Communicator Wanted: Must Be Courageous

When I think of “courage,” the first thing that comes to mind is the men and women who willingly put their lives at risk for the safety of  others: people in the armed services, firemen, policemen, the crossing guards who try to get kids to school safely amid the crazy drivers on Chicago’s car-clogged streets.

The second thing that comes to mind is individuals facing harsh circumstances — a tenacious and debilitating disease, another month without a paycheck, living in a place that or with people who make you feel unsafe.

It didn’t occur to me that courage can also be found in a standard office cubicle until I read the job description for a VP of Communications opening. It included the usual descriptions of the company, the role and the responsibilities. But what caught my eye was this, the first bullet under “Personal Attributes/Requirements:”

To which I say, “Bravo!”

Courage in communicators is an overlooked, but crucial, commodity that makes or break the effectiveness of what we do. Good communicators are the ones who have the courage to garner blank (if they’re lucky) stares when they point out that not every employee you are about to acquire in the merger is going to be thrilled to join your stellar company.  Good communicators are the ones with the courage to not put up with reviewers’ spin, pandering and obfuscation.

I had my own moment of courage years ago helping a CEO prep for questions during an employee meeting.  Like today, the market was challenging and sales cycles were growing longer and longer. Every day more consultants sat idle, dreaming up fabled “internal projects” to keep them looking busy. Layoffs were on everyone’s mind, dominated water cooler conversations and came up in several questions that were e-mailed to the CEO prior to the meeting. The CEO, his leadership team and I talked about what the honest answer to that question was and agreed it would be best to address employees’ concerns head on.

Several employees stood to ask questions during the meeting, although no one broached the topic of layoffs. I handed the CEO the questions that had been received before the meeting and he dutifully made his way through them, with one glaring exception. He simply shuffled away the questions about layoffs and started to wrap up the meeting.

My choice was to let an all-employee meeting come to a close without even a mention of the topic on most people’s minds or stick my neck out and say, as breezily as possible, “Hey, CEO name deleted, we have one more question that came in” and force the issue.

I stuck my neck out.

That courage was appreciated by some; by others, not so much. The ax did not come down on my stuck-out neck, but there were little butter knife swipes at it from time to time. I could live with that.

I suspect that my little tale of courage pales in comparison to what embattled communicators have been facing in the last year or so. What’s yours?

Barbara Govednik launched 423 Communication in 2001 to helps its clients tell their stories through freelance writing services, coaching and editing services, and employee communication consulting and implementation. Read Barbara’s Being Well Said Blog.