4 Ways Executive Directors Need to Help Communications Staff

In addition to what I’ve learned from 16 years of producing the Nonprofit Communications Trends Report, I’ve also trained and mentored hundreds of nonprofit communications directors over the last several years. I hear every day what works, and what doesn’t. And I have found that there are four responsibilities that executive directors and other nonprofit leaders have if they want their communications staff to be successful.

I call them the “4 Ds” of Effectively Managing Communications Teams:

1. Dedicate yourself and real resources to communications.
2. Define the work.
3. Delegate the work, including decisions.
4. Discuss the work often.

Executive directors, here are the four ways to help your communications staff be more successful:

1. DEDICATE Yourself and Real Resources to Communications

• Dedicate real staff time to communications. Don’t treat it as a “nice to have” option or make it a secondary part of someone else’s job.
• Put the communications director on the senior management team. They need to hear about what’s happening in the organization earlier in the process, and to be included as program decisions are made.
• Dedicate time to creative thinking and problem solving, for both staff and yourself. Communications is extremely dynamic and can’t be put on autopilot. Everyone needs more time to think strategically, instead of doing, doing, doing all the time.
• Dedicate yourself to understanding the basics. There are still many misconceptions about nonprofit marketing and communications. Educate yourself.

2. DEFINE the Work

• Define the strategy. That means making choices and saying yes to just a few big goals, clear strategies, and smart tactics, and no to many, many more.
• Define the priorities. Communications teams are besieged by too many priorities, and urgent tasks constantly overtaking important ones. Your leadership will make a huge difference here!
• Define and limit the scope of the job to professional communications work. Don’t dump all kinds of administrative or IT tasks on communications staff just because they are good with computers or tech savvy.

3. DELEGATE the Work, Including Decisions

• Delegate and empower staff to make communications decisions and to implement them. Be clear about what you are delegating fully, where you want to be consulted during the process, and where you want to make final decisions.
• Minimize the hoops you make staff jump through. I coach nonprofit communicators on being  CALM (Collaborative, Agile, Logical, and Methodical).  Many times, they need to move fast – and to be agile – to take advantage of great marketing and public relations opportunities.  But they often stumble and miss those chances because of unreasonable constraints, real and perceived, placed on them by management.
• As you delegate, allow staff to invest in professional development. Let them learn and then listen to them! Nonprofit communications, marketing, and fundraising staff have access to a great community of experts who share abundantly, in addition to paid professional development programs (including our All-Access Training Pass and Communications Director Mentoring Program). Then let them apply what they’ve learned to the work. Don’t let your personal preferences (and often, ignorance of best practices) trump what’s right for the real target of the communications.
• Delegate control over communications staff’s time and schedule to them as much as possible. Let them say No to you. Communications staff are constantly pulled into meetings and asked to do work that is distracting from their priorities. Don’t expect them to be “always on and available” to you, just because they might appear to be “always on” your communications channels with your community.

4. DISCUSS the Work Often

• Participate in regularly scheduled editorial meetings. The exact schedule will vary, but we have suggestions for quarterly, monthly, and weekly editorial meeting agendas on our blog.
• Openly discuss ways to improve internal communications and cooperation between program, development, and communications staff. You can’t have good external communications without good internal communications. Everyone’s busy, and this kind of coordination takes time. If your staff sees you investing your time into internal collaboration, so will they.
• Make time for check-in discussions as campaigns are developed. Be a flexible sounding board. Even if you have delegated the work, don’t wait until the last minute to add your comments. Executive directors have a way of derailing work or causing many late nights of work you don’t even know are happening.

Want help building an excellent working relationship with your communications team? Contact us!