is value in a mistake, but you can’t help yourself if you don’t understand where you have fallen out of sync and how to get back.

Strategic communication is often misunderstood and very rarely done correctly, but there is hope for small businesses. We have the ability to react quickly and regroup completely when catastrophe’s strike. So will you share your message and build your business, or will we drown in your delivery?

Leona Charles

Leona Charles began SPC Business Consulting Ltd in 2007 to help businesses of all sizes get the most out of their performance. As a Six Sigma Black Belt, she brings a fresh and unique approach to Operations Consulting drawing on her 10 years of combined experience in law enforcement, government contracting, property management, customer service, non profit industry, and education.

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