This episode features an interview with Laura Borland, TA and Clinical Communications Director at Waters. Unlike most communications professionals, Laura has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry and began her career as a science consultant and government project manager. She found her passion in supporting scientists and communicating their stories to drive business outcomes. In this episode, Amanda and Laura discuss manager-led communications, strategies for reaching people globally, and helping leaders become better communicators.
This episode features an interview with Laura Borland, TA and Clinical Communications Director at Waters. Unlike most communications professionals, Laura has a PhD in Analytical Chemistry and began her career as a science consultant and government project manager. She found her passion in supporting scientists and communicating their stories to drive business outcomes.
In this episode, Amanda and Laura discuss manager-led communications, strategies for reaching people globally, and helping leaders become better communicators.
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“Executives need to identify that the managers are your best representatives of the employee base. They're the ones that are eyes and ears; they're all around, they see it. They're at that sort of level, and they really should be, hopefully, empowered and respected and heard. And that when we communicate to them, find ways to better empower and not just assume that they're going to cascade verbatim the message from on high. There's a lot of contextualization, translation to get that message from what the executive sees at a high-level strategic business, and even strategic cultural level, down into the organization to really pump the blood through and get those tactics, those strategies, all those things from the business and culturally through the organization.” – Laura Borland
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Episode Timestamps:
*(01:43): Laura’s background
*(06:48): Segment: Getting Tactical
*(07:14): One strategy that gets overlooked when trying to reach people globally
*(08:51): Laura opens her manager-led communication playbook
*(23:16): Segment: Seat at The Table
*(26:56): How Laura coaches leaders to be better communicators
*(30:51): Segment: Asking for a Friend
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Links:
Connect with Laura on LinkedIn
Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn
Amanda Berry: Hi Laura, How are you today?
Laura Borland: Hey, I'm great, thanks.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, thanks for
joining me. I wanna start off and learn a little bit more about you. Can you gimme a highlights of your professional
background?
Laura Borland: Well, it's kind of unique in that I'm not a trained communicator. I actually have a PhD in analytical chemistry, so I know that sounds crazy and it's all, I always come up in the nontraditional career path.
Sort of journey. But, um, I started as a analytical chemist, thought I was gonna be a college professor. But you have to go real deep into your knowledge base there. And I, I'm a generalist. I love doing lots of different things. I love reading about science, I love investigating and, and researching, but I couldn't see myself going real deep.
So instead I looked for alternate career paths. And one of those was actually consulting for the government. They always need expertise. They need PhDs, They need as creds behind some of the stuff that they do. So I joined a consulting firm, consulted for multiple folks in the government, from the army to the military intelligence and, and a lot of folks where it was basically science based.
So we're working for scientific government labs and help them with their skill sets and, and communication. So whether it be. Writing grants, whether it be communicating their science to other organizations better, telling the story of how they're supporting the war fighter, or how they're supporting us in general, and then breaking that message down for multiple audiences.
Sometimes I was dealing with law enforcement and they don't speak science at all, so you really have to break that down. So it was all really about scientific communication. And then after a few years of consulting, I figured, you know, it's, I really like this communication thing, but I, I, instead of giving folks away my opinions and, and having them decide I wanna be in a place where I can make a little bit more of a difference.
So I joined DuPont. You can't get any more scientific than that. That's really one of our foundational science companies. And I had a great time working with their central research and development organization for a number of years, again, supporting scientists telling their stories in this. To marketing folks, to customers, really transforming and bringing the science to a product, and then delivering that product to customer.
So after a few years of that, started doing a little different type of communications and I doing business communications for Agile. And there I got to learn more about the financial stories behind our business, the strategy, and really how do we take an idea, how do we take innovation and then drive it forward?
And how do we tell that story to investors? How do we tell it to our community? How do we really make that impact? And so over the years, I've progressively moved in my career to staying in science, but doing more of the communication lift and how. Communication supports business delivery and business outcomes.
Amanda Berry: You know, it sounds like government, military science. Are there any big parallels there that you can, you can
draw?
Laura Borland: I would say it's all about the audience. It's all about really trying to translate or communicate to different audiences, and so taking what those foundational messages are and then being able to tailor and customize them for the different audiences that are out there.
So regardless of whether you're consulting for the go, Or you're talking scientist to scientist, or whether you're talking business to investors, you always have to keep in mind who's on the outside, who are you really trying to communicate with, and then what are you trying to get across? Is it, what sort of outcomes do you want from them?
