The ‘one thing’: A communicator finds her mission

Until recently, Roxann Kinkade felt overwhelmed by the communication problems she faced in her job as a communicator at a casino. No more.

The need for communication in any organization is infinite. When is one constituent or another not feeling misunderstood, ignored or in the dark? How many communication programs can be said to be truly optimal? Who couldn’t use double the budget and three times the staff?

Indeed, there’s so much need that many communicators struggle to know what to do first. They’d like to be strategic, but they’d settle for just being organized.

Until recently, Roxann Kinkade had it even worse than most: a host of difficult business issues that she didn’t know how to address through communication, and a dizzyingly diverse work force she wasn’t sure how to reach.

“I didn’t know how to use my tools to serve the organization,” says the public relations manager at the Ameristar Casino Hotel Kansas City.