I recently attended the Internal Communications summit in Wellington. One question that kept on cropping up was how do we, as internal communications managers, engage our senior leaders?

The reality is that this problem isn’t limited to just a few communications professionals – according to internal communications research Ideas Shop has just released, almost all internal communications managers find it difficult to engage their senior leaders.

Staff also expect their senior leader to play a part in the communications process.  After all, when they have a question, they go straight to the horse’s mouth – their manager.

So why is it that many senior managers don’t appreciate the role they can play in the communications process? Our research provides a few insights, including that many senior leaders see communication as “telling staff stuff” – in other words, pushing information onto staff. They don’t appreciate that comms is a two-way job.

Of course, not every senior leader shies away from the role. In my time as an internal communications manager at one of New Zealand’s biggest banks, I met a few who didn’t need to be convinced. So how do we engage those who don’t see it as their role?

Meet them one-on-one or in small groups. Don’t attempt to convince 20 (or even six) senior leaders in one meeting. You’ll be overwhelmed with reasons about why the communications job is yours, not theirs.

Make it relevant. Focus on their team, not the whole organisation. Get them to think about how they want their team to be communicated with and encourage them to focus on how they’ll measure success.

It’s all about feelings. Managers care about their staff – so play on that. Talk them through how we want staff to feel and think – and ask them what their role is in achieving it. Other phrases I’ve found useful include “we want staff to find out in the right way” and “our communications should be respectful”. It’s very difficult to argue that sending an email about the most important piece of news this year is respectful or the right way for staff to learn of the news.

Have proof. Avoid talking in the hypothetical. If need be, find an example of what another company has done. My ‘eureka’ moment was when I presented the Chief Executive with a mock news story from the Dominion Post with a headline and story that was hugely critical of the company. We used this as the starting point for talking about what steps we would take to avoid it.

Scare them. If they’re still not convinced, scare them – ask them how they will answer the scariest question that staff are bound to ask them. When I was working on a significant change project that would see us move work to India, I asked managers to think about how they would answer the question from a staff member “how could you let this happen to me?”.

Measure, measure, measure. The best evidence you can ever have is that it’s worked previously. So remember to take the time to identify what ‘success’ looks like and then measure it afterwards. Going back and showing them the proof that it was successful will make your job much easier next time – with any luck you won’t need to convince them at all!

Want to know more about our internal comms research? amanda [at] ideasshop [dot] co [dot] nz (Email Amanda).