If it's investors, you want them to invest in you. If it's. Customers, you want them to buy from you. If it's other scientists, you want them to either join your team so it's kind of recruitment or you want them to know that they're appreciated in that their science is really leading to the next big product that's out there.
The next big innovation.
Amanda Berry: When
you got your PhD in analytical chemistry, was your intention to go into science or did you have this sort of path sort of in mind that you wanted to check out these different areas and which led you to communications?
Laura Borland: You know, I didn't really know. I love science. And I only really knew the laboratory.
You know, you go through school, you go into your graduate career, you go into your postdoc, all you know is academia. So really I had to explore on my own what I could do with this degree and how this would, would transform later on. But I did get a really great foundation, and I can't remember which one of my advisors over the years said that is, as a scientist, your chief job is to communi.
Whether it's your research to other peers, whether it's publication in these peer review journals, whether it's in front of funding agencies to try to get more funding, or whether it's, you know, at conferences and even talking to the community about the impact your science is making, whether you're inventing sensors or whether you're working in a clinical lab or whatever you're working on.
It could even be, you know, in the physical realm, think about rocket science and explaining that. Why is it important that we're sending rockets in this space? All of those, it's all science in the background. First and foremost, it's communicating what you're doing and whether it's successful. So, oh look, my project worked and look, I created something, or whether.
Not successful, which is a lot of my, a lot of my work didn't work out, but at least I could train other scientists to not do it that way or that this approach doesn't quite work for what you're trying to achieve. So it's that collective knowledge. It's gotta be shared. And that's fundamentally communications.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, that's absolutely correct. You know, I often see that what are some skills employees need to, to work on? Communications should always be top of that, even if you're a good communicator. Just finding ways to communicate and be creative. Yeah, definitely. I'm gonna move us into our next segment, getting tactical.
I'm trying to figure out tactics and to be perfectly honest, and I didn't have to worry about tactics too much, here I am in charge and trying to say, Why did you sleep through tactics, tactics.
You have worked for large companies, no doubt about it. Looking at your resume, I think one of your employees has over 60,000 employees globally, which is huge.
When you think about wanting to reach that large employee base across the globe, what's one strategy you think often gets overlooked?
Laura Borland: Uh, I would have to say it's the managers. It's getting information clearly, concisely, and really deploying the managers to communicate. I'm really passionate about management and manager communications because they are fundamentally the way that we get messages out to our employees.
It's been proven. There's a lot of studies on it that the number one place for employees to get their messages isn't from the internet, isn't from their executive memo once a quarter. It isn't even from the, the newspaper or, or from the outside. It's right there from their frontline, from their direct managers.
And so I feel like we haven't been really empowering them enough. Oftentimes, I've heard executives say, Oh, that's our frozen layer. We do a good job of communicating to our managers. We give them this information, and then it just freeze. But really that's because we don't actually assist and empower those folks in the middle.
So I feel like that's the number one thing that we need to spend a lot more time on and almost carve out as a separate communications stream, if you will, is manager communications. Cuz it's really impactful and there's a lot of folks out there that believe as I do, but this is a place we need to spend our time and.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, and I'm one of 'em. Laura, this is, This is, I am passionate about a few things and I see in internal coms that I will argue to on the face. This is definitely one of them. I'm so, I'm glad you brought this up, and I wanna dig into this because it might seem obvious, but it shouldn't be an afterthought.
It should really be, like you just said, like one of our channels. I wanna talk about that. But let's start with like the why I call it like through manager communication. Like IC communicates to managers, managers communicate their employees. Why do you think that that's so important?
Laura Borland: Well, I really believe that managers are the heart of our organization.
They really are. The life let, like that's where things come in from the outside, from the employees. If you think of the employees as the capillaries, the veins, and the arteries, that information's coming into managers. But at the same time, the, maybe you call 'em the brain trust, the executives, the leadership is sending messages down and so it gets stuck right there at the heart.
And if you don't keep the heart healthy, if you don't empower them and listen to them, check those vital. Then you're really not creating a strong, capable business. So it's really about bringing managers with key. They're right there in the middle. They're bringing up issues from the employees and getting that hopefully to executives in both terms of recognition and also of of issues if there's cultural issues or execution issues, how are you gonna hear about it?
