Over the last year, our working and leadership styles have undergone a rapid transformation.
Our traditional styles of leadership, communication and engagement styles no longer achieve the cut-through that we desire.
It became clear to communication professionals and leaders that fostering a connected and engaged workforce in a remote environment was a communication challenge in itself.
Yet the question remains, after over 12 months of long-distance communication, “how do you create a culture of connectivity in a remote environment?”
Ultimately creating this environment comes down to leadership. Leadership is based on trust, and we recognise that nothing diminishes trust, like a lack of authenticity or a feeling of distance.
The first step in bringing authenticity to your leadership and communication style is to address your communication DNA.
Introspection is crucial. As an individual, you need to understand and question – what I bring to the table, how do others see me? Why am I trying to make a difference?
Once you have identified the answers to these questions, you can begin formulating your communication style with your team as a leader.
However, to truly foster a culture of connectivity, authenticity must be embedded into every communication that you deliver – regardless of the medium.
Channelling your authentic voice may prove challenging, but employees, co-workers, and clients need to hear from you consistently to create a culture of connectivity that they can then adapt themselves.
Even within the limits of remoteness and teams being physically apart, if you work hard to stay connected to yourself and your team honestly and openly and work to help others find the “why’s” in their world, you can lead from anywhere.
For more information on managing remote teams and diverse workforces, please contact a member of the Koukash Consultancy Team at [email protected] .
Beyond being a natural communicator, having impeccable writing skills and the ability to pitch a potential story, communication consultants are increasingly required to possess a sense of business acumen.
Consultants hoping to achieve meaningful change within their teams and organisations must understand the following five critical business skills.
1. Leadership
Whether you hold a management position or not, leadership skills are vital to workplace success. Beyond implementing processes, leadership focuses on the people and vision that guide change.
Enhancing your leadership skills is a critical business skill for communication consultants. From learning how emotional intelligence impacts your leadership style to develop an understanding of leadership during a crisis, these critical skills will help you understand how to bring your vision to life and set your team up for success.
2. Strategy and Planning
At their core, all campaigns are about planning and strategy and knowing how to effectively manage your resources, including time, money, and staff will help you to achieve your goals.
Ultimately, without a good strategy, it would be impossible for a communications consultant to ensure that they were having the correct impact on an audience with their communication solutions or releasing press content at the right time.
For communication consultants establishing an understanding of the purpose of strategic planning for organizational change and growth is intrinsic to your organisation’s success.
The “strategic planning” part of communication sets it apart as a critical component of building a business and managing a company reputation.
3. Collaboration and Maximising Your Influence
Collaboration and teamwork are vital to business success. For a communication consultant, they carry several benefits from better communication to increased employee satisfaction to a higher product or service quality.
The art of collaboration isn’t just one thing, though; it’s a complex network of interrelated skills.
To collaborate, you must be good at asking questions, respecting others’ contributions, generating their trust and considering their perspectives.
Embracing these skills will help you develop the right communications strategies and on-target messaging to engage with stakeholders. These skills contribute to an employee’s ability to collaborate effectively, and there’s another essential component of collaboration: emotional intelligence and awareness.
4. Communication
Today’s media and communication landscape are so fluid that communication consultants must demonstrate agility and possess effective written, verbal and non-verbal communication skills that will help you to build good working relationships.
From navigating thought-leadership content on LinkedIn to communicating on Clubhouse, consultants must continue to remain open-minded and challenge themselves to remain aware of changing behaviour and communication styles.
5. Financial Management
Financial management is a critical business skill for communication consultants.
The know-how of finance and its implications on your organisation can benefit your career, especially for communications consultants who may not come from a financial background. While it can seem like an intimidating subject, it’s far more approachable than you might think.
Concepts such as cash flow and profitability help understand your organisation’s performance and potential. And knowing how to read and interpret a balance sheet is critical for communicating financial results.
The Importance Of Business Essentials
No matter your industry, an understanding of essential business concepts can help you better understand your organisation’s performance and equip you with the tools needed to spearhead initiatives and drive strategic decision-making.
For communications consultants, especially those who excel at “softer” skills such as public speaking, writing and non-verbal communication, mastering “hard” skills such as financial management, strategy development, and leadership tactics are required to advance your career.
