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- Leadership, Reputation and Company Views“To be perceived as the leader you have to act like the leader. And leaders aren’t afraid of having opinions.” Donal McCabe, Land Securities You’ve probably found that trying to explain what you think to someone else – particularly in writing – is a good way of clarifying your beliefs for yourself. It’s often […]
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Leadership, Reputation and Company Views
“To be perceived as the leader you have to act like the leader. And leaders aren’t afraid of having opinions.” Donal McCabe, Land Securities
You’ve probably found that trying to explain what you think to someone else – particularly in writing – is a good way of clarifying your beliefs for yourself. It’s often said that teaching is the best way to learn!
And being able to communicate your position clearly and succinctly is vital for leadership; no-one is going to follow someone who can’t explain where they’re going, or where they’ve been.
But having opinions in the first place is, if anything, even more important.
Corporate Eye recently interviewed Donal McCabe, Director of Corporate Communication at Land Securities, about expressing company views on the corporate website, and the impact on corporate reputation.
Do listen: the interview covers why Land Securities chose to develop thought pieces for their website (known as Sight line), the way that they went about it and the benefits this brings for the company, including the reaction from analysts and other stakeholders.
The Land Securities Sight line articles are held in the Media section of their corporate website, and are ‘alertable’ – so visitors can sign up for an email alert when a new one is published, without having to check back regularly.
I’ve broken the interview down into bite-size pieces, so that you can quickly find particular points you’d like to hear about, but I’ve also included the whole interview and a transcript.
Part 1: Reputation, transparency and honesty
Key points:
- Building a reputation on transparency
- Explaining decisions in context
- Asking the unwanted questions
Soundbite:
“Most people [in corporate communications] can put their finger on what they like about companies and what they don’t. And I think it’s up to people like myself–and my team–to sometimes check and hold the company to account”
[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/land-securities-interview-part-1.mp3] Length: 4:45Download: Donal McCabe interview: part 1
Part 2: Taking a stand
Key points:
- Why set up a ‘thought leadership’ area of the website?
- Blog or opinion pieces?
- How to go about it
- selling the idea
- styles of presentation
- choosing topics and getting agreement
- getting it ‘right’
- Promotion and the press
Soundbites:
“To be perceived as the leader you have to act like the leader. And leaders aren’t afraid of having opinions. Leaders aren’t afraid of taking a counter view to a prevailing thought
“It takes a little bit of time [because] these are the views that you’re going to hold for a length of time… It’s a really good discipline, to make you think exactly what it is you want to say, and get the words down”
[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/land-securities-interview-part-2.mp3] Length: 9:24Download: Donal McCabe interview: part 2
Part 3: Taking a position proves popular
Key points:
- Popularity – and path – of thought pieces
- Press releases or thought pieces?
Soundbite:
“It’s often the CEO or one of the Board directors speaking, or a very senior manager. So…if you were following a company why wouldn’t you be interested in what they’ve got to say?”
[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/land-securities-interview-part-3.mp3] Length: 4:54Download: Donal McCabe interview: part 3
Part 4: Corporate website and reputation
Key points:
- Impact of the corporate website on reputation
- Social media and reputation: influence or protection?
- Building credibility through accuracy and substance
Soundbites:
“I think that social media is almost designed so that companies like us can’t influence it…people who are very social media savvy are very quick to spot companies who are playing games”
“If you think you can manage [your corporate reputation] and you think you can get it right every time, I suspect you probably fall into the alchemist category.”
[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/land-securities-interview-part-4.mp3] Length: 5:44Download: Donal McCabe interview: part 4
Part 5: Choosing media
Key points:
- Things to consider when choosing media channels
- Presenting information so that people can understand it and take a view
Soundbite:
“Once you’ve started something it’s very hard to draw back on it, because even if it’s only six people that say “Well, that’s how I prefer it”, you’ve started a relationship”
[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/land-securities-interview-part-5.mp3] Length: 3:53Download: Donal McCabe interview: part 5
Here’s the whole interview, for you to listen to while baking a cake, or on the train; and the transcript, for those who prefer to read.
[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/land-securities-interview-full.mp3] Length: 28:42Download: Donal McCabe interview (whole interview)
Download: Transcript
Many thanks to Donal for taking the time to talk to Paul.
Who were we speaking to?
Donal McCabe, Director of Corporate Communication, Land Securities PLC
Recruited by Land Securities in 2007 to lead the corporate communications team, he heads the media relations, investor relations, internal communications and events management for the company.
Prior to joining Land Securities he was in senior roles at Boots The Chemists where he worked on the merger with Alliance Unichem and then, later on, the sale to private equity.
He had the good fortune to experience seven years at Railtrack, one of the highest profile and most infamous companies in the UK. Needless to say with the experience gained from handling train crashes, administration, management changes and summits with the Prime Minister it was an excellent grounding in all aspects of PR.
Communicating From the Top
I invited Mariana Ashley to write a guest post for us this week on internal communication. Mariana is a freelance writer who particularly enjoys writing about online colleges.
Over to you, Mariana…
Quality Internal Communication Leads to More Satisfied Workers
Corporations of all sizes are in the habit these days of asking their employees to complete job satisfaction surveys. The purpose of these surveys is to shine a light on the company’s workplace strengths and weaknesses so the company can develop strategies to help retain talent and lower turnover rates by improving both the work environment and the work experience in any way they can.
In these surveys, a key area where many corporations fall short is in internal communications from the top down. In other words, employees want to know what decisions are being made by top executives and the management team and why. All too often these employees don’t get the answers or transparency they’re looking for.
