12 essentials of internal communication

Consistency, conduits, timing and tone are among the key factors you must consider.

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There are 12 essential elements of a successful internal communications strategy:

1. Employee-directed communications must be led from the top.

Effective communications require the active commitment and endorsement of senior managers. It is not enough simply to develop a “vision statement” or formulate in general terms the values by which the company lives. Behavior is what counts. Managers must behave in a manner consistent with the ethos they are promoting.

2. The essence of good communications is consistency.

At all costs, avoid following fashion and tinkering. If you try to improve communications and then fail—because your messages are inconsistent or are “good news only”—things will not quietly settle back into the way they used to be. You will inevitably have created expectations, and you may have to live with the consequences of having disappointed those expectations.

3. Successful employee communications owe as much to consistency, careful planning and attention to detail as they do to charisma or natural gifts.

We might not all be another Zig Ziglar, Tony Robbins or Bill Clinton. But even such communication “giants” slip up if they fail to plan, fail to pay attention to detail and fail to project a consistent message.

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