Watch: Eric Brown of Johns Manville on the basic building blocks of comms
Lessons for ascendant communicators.
Ragan’s Council Career Conversations, a recurring video series from Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council, allows members to share the strategies that made them leaders and the lessons they’ve learned about their careers.
Eric Brown, director of corporate communications at Johns Manville, told Ragan that communications leaders should build their skills much like architects build houses.
“Your basic building blocks include writing, editing and working on deadline,” he said. “You glue those together with some creativity and collaboration, and you can basically build up to any industry you’re communicating in. That’s what’s helped me over the last 30 years.”
He also added some advice for leaders seeking to overcome challenges in their journeys. Brown pointed to an example of leaders trying to lead both in-person and hybrid teams.
“How do you overcome working in-person, being hybrid, or some mix between the two?” he posited. “I’ve found that when you’re up front, direct and genuine — there’s not a whole lot you can’t overcome,” he said.
Check out more of our conversation with Brown below.
Sean Devlin is an editor at Ragan Communications. In his spare time he enjoys Philly sports and hosting trivia.
