The cardinal sin of a rising leader is ineffective communication.

I get it. Your job is overwhelming. Everyday there is a lot expected of you. Meetings back-to-back that require you to switch mindsets from team leader to executive to random emergency that comes up….

Now I’m telling you that you should also write and communicate that?

Yes.

And regularly.

Don’t those around you see what you’re doing? Don’t they know?

Unfortunately, the answer is “no”.

We assume things are obvious to others, when in fact, no one is in our head other than ourselves.

Your job as a leader is primarily communication up and down a reporting chain. That’s the work.

Poor communication can undermine your best efforts. Your team feels uniformed, your manager doesn’t realize all that you’re delivering (or blocked from delivering), and your partner teams have their own set of assumptions. Exec leadership may not know you exist.

You need a comms strategy.

A comms strategy is a communication plan that specifically lays out which groups of people need to be informed of what types of information and at what cadence. …And in what medium or forum will be best for them.

“Can’t I just write one update and blast it out?”

Asked one of my clients. If you work with a specific team that is interested in the same types of updates, yes, you could do that. But your manager probably isn’t interested in your full team updates.

And if you’re in a leadership role, you need to develop a plan that can be consistent and dependable.

Here are some basics:

1. Segment your audiences. It could be a simple grouping like.. Upward Communications; My Manager; My Team; My XFN Partners
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2. Determine cadence and medium. How often? some could be quarterly, others weekly. How will you share so it’s easily found without digging.
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3. Remember your audience to hit the right level of detail. Imagine a pyramid. Start with highlights and headlines together at the top with anything that requires action from recipients, the next section includes short summaries of each project status, and at the bottom you can include references links to dashboards, presentations, detailed resources.
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4. Edit (MORE) - Become a better editor. ChatGPT can super useful here, but hone your skills for tight communications. How can you say something meaningful in fewer words? What’s the headline? What’s the takeaway?
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5. Make Templates Make this less painful with a simple, reliable templates you can use quickly to structure comms. Use formatting to make this clear and easy to read. People skim they don’t read.
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6. Commit Make it predictable and regular. I recommend sending updates on Thursday EOD in case something needs to be discussed on Friday so you can start the next week strong. (Sending updates on Friday afternoon lowers likelihood they are read or assumes someone is reading over the weekend)

Pro tips:

• Start your communications and be consistent over a period of time - stay 6 - 8 updates, then re-evaluate to adjust and improve (cadence - less? more?, content - and I hitting the target?, people - add? subtract?). Ask for feedback about what’s been most useful.
• You’ll probably need to write out a really long draft, then work on editing down into the right template chunks. (Some people write out the big draft and hit “send”… don’t do that. But you might not be able to skip the long first draft at first. After a few sends, you’ll be able to quickly fill a template. But if you can’t knock out a pithy summary at first, don’t worry.)
• Side benefit - this process gives you time to think, reflect, realize what you need from who, see patterns and keep a log of your work which is super helpful at performance review time.

Finally, people get frustrated that they spend time writing something no one reads - to that, I say make sure its worth reading. You’re providing a breadcrumb of information so that someone can predictably find the type of info they are looking for when they need it. This builds trust and positions you as someone synthesizing information and sharing reliably.

Was this useful? What did I miss?
Drop me a reply or comment. I’m curious to know!

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