Entry-level communications jobs are all about delivery. You turn up, do the things that have been set out and if it’s done on time and accurately, you’ve done a good job.
Then you’re at a mid-level role where your ideas are key. Not all of them will fly, but often derivatives of them will. The thing that makes you stand out from the crowd is the inherent ability to be creative and innovative, to think of different ways to do things, and for them to be done cheaply.
Then you’ve managed to get to a level of seniority within communications, you find you spend very little time trying to help people communicate. We’re now no longer here to communicate an idea, or even come up with those ideas in the first place. Instead we’re in the business to facilitate people in finding out how to communicate themselves, and to help them come up with the idea in the first place.
With a few things I’ve worked on recently, I’ve noticed success is not in delivery, or in the ideas themselves but the quality of the interactions I’ve had with the people around me and measured in getting people to agree. Anyone at any level in communications will know that “everyone is an expert in communications”, but now managing the near continuous onslaught of opinion and debate is what makes a comms person function.
At this senior level, while great ideas do get people excited, they just won’t come to fruition without convincing people that while there will always be other ways of doing things, that this is the best way forwards. My role therefore is no longer about coming up with great ideas, but instead I’ve become an internal salesman for communication techniques.