But fr through these managers, and then the same thing, executives need to identify that the managers are your best representative. Of the employee base. They're the ones that are eyes and ears. They're all around. They see it. They're at that sort of level, and they really should be hopefully empowered and respected and heard, and that we should really, when we communicate to them, find ways to better empower and not just assume that they're gonna cascade verbatim the message from on high.
There's a lot of contextualization, translation, whatever you will, to get that message from what the executive sees at a high level strategic. And, and even strategic cultural level down into the organization to really pump the blood through and get those tactics, those strategies, all those things from the business and, and culturally through the organization.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, I absolutely couldn't
agree more. It feels like managers like boots on the ground and I, frankly, I think communication feels a little less top down. You hear this a lot, like the leaders just tell us what to, It feels a little less top down and, and frankly, like as an employee, like if I have a question about something, enroll the company, I go to my manager first.
Exactly, and I'm our listeners do too. And you go to your manager and they go, Well, I don't know anything about this. And then you go, Oh no, , They don't know anything about it. Yeah, I'm not gonna go to the CEO or CFO first when I have a question. I'm gonna go to my manager. And if they're in the dark, that doesn't feel good.
Plus, I think there's a lot of value in that relationship. Employee manager. They say employees leave managers, not companies. So if you feel connected to your manager and your manager knows and can answer your questions, that builds that relationship. And like you pointed out, it builds transparency and trust between leadership who are making decisions, employees who are executing on them, because the manager's the champion of those messages, right?
If you got a company, I don't know, maybe you can help me for this out. Let's say the thousand, 10,000 employees and a thousand of 'em are managers. You got a thousand communication people walking around. So I, I wanna keep digging in this cuz I love this and I'm so glad you wanna talk about this. In your experience, are there instances where this manager led communication works better than other times?
Laura Borland: I would say in my experience, and it really takes an effort and it. The top leadership, the executives, to identify this first, because if they're not on board, then it's really hard to permeate. And I've tried to be that advocate for the managers is to say in organizational changes when there's big changes coming down, whether it be not just organizational, but maybe it's even strategic, where you're doing a whole pivot of an organization to go into a new direction, that's when you need to engage the manager.
early and often. So it may not be the entire organization, like you said, thousand out of the the 10,000. But you need to have really great communicators, really trusted allies there that are providing that feedback on how this organizational change might be received, how the strategic shift might be perceived.
And so I think that's the key, is getting them in early, getting them informed, and. Kind of guiding them with what their expectations are or, or our expectations of them is not just to, again, cascade and. Do the verbatim communication, but to say, Okay, can you help us to contextualize this a bit more? Your teams in r and d, for instance, or in sales or in marketing or in finance, are all gonna need these messages tweaked a little bit because this change affects them all a little bit differently.
So how can you help us to make sure we're checking all those boxes and making sure we're getting all those messages? And we're considering that when we do this. First, top down from executive message, but then also so we're hearing what the concerns are from the employees. Because sometimes executives think, Oh, that's an easy change, and employees automatically go to Where are the layoffs?
Your cost cutting. You've cut my program, you're not investing on us. And they immediately jump to conclusions that executives are like, Of course we're not doing that. I can't believe they asked that silly question. It's never a silly question. If you've got folks in the, in the employee base that are asking that, and then manager.
Hopefully are equipped to be able to see that and to be able to, to calm those, those fears or be able to address those questions specifically with truly transparent answers. Which sometimes if you don't do it right, that's kind of that disease of the heart, the hardening of those arteries. If you bring it in the
Amanda Berry: science here.
Yeah.
Laura Borland: If you really don't, Metaphors Yeah. If you really don't take care of that, it's your organization, I really think is, is crippled a little bit. So, um, I think it's definitely important to bring managers in early, make sure that they're. And they bring a great perspective. In my experience, have sat with a lot of manager groups, so I've been lucky enough that some of the organizations I've been in, the managers identify that they are a distinct subset of the population and they self assemble and bring in communicators, Hey, what have you heard?
Hey, what? How do we best prepare all these things that we know are coming down the pike, but maybe we don't. The right skill set, or maybe we need additional support, whether it be help asking and answering the right questions, developing either FAQs or developing subsequent presentations specific to their different teams and their different functions.
So I'm, I really appreciate when I see that and I try to reach out and make sure that those managers know that I'm there, Like I'm there to support, I can provide and I can go back to the executives, I can actually pull up from the employees and see if we can meet those and, and address those questions and make those.
