Social media ‘influencing’ comms relationship with senior executives
The explosion of social media has elevated the importance of communications departments and accelerated the rise of PR staff to the “top table” in company boardrooms.
A discussion at the CommsCon conference in Sydney today heard how the ability of consumers to publicly attack a company has influenced the role of communications staff.
Jeremy Mitchell, director of corporate and public affairs at Huawei Australia, NZ and South Pacific, said social media has driven the change.
“I think the change in the last 10 years is that executives can see now that consumers and customers have the ability to voice their discontent with a company so loudly and so prolifically that you have to address that before it happens,” he said. “That is why our role has improved in importance. Consumers and customers have ability to raise their concerns in a much wider, more public way.”
Social media has influenced customers, stakeholders, governments and ultimately the importance of the role of communications, he said.
“That is a changing dynamic that is good for us in our industry,” Mitchell added.
The discussion, which examined how communications professionals can get a seat at the top table, heard that earning trust was among the most critical ways of getting heard by, and influencing, the senior leadership team.
Mitchell said communications teams bring a “level of perspective” which is being increasingly sought by executives.
“I always throw in the line when something is happening that we need to refine, ‘how would the Daily Telegraph describe it?’,” he said. ” That focuses people very quickly and let’s them see how something could be misinterpreted.
“That is why more and more executives and CEOs are asking us to be at the table because they want that brought into the debate.”
Elise Davidson, corporate affairs general manager at Vodafone, said the key to success in comms roles is winning the “trust of your colleagues”.
The role is not about “fighting with people and saying you can’t do that because it’s a bad idea”, but earning respect.
“It’s getting people to trust you and say how do you think this might play and what could possibly happen here?” she said.
ING Direct head of corporate affairs David Breen told delegates that once you gain the trust of executives you can move “much quicker”.
“You don’t have to go through as much process and in most crisis speed is of the essence, so trust is essential,” he said.
“Sometimes, even in very good organisations, people will drink the cool aid, uniform, and every organisation needs that external voice coming over the top of that. That is a critical part of this role.”
But Mitchell said winning trust “takes time”, explaining how it took “a good 12 months” in his current role with tech company Huawei for executives to “trust my advice”.
Asked how he eventually won their trust, he said: “I just continued to do it. I continued to give advice and when they didn’t take it I walked them through it.
“Most of our job is communicating with other people, and being the messenger. Thirty per cent is saying ‘this is right and this is wrong’, but 70 per cent is persuading, making arguments and bringing people with you on that journey. It’s really people skills that you need.
“It took 12 months [for Huawei] to understand what we could bring to the table, and the benefits we could bring. Once that happened it got to the point where we tried to brush off some of the responsibilities they put on us.”
Karina Keisler, executive general manager corporate affairs for NBN Co, said she won the trust of senior executives by “being consistent”, but agreed with Mitchell by saying it “does take time”.
Breen added that comms departments can win trust “reasonably quickly” by understanding the broad role of the CEO and providing value so they “begin to rely on you”.
“It’s also not a one way street,” he continued. “I have learned an enormous amount from my CEOs and I have made that very clear. I have not tried to hide the gaps that I have in business.”
Steve Jones