Business skills provide a framework for communication consultants seeking to advance their careers and improve communication. They contribute to inspiring others to drive innovation, sustainability, and positive change in your organisation.
For more information on how you can adopt the 5 critical business skills for required for all communication practitioners, please contact a member of the Koukash Consultancy Team at [email protected]
In PR, activities such as planning, organising, coordinating, managing our team, stakeholders and clients and reporting on our results are pivotal to our work.
All these activities are elements of Project Management.
However, project management is seen as the domain of those working in engineering and not a critical component of the PR and communication practitioners toolbox.
PR practitioners and communication professionals need to challenge this and recognise the value of project management and apply its fundamental principles to their PR plan, and here’s why:
STRATEGY MANAGEMENT
Project management is about being organised. Every step in project management has a purpose, a meaning, and takes you to the next level of your project.
So when applying it to your PR strategy, project management helps you structure your ideas, plans, and tasks.
You can quickly identify people with the right skills for your team, create an action plan and anticipate potential threats for your project.
As such, project management helps you be more organised and understand where you stand for each project you coordinate.
PEOPLE MANAGEMENT
When applying project management principles, you learn what teamwork means and how they help meet the greater goal.
No matter where you work, you can’t succeed by yourself. Clients, colleagues, bosses, partners all have a say in your success. That is why it is essential to know how to identify your team’s strengths and weaknesses.
Sometimes you don’t have the time to test things, so having the ability to quickly identify who in your team can do what means you can focus on the bigger picture.
PRIORITISATION
PR practitioners and communication consultants understand that everything is essential and urgent for our clients and organisations, and it all has to be done yesterday.
While understanding client priorities can lead to a strong working relationship, it does not always reflect the realities of working on multiple projects with various stakeholders.
Once you have mastered the essentials of project management, you learn how to prioritise each task and, most importantly, set a deadline. You will quickly identify what’s essential versus urgent, what you should focus on now, what you can delegate and what can wait.
THE END GOAL
The most important benefit of learning project management is to see the big picture and identifying the end goal: what is it your strategy is seeking to achieve? Is it coverage or enhancing your brand reputation?
You learn to not only look beyond the task at hand but to understand how what you’re doing affects the whole project. By adopting project management principles, you’ll learn to set milestones and focus on ways to reach them in your race to the greater goal.
Making project management an integral part of your PR strategy can increase efficiency and professionalism across the board. PR practitioners can ensure timely achievement of goals and consistent improvement by implementing project management principles, such as task delegation, effective timelines and problem-solving.
For more information on Agile Project Management and how the KC Academy can support your organisation, please contact [email protected]
March 8 commemorates International Women’s Day. This year’s theme of #ChoosetoChallenge reminds us of what we aim to do at the Koukash Consultancy. We strive to confront bias inequality and push for a more inclusive environment at work and in our communities.
According to research by the PRCA in conjunction with YouGov, the PR and Communications industry is a female-led industry, with 64% of its employees being women, with an average age of 28.
Despite women making up two-thirds of the industry, representation in leadership and C-suite positions remains low, with reports indicating women make up less than 30% of c-suite positions.
The lack of representation has also been echoed by the CIPR in the UK, which reported in their 2019/20 State of the Profession Survey that the number of women occupying the top Director, Partner or Managing Director roles remains 10% lower than men.
While platforms and groups such as the 30% Club are taking steps to increase gender diversity at board and senior management levels, many organisations in the Middle East and Africa commit to gender diversity in their national economic transformation plans.
According to the World Bank Groups annual Annual Women, Business and the Law report, economies in the Middle East and North Africa see the greatest increase in commitments to fostering women’s empowerment. In tandem with this commitment, they invest in continuous learning programs to empower and support their female workforce.
This approach is crucial, as organisations can #ChoosetoChallenge gender bias through professional awareness and education.
As a facilitator of executive education through the KC Academy, it is clear that equipping women with the skills and tactics required to advocate for themselves through continuing education is a crucial aspect of empowering women and ensuring they are present in all areas where decisions are made – and the PR and Communications industry is no exception to that.