Right there.
Amanda Berry: Yeah. That's such a great call out. By going to the managers, like you said, sitting down with them and telling them, So here's the change, or here's the thing, whatever the thing is. Them being able to give feedback and you be able to tweak messages and change things a little because they know what the employees deal with.
You know, as a internal coms, do always try to take that employee perspective, but if you're pretty removed and you're sitting at the headquarters while you've got people on, you know, the factory floor. by going to those managers and say, You know, here's what we're thinking. Here's the communication. You know, what feedback do you have?
What are we not addressing? That is so helpful. Do you use managers for most of your com efforts? Because I know it doesn't work probably in every scenario, but I think of three groups I have to communicate to senior leaders, people managers. all employees, right? The senior leaders get the people manager and then the employees get the whole message.
But do you use this sort of strategy for most of your communication efforts?
Laura Borland: Oh, definitely. Yes. So I think that's one of the key things that I mentioned a little bit earlier. Audience is important. It's really, even though it might be the same theoretical message coming down, down, you know, we're having this change.
We're instituting this strategy, we're, here's an update on the progress. Program or project, you really have to make sure that Audi, all the different audiences are accounted for because in some cases, the so what isn't there? Finance might not care or might not benefit from a, a concentrated effort on some of these things.
So do, how do we spend our time and, and energy addressing that audience? So that they either do care and do achieve the outcomes we're looking for, which is engagement and information sharing and, and sometimes action versus some of the other groups. So I think it's on a communication plan, always having those different audiences identified.
Some of the key messages are gonna be same. Some of the tactics are gonna be the same, but as you mentioned, you've got folks nowadays that are totally remote. You've had folks that have always been remote like sales and. That don't have home bases, but really service the customer. So how do we get to them and how do we have the right tactics and the right messaging to them based on the time that they have available, what they need to know, the so what and then the outcomes we expect from them.
Some of it is simple like, here's fyi, here's what is nice to know, versus here's what you need to know to do your. So we don't want to overload folks with things that don't necessarily help them do their job, but there are cases where they need to be in the know they need to have access to that information because it will come in handy or will be important later on.
So it's really in that communications plan, making sure you're checking all of those boxes, making sure you're thinking about an audience, you're thinking about timing, thinking about tactics. Message is almost the last thing because that can be consistent. But again, it you working with the managers to tailor it based on their teams, their functions.
Outcomes, which are slightly different in some cases. This is how
Amanda Berry: I do it and I love it. I think it works really well. But what does that look like on your plan? What tools and resources do you build or have that'll reach directly to with people, managers that'll help them carry this message?
Laura Borland: I think a lot of times it's.
It's just some of the, the basics. It's a core set of frequently asked questions. So really, I like to actually start with, before any message goes out, you start with those questions. What's going on? Why are we doing it? The five w h. So figuring that out first, and then you can carve messages out specifically to different audiences from that.
And then that's where all the collateral, all the, actually the fun stuff, all the tactics come from all of those core key question. I put my little employee hat on, I put my manager hat on. I put my executive hat on and try to ask as many different questions and at different per mutations as I can, answer those questions.
And then start to carve out the tactics that are appropriate. So it might be a lot of the same sharing of FAQs, basic presentations, but then it might be for managers. Okay, Managers. I like to give 'em a lot of questions, a lot of templates with questions to say, We just shared with you this strategy we just shared with you this.
Here are the questions you might get from your team, or you might ask yourself, Where does your team fit in? If you're an r and d, you might ask about this part of the project. If you're in finance, you might ask about this part. So think for yourself. How would you translate? How would you contextualize the strategy that you just heard for your team?
And so giving them that template, they can then fill in the details and be a little bit more connected to their teams, and then encourage them to really. Spit out the information and communicate it down to discuss, to invite their teams in. I don't think we spend enough time actually meeting. I know it's, it's crazy.
We're all on Zoom and teams and you name it. And it seems like we're meeting all the time, but are we really discussing or are we sharing information? Because sharing information is easy to do nowadays. We've got internets, we've got Yammer, we've got all this, the, the chatting functions and things in all of these tools that you can share at any time.
You can post things on your internet in real time. You don't have to wait for the weekly, monthly, quarterly newsletter, but that information may not be what's really hitting. The so spot or really getting to the point of what we're trying to do and the outcomes we're trying to achieve. So more discussion and information sharing can be.
