Without effective communication, there is no leadership. PR can play a critical part in building success from the top down because it is built on communication skills that translate well to leadership. And yet, all too often, PR and comms teams are brought in at the final stages of a strategic event or announcement, perhaps to polish the message, rather than to help shape it from the start.
There are a few challenges with this. While good communicators instinctively know how to tell the story, leaders can often be too close to the business to differentiate between ‘signal’ and ‘noise’ to decide how and what to communicate externally. Internally, communication barriers between employees and bosses are commonplace, and a poorly landed announcement can be hard to recover from. At the same time, markets are driven by reputations. Leadership roles are closely intertwined with the credibility and reputation of their organisation. This is why success for them means success for the business. PR professionals are experts in all of these distinctions, and they can equip leaders with the skills to communicate more effectively, ensuring that messages resonate with all audiences.
So how can you convince business leaders that they can learn from PR?
Audience insight
One of the most undervalued ways that PR and comms leaders can help is through media training. This goes far beyond making sure that executives stay on message; it should focus on helping them understand how messages are received by different audiences.
Employees, media, the general public and beyond all rely on communication from the top for guidance, confidence and reassurance. Whether it’s share prices, recruitment, retention or development, role-playing difficult questions that employees or journalists may ask will help leaders understand how audiences interpret things emotionally. The process will clarify the message they are trying to convey and how different audiences may respond.
Where business leaders are close to the business and in the weeds of the details, PRs can often take a step back and provide the audience perspective. They look at past communications to see what worked well and what didn’t, monitor the sentiment of employees and external audiences through media coverage and social communication and spot trends in questions or concerns that arise. These insights can help shape the tone, timing and content and help anticipate risks and the potential for misinterpretations.
It’s from this audience-focused perspective that PR professionals can offer constructive and honest feedback on how leaders communicate. Think about short, informal briefing sessions before each announcement and a six-month check-in to review and add value.
Better storytelling
PR professionals can also help leaders to tell better stories. Facts alone rarely build understanding – or trust, for that matter. Audiences not only want to know what is happening, but why it matters, how it affects them and what it says about the direction of the business. A strong narrative helps leaders to connect individual decisions to wider purpose and values. PR professionals play an important role in making this happen by ensuring that updates and data can be translated into narratives adapted for each audience. This often means challenging leaders to use more accessible language, questioning what context is missing, reworking talking points to focus less on process and more on purpose, or encouraging leaders to share the reasoning behind big decisions.
Ask to be involved early in positioning key announcements so that you can review audience positioning and have a chance to add input and make sure that messages are shaped for maximum clarity and impact.
Anticipate next comms steps
Understanding how each audience interprets a message is just as important as crafting it. Rather than communicating once and assuming everyone hears the same thing, PR professionals can guide leaders on audience perception and anticipate what the next steps for communications will be. For example, being prepared with written Q&As before a big announcement forces leaders to consider the questions people actually ask and to use plain language to answer them, to reduce ambiguity. It also encourages leaders to consider any uncomfortable questions proactively, while tailoring the delivery to different stakeholders’ perspectives.
Turning insight into impact
Even a simple intervention, such as calling a meeting to discuss audience perception, can help to shape thinking and prepare for difficult conversations. The real impact of all of these efforts can be measured in business trust and credibility, and in the culture of the organisation. When leaders communicate effectively, people understand decisions, even if they don’t necessarily agree with them. Having a trusted partner to provide guidance, challenge assumptions and offer a different perspective can make even the most challenging conversations easier to navigate.
Laura Lear is the managing director at strategic communications agency Ambitious.