Communication from the top always plays a great role in driving the entire workforce towards a common organisational goal. Often, communication from the CEO makes an impact through the organisational hierarchies. And that’s much needed while steering any organisation, however large or small. An alignment of the entire workforce with the organisation’s strategy to move into the future can be well articulated in such communications.
Ideally, any communication from the top can be around various topics and subjects related to overall corporate strategy. They can be developed in multiple points and used in a sustained manner month after month or week after week. Many such communication elements can be created keeping in mind the varied audiences within the organisation.
There can be a specific communication for the staff at the floor level that can talk about the best practices around the world on the manufacturing side, telling inspirational and motivational stories, the scope of improvement, how their contributions can help build the organization, how they can increase efficiencies, and their role in improving the overall productivity, etc. A note from CEO will help establish a direct dialogue with the large number of employees working at the grass root level and strengthen their bonding with the organisation.
On the marketing side, a CEO can always take stock of things and share his views on the undergoing activities and communicate about the best in the industry. Talking about winning practices coming from the industry, peer group, competition, etc., and showing them a guiding path on how they can also create and implement winning marketing strategies can be immensely valuable things to do.
Similarly, functions like human resources, finance, and others can be addressed periodically by the CEO using various tools of communication. These can be used in highlighting the gaps if any in the functioning and providing solutions and support to them for addressing these gaps. Moreover, this communication can also be used to seek feedback and input from the employees and promptly address their issues.
The challenges of a local organisation can be different from a global organisation. A global organisation will have extensive diversity arising out of remotely different geographies, exclusive cultural practices, unique livelihood requirements, different work environments, and diverse populations. Similarly, the understanding of seniority and hierarchies could be different, and therefore a CEO needs to address this in a much more articulated way depending upon the varied requirements.
Open and transparent communication by the CEO helps in fostering better leadership for the organisation. Interestingly, with the evolving communications, one can try and utilize new formats too instead of traditionally used emails or letters.
With the pandemic, communication has been transformed drastically. Today, it’s much easier to get on a zoom call or google meet and address large gatherings within an organisation. Not only this can be used for work purposes but also online concerts, and even kitty parties, therefore enhancing the engagement with the people within the organisation.
The reputation of the CEO is directly linked with the reputation of the organisation and vice versa. The same goes true in the case of internal communications too, where the audience is employees. The communication from a CEO needs to be inspiring and motivational for the employees. The CEO should be encouraging interaction among the staff, whereby they are involved in identifying and solving problems, instead of listening one way.
The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.
Praveen has been closely associated with many national and international events related to cinema for children, art and culture. He has a well-rounded experience that cuts across all key sectors of PR & Corporate Communications.
He started his career with URJA Communications, an advertising agency specialising in technology brands, where he was instrumental in developing the PR division. Post this, he had a stint with Horizons Porter Novelli, a global public relations consultancy. Thereafter, he was heading the IT & Telecom division at Clea PR, a leading Indian public relations and communications company followed by a fairly long stint with Omnicom Group agencies viz. TBWA\India and Brodeur India.
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