And these online, but off the calendar type of engagements like the internet, even videos, podcasts, those are perfect for our folks on the road videos or podcasts. You don't have to watch the video every time you can listen to it, so they pop it in their car. It's a five minute, 10 minute, maybe 20 minute podcast or video, and you listen to it as you're driving between client sites or customer sites.
You maybe you're listening to it while you're picking up your kids, but you're getting that information shared and then hopefully manager. And teams are meeting afterwards to say, Did you hear that announcement? What do you think about that? Did you, did you listen to that presentation and really listen to it?
What questions do you have that I can. To answer and dig down deeper rather than just information sharing. Yeah, no, that's, that's a
Amanda Berry: really good call. And I love the, you call down like basically every way we communicate now with our employees, right? You can have a manager portal on the internet, you can do a manager newsletter, you can do slide decks where they could just pop in for their employee meetings, manager meetings.
But I, that one on, one-on-one discussion I think is so key to really get to their questions cuz yeah, you get it and sometimes you have questions and your manager's, the person you go to, We all know, like there's some managers are good at communicating, some aren't, but how do you know when is this, when it's successful?
Laura Borland: It's funny to say this, but the most successful managers that I know that communicate are the ones that come to me and they're like, Hey, I recognize that I need to do a good job with this. I know this is a really heady topic and I know this is gonna be really tough. Can you help me out? Can you take a look?
I've already kind of started. I know that I've already set up the meetings with my team. But I know this is important and I need to communicate, and they're the ones that I know actually don't have to worry about. They're the ones that are on my calendar, but they're the ones that get it. They understand the value, they understand that they are trying to make the improvement, that they're trying to engage, that they're very passionate about their employees, that they're just not.
Again, regurgitating whatever the executive said. They're really trying to help them contextualize, understand what's going on. It's the ones that are quiet that I look out for and I'm like, I haven't heard from that team in a while, or I haven't heard from those executive what's going on over there. So that's the ones that I kind of tap on their door or set up a little one-on-one and say, You know what?
I haven't heard from you. And how did you like that town hall? And you know, next time we'd like to include a little bit more information. We'd like to do a little bit of two-way stuff instead. Pushing down. Can we pull up so that folks know what you're working on and then they realize, Oh, communicate.
Okay, I get it. Yeah, you're right. I probably haven't been communicating to my team enough. Or, you know what? There are things that we are only sharing in our function, but would be very valuable to understand for the rest of the organization cuz it's part of our bigger game plan or bigger strategy. It's the quiet ones that you have to look out for because I think that that's, they maybe are a little insecure.
They don't know. They feel like maybe they're doing a good job. If it's, you've heard, you know, if you're in a town hall, you're in a big, in a big meeting and there aren't any questions, then maybe people weren't really listening or people didn't get it. That's when it scares me and that's when I know we have to, we have to dive in and figure out what to do and how we can support.
Amanda Berry: Let's get a MO to our next segment. Seat at the table.
Producer: First. Get seat the table. Get seat the table. You want a seat at the table
Amanda Berry: or whether I wanna think of this. Think about this as seats at the table, right? Cause I'm picturing, I see. Sitting around the table with the group of people, managers and what the conversation might be like, Right?
Cause we're all trying to get you at that table and they're an important seat. So one thing that comes to mind is resistance. So it sounds like what you were saying, and the last segment is the people you don't hear from might be a little resistant, or they might just be not sure what to do, how to communicate.
But let's talk about resistance. Have you encountered instances where you're getting resistance from managers on this? Strategies?
Laura Borland: Not from managers, but sometimes I get it from. That maybe don't understand the value of breaking it down, contextualizing it, and that old axiom of, you've gotta say things, what, seven times, nine times, whatever, to make it stick.
I've dealt with executives that every single time they talk about one topic, they talk about it differently. And so, Oh, well it's novel to you because you're giving that message, but to the different a. , even if it is the same audience, you need to keep repeating it. You need to keep hammering at home so that they get it.
So I think that trying to show that value and trying to somehow measure. Is the challenge that I've always faced and that sometimes we make headway. Sometimes it clicks and they go, Yeah, you're right. I have to repeat that message, or I do understand what you're trying to get at That consulting part of the communications as opposed to the tactical, which is write me a memo, make me a presentation.