Corporate communications specialists are often responsible for writing the content for internal communications, and bear the burden of sharing the decisions made by executives with everyone in the company. Everything they write must be vetted by their higher-ups so that only the most pertinent information gets through. That being said, what if more were communicated internally about what’s happening in a company?
Communicating well when top-level decisions affect all employees
One way this is done is by always thoroughly communicating decisions made at the top that affect all employees. For instance, if the management team determines that all employees will only receive a 1 percent raise at their annual review, when they are accustomed to receiving a higher percentage raise, this needs to be explained adequately in internal corporate communications. If the reasons behind the decision aren’t clearly articulated, then the employees may assume that the decision was made merely to boost the company’s bottom line, leading to job dissatisfaction because they don’t believe those in charge have their best interests at heart. Employees may wish to know that the decision to cut back on annual raises was made in an attempt to avoid employee layoffs or cuts in benefits at all costs. These are the finer details that are often left out when a stagnant internal memo is sent out announcing an update on diminished future raises.
Communicating when employees move up in the company
This sort of internal communication may seem mundane, but announcing the promotion of employees is important to worker satisfaction because it helps them clearly see that there is a path upward in the company for high-producing employees who demonstrate leadership skills. This sort of update can be provided monthly or quarterly and included in internal company newsletters. When employees are promoted, the announcement shouldn’t just be a couple of sentences. It should detail why those employees were promoted, point to their history with the company and express gratitude for the talent the promoted employees have brought to the company. This contributes to having a work environment where employees’ achievements are celebrated and boosts job satisfaction.
Communicating when an outsider is brought in to fill a coveted position
If a company hires someone outside the company for a leadership position that employees believe should have been filled internally, it can lead to job dissatisfaction. Therefore, any time this happens, it’s important to not only announce the new arrival through internal communications, but to explain in detail why the outsider stood out from the crowd and was chosen for a position that so many in the company had applied for and were denied.
These are only a few areas where quality internal communication can contribute to a more positive work environment, improved transparency and more job satisfaction. What do you think should be communicated more clearly from the top down in internal corporate communications?
Thanks, Mariana!
Mariana loves receiving reader feedback, which can be directed to mariana.ashley031@gmail.com. And we’d like to know your views too – do let us know what you think in the comments below.
Corporate Eye Summary April 2, 2011
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2 out of 3 People Who Follow Celebrities on Social Networks also Follow Brands
New research from The Nielsen Company reveals some interesting data related to the people who follow brands on Twitter and Facebook. According to Nielsen, “U.S. adult Internet users who follow a celebrity on a social networking site are four times more likely to follow a brand than the average American Internet user.”
To put it another way, 64% of U.S. adult Internet users who follow a celebrity on sites like Twitter and Facebook also follow a brand.
But there’s more!
Check out the following statistics from the Nielsen study:
- Those 64% area also more likely to “offer advice and opinion to fellow online consumers.” As you might expect, much of this advice is related to movies, music, and television programs.
- Those 64% are significantly more likely to use the Internet for financial transactions than the average U.S. adult Internet user.
- 1 out of 4 of those 64% use the Internet for online banking and credit card account management.
- The most popular categories purchased online by those 64% include clothing, shoes and accessories (18.2%), music (13.8%), and books (13.6%).
- Top online activities of those 64% include emailing, paying bills, and social networking.
That 64% of U.S. adult Internet users is also more active than average American adult internet users in other ways:
- 86% more likely to comment or post on social networking sites
- 83% more likely to view consumer generated online video content
- 67% more likely to visit a social networking site
- 45% more likely to play online games.
Celebrities are brands, so it makes sense that brands in other industries can learn something from how celebrities use social networks to build audiences. At the very least, this study demonstrates that people who follow celebrities online are very active in the online conversation and are comfortable making online transactions. In other words, these are the kind of people who will buy your product online and talk about it online if they like it. For some brands, this could be a great audience to tap into in order to jumpstart word-of-mouth marketing and an online brand buzz.
Image: stock.xchng
What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 42: Periodically Hit the Refresh Button
Every now and again, something happens that drives home to me generational differences. Usually, I wind up feeling really old when they occur, and just as usually it is my children that make me feel that way. And trust me, they are merciless in reminding me that I am no longer the slim, dark haired go-getter I remain in my mind’s eye.
Today, however, I was brought up short by one of my students. We were discussing a case in class and how to improve a company’s visibility with investors when one of my students suggested that one thing the company could do was to improve its web site. As the case occurred in 1993, I suggested to my student that most companies did not have web sites back then. She looked at me as if I were from Mars. The concept of a company not having a web site was utterly foreign to her.
Generational differences are fun to poke fun at, but I bring this up to make a slightly different point. That is, things can go from being considered an uncommon luxury to being to commonplace and essential in a very short period of time. So it is with investor relations web sites. Those of us that began our careers before the growth of the world wide web tend to think of such sites as adjuncts to ‘real’ information, which comes on pieces of paper or by talking to somebody. Consequently, the web site is often pushed down the chain of command as almost a clerical function or it is outsourced and forgotten about. Either way, the information content tends to languish.
However, if you have almost always relied upon the internet to feed you data, it’s your first default option to get information and it’s sure real to you. Everyone below the age of 25 that I’ve talked to feels this way. And these will be the analysts and portfolio managers of tomorrow.
So today’s thought on how to make your investor relations web site more effective: to look at the information you are providing to investors on your site with a critical eye at least once a year. The scope and pace of change on the internet is such that good companies have to regularly take a fresh set of eyes to the information they are providing to investors to make sure they are meeting the expectations of internet savvy younger investors.
And trust me, they’re getting younger every day (or at least it sure looks that way to me).
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