The Secretary of Defense travels with his comms person; they sit in all the important meetings, add input and perspective.
Most major companies have a senior vice president for communications, or a guy like that. The comms person is probably equivalent to the Chief Financial Officers and others who help lead the company.
Most four-star generals hold their chief communicator closely. Why don’t most Brigade Commanders? Why don’t most Division Commanders? We’ve gotta fix this.
Since I’ve been a young public affairs buck, I’ve been lucky enough to have bosses who get it. Sometimes they get it naturally and sometimes I have to make them get it.
The point is organizations need someone who is focused on internal and external communications as part of the core group who runs the company. It’s our job to get here.
The responsibility to help your organization realize this begins first with you, the comms leader. You have to provide enough value for people (the bosses specifically) to want you to be part of the team.
Secondly, good bosses get it. They should but sometimes you have to open their eyes.
We don’t often write on MaxDis about what not to do but I’ll make an exception. Don’t bitch, don’t whine or talk about how things should be. If Only.
Instead, be good. We say this a lot but it’s a work philosophy on taking responsibility which is often supremely lacking in our public affairs career field. I hear a lot of “if only” and a lot of external blame.
If you want the seat at the table or to have the opportunity to help your organization as the senior vice president for communications you have to read, self-reflect, learn, be aggressive … all the stuff we constantly write about on MaxDis.
Now go and do likewise.
Photo by Glenn Fawcett
Important point of clarification: You don’t need a seat at the table so you can look or seem important. You don’t need to be part of the core leadership so you can be rated well. Your organization desperately needs communication expertise to be successful, and in our business, success is about protecting America.