Sometimes it's the consulting to say, Hey, what is the outcome that you want from these managers? What is the outcome that we want from employees? Let's focus on that and then work our way. To finding the right tactics, to finding the right message, to finding the right frequency of communications, and then put that all together.
That's the value we bring to the table. We're not there just for writing or for videoing or for doing podcasts, like that's fun. We love that and we will jump at it every time as communicators. That's why I got into this cuz it's really creative. Sometimes it's the consultation part, and so I have that in my background in my career, so I can, I can rely on some of that, but it's, that's again, another piece of marketing communications, if you will, to say, Here's the value I bring, not just to be a good writer or be a good communicator for you, your voice, but to really help you to think about what you're trying to say, who you're trying to say it to, and what meaning it.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, when you, when
you were just telling that story, when here started laughing Cause when you told that story about the executives, I don't get it. The story popped into my brain. My husband also works at homes right across the hall and I went to him one day just just to get some different perspective and I said, How do you get communication?
Like how do you prefer to get communication after work? I said, Newsletter, email, a town hall, internet. And he goes, No, I just want my manager to tell me what I need to know. . Exactly. That was such, Yeah, that was such a, an interesting point for me, and I was like, Oh man. That's so good to
Laura Borland: know. Yeah. I think we're bombarded with just so much information these days and everybody thinks that their communications are important.
Oh, we need to tell everybody, and that needs to be accessible and oh my goodness, we've got so much. But sometimes you need time to just put your head down, focus and do your job, and who's the best person to tell you what those priorities are and what those things are and how. How doing your job will lead to the bigger picture.
That's your manager. They're the ones that know you the best. So sometimes it's cut through all the other stuff and just focus on the direct line there.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, it is, and it's sometimes who employees trust the most in an organization as their manager. So we know managers, even leaders, might not be the best communicators.
How do you coach leaders or managers through that? What does
Laura Borland: that look like? Some take, um, direction and coaching very well and are. To try new things and watch themselves or study their processes and others think, Oh, I'm God gifted. I can do this. Like I, I got this. I know how to communicate. I'm just gonna either read off the script or just wing it and then go for 20 minutes what we should have been a five minute, you know, keynote.
So I think a lot of times it's trying to figure out how to match that personality and that authentic. To then the message and the delivery system. Not every leader is the same. They don't all have the same desire to be out there and to do the same thing. So you really have to get to know your leader first, and then try to find what would be appropriate for them to share.
Find what they're comfortable with, find how they like to even think about putting together if it's. Messages, if it's a presentation, if it's a keynote, if it's a video, finding what they're comfortable with and then trying to play to those strengths. And then over time, again, showing through different examples of, Look, you love to do videos.
Here's something a little bit different. And here's how they did their video, and here's how they framed this conversation. There's a lot of examples out there. There's a lot of folks that do this really well. So you show those examples and then you try to work to an executive strengths. And I've worked with tons of executives, some that work a really small room really well because they're introverts in front of a large audience, and then others that do the large audience very well and have no problem going in front of a camera.
But as soon as you get them one on one, they're a little skittish and they're off running and, and trying to do too many things at one time. So it's trying to find the best, again, best tactic. For the different audiences, but also for the deliverer of those messages. That's what I like. I think working with different executives, if you work with the same one, you build that trust, but then showing other executives like, Here are different ways to do it, and here's things that in my experience that have worked and things that we might wanna try, it's nice to see somebody grow.
I guess that's what teachers feel when, you know they've got students and they see them learn and grow and, and develop and then start off in their own career. So that would be my experience there in, in teaching you. Yeah, it'd be
Amanda Berry: interesting, I mean, to, to make a correlation, like if you knew someone was a great communicator to their, to their teams.
I don't know if you do employee engagement surveys like annually, looking at, you know, at the department level, we. Person X is a really great communicator. Does you know, if you have the question on there, I feel informed of what's going on the company. Like is there any correlation between people who you think are really good communicators versus what the employees say and then how that works?
That's a, that's a whole nother topic, but I dunno if you have any experience looking into that. It just sort of hit me and I know, I've never looked at, there's any correlation
Laura Borland: there. I've seen a lot of, a lot of employee data and we try to collect data after big events, town halls, you know, how did you like the topic?
How did you like the deliver? Were there enough different voices incorporated or was it just the president's show and, You know, I think it, it sometimes depends on the message and sometimes it depends on the, the executive and some of them are really great, but really rely on a corporate message and, and corporate jargon and so, Sometimes that's where you have to look at that and go, Okay, well this audience really wants you to be more personable, more authentic, and not so corporate.
And then there are other cases where some people might be too loose and might be too familiar and might be too close to the employees. And so they might lose some of the trust in the confidence of, Hey, does this guy really know our strategy? Is he really connected? He's really chummy with us, but is that good for the business and is this the right direction to be in?
So it's trying to balance that. And sometimes I think it. It's looking at some of that survey data and for every executive it's a little bit different, but I think those are some things that are easily tweaked and worked on over time, and I think it changes also depending on the situation and the executive strengths.
Amanda Berry: Let's get into
our last segment, asking for a friend
Producer: who's for a friend. Hey. Asking for a friend. Asking for a friend. For a friend. What advice
Amanda Berry: would you give an internal communication practitioner who hasn't really put a lot of time or thought or even effort into using people managers as almost a channel to communicate their employees?
Where would they even start?
Laura Borland: Start with your executives. Ask them who are your most engaged managers? Who are the folks that are the most verbal, and even sometimes who are the, the least verbal? And bring them together in an informal cohort. Just reach out to 'em by email first thing, and say, I'm new to communications.
I really wanna get a sense of how you feel the organization is doing. How do you think that we're currently handling communications? From executives, from employees, you know? What about the employee survey offline, Not, not the results of the employee survey, but what do you think of the way we, we do our communication and we measure it and then form that team and try to get a feel for the organization.
And I think that sometimes those. Teams will enlighten you to things that executives may not bring up and employees may not bring up, but are coming from both of those ends. Things that you may not have heard of but are, I wanna say, like culturally embedded. So you'll get a lot of insight from those folks.
You'll find that a lot of folks will come out and start to be your advocate and start to be able to provide you with the stories, the information, the updates that you can then, Back to executives for employee recognition or back down to the employees that they know, Hey, this is what's going on across these different functions, across the disciplines, across the divisions.
You, you start to build that, that those capabilities and those connections that feeds itself. It does, it does. Yeah.
Amanda Berry: Yeah. I imagine, I love that idea of like, go to leaders who are the biggest people, manager champions, and then even going to them be like, How could we better support you? You know, do you need materials?
What, what do you need from us? I love that idea
Laura Borland: and it's, it's surprising. fast and how far a couple simple good examples can go. You just, you activate a couple of these ideas. You think, Oh, I'm never gonna have enough information to feed a newsletter or to feed my intranet. I'm never gonna have enough connections to be able to provide as much content or as many stories or as much.
Feedback and recognition elements, but as soon as you start engaging those managers across the entire organization, you will start to see stuff. You will start to get really ingrained. You start to trust. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. And that's the hardest part. I think coming in as a new communicator is really, Okay, I'm here.
I'm here to support. What do you do really? And how do you support me? And not just writing org notices and not just putting slides, making them pretty. It's all about how we can consult and how we can. The bigger game of communications. I think that's the fastest way to get into it.
Amanda Berry: Yeah, I think, I think, I think that's such a great way to end this, is just when you work with managers and you really get in with them, right?
It really changes the organization, right? You build trust. Senior leaders start to see that. They start trust your mother. There's so much that can be done there. Maybe that's why, I guess I haven't really thought about it that way, but maybe that's why I say this as such an integral part of communication planning.
Laura Borland: definitely. And they are the heart and soul as I, I think they, they're the heart. They carry the culture. Leaders may speak about culture and oh, we've got a great culture here. It's the manager. That are responsible for that, the leaders can display it, but it's really the managers that carry it through and make sure that everything is brought together and stays healthy.
I think the healthiest manager bases the, the healthiest manager organizations are the healthiest companies. I
Amanda Berry: agree with that. I mean, if you've got great senior leaders, And then not great managers. That's gonna hurt the business. So I, I absolutely agree with that. They are kind of the lifeblood of an organization.
Well, Laura, this has been so much fun. I really enjoy talking with you today. Before I let you go though, will you tell our listeners where they can find
Laura Borland: you? They can find me on LinkedIn, Laura and Borland on LinkedIn. Find me there and definitely feel free to connect.
Amanda Berry: Great. Laura, thank you so much for joining me.
This has been great.
Laura Borland: Thanks so much, Amanda.
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