Finding Your Voice As A Communicator

This week I had the opportunity to speak at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) conference in New York City. In a room full of storytellers, I shared some stories about my own journey in communications and some lessons I’ve picked up along the way that they didn’t teach in school.

As with so many stories, the inciting incident happened a few weeks ago when I left my office and headed for home thinking “it was a good day.” I’d done a full day of work. I was dealing with big issues that could have far-reaching impact months or years from now. I held discussions with people inside and outside the company. I helped resolve some disagreements. I felt like I was on my game that day.

When I got home from work, my family and I were trading stories about our respective days. As I described my day, the thought began to creep in, “What did I really do today and did it have anything to do with communications?” I didn’t talk to a reporter or an editor or an analyst. I didn’t write a blog post or a statement or a quote. I didn’t do a video or anything on social – although I probably tweeted some stuff – and it probably wasn’t about work. 😊 I got paid to do everything I did that day. Yet I had this question, “What did I do today and was it communications?”

That's when I realized that tons of what we do as communicators during the day isn’t for that day. Especially in today’s world, we’re thinking about next week, next month, and next year. We have to get out of the moment and think about the future. At Microsoft, that means we don’t just think about product launches. We think about technology and its impact on society. About what’s happening in the world and how we play into that. About the key stakeholders we need to engage with both internally and externally and the people whose lives we touch. And we try to apply those learnings and insights not just to our communications strategy but to our business strategy.

We may not write a press release or provide a statement or even make a pitch during the day. But what we do every day is definitely communications. And it’s how we, as communicators, drive the best outcomes and the greatest impact for our organizations today.

From my vantage point, this is a time when communicators are really finding their voice and seeing the importance of the role they play. We have earned a seat at the table, so to speak. And this table comes in all forms, shapes and sizes.

I’m going to share a handful of stories about lessons I’ve learned along my journey as a communicator, none of which are taught in school. They’ve come in handy for me when I’m seated at the proverbial table, starting with a time that I didn’t find my voice.

Lesson One: Speak Out

Early in my Microsoft career, we were preparing to launch a new smartphone built on a successful product called Sidekick, which a bunch of celebrities loved at the time. We were a little bit late and there were some challenges with the product from a pricing standpoint – and many other things it turned out. But this new product seemed cool. So, there was a ton of excitement about it. On the eve of the launch, a group of senior people gathered in a conference room. I had a seat at the table as the comms expert.

A discussion ensued about whether we were going to go forward with the launch or if there was another alternative. We went around the table and talked about pros and cons. Should we ship? Why? Why not? When it came to me, guess what I said? NOTHING – even though I had concerns. I couldn't figure out how I had permission to have an opinion here. I wasn't spending the advertising dollars or doing the engineering or even talking to the partners. Why would the comms person stop and speak out? We launched the product. 41 days later we pulled it off the market.

My key learning here is when you sit at the table, whether it's at the C-level, the product planning level or any level, use your voice. Speak out and offer a point of view. I wish I’d have said “We have the potential of incurring serious brand damage if we launch and cancel this product, which we are on a path to do.” Offering a point of view is most powerful when it’s not just opinion but is grounded in data or insights and focused on the business problem, in this case potential brand damage. When you do that, you continue to earn a seat at the table and people will listen to you in the future, too.

 Lesson Two: Be a Convener

Another lesson that isn’t taught in school is making sure that diverse views and stakeholders in a decision are represented at the table.

Here’s an example coming out of the social protests we’ve seen over the last set of years and more specifically what happened after the murder of George Floyd. This was a time when many companies saw what had happened and wanted to do something. They felt pressure from their employees and pressure from history. Urgency can often get translated into coming to the communications team and saying, “What are we going to SAY about this?” And, of course, the right answer is, “What are we going to DO about this? Then we can decide what we’re going to say.”

At Microsoft, convened around a virtual table, there was a group of people that spanned the social team, the diversity and inclusion team, and the communications team that were looking at the world, looking at our company, and asking what should we do, and why, and we came up with a plan and a set of recommendations. I was sitting at my kitchen table and hit send on an email to company leaders saying “Here’s the plan.” What I missed was that there was an entirely separate group of people doing similar work in an entirely separate virtual room. But I didn’t miss it for long because moments later my phone rang and it was the president of the company reminding me of just this thing.

His point was that we had a set of people that spanned other really important teams across the company working on a different plan. Because I had missed the input from those people, I was pushing him to take some actions that he didn’t feel were quite right at the time. We ultimately arrived at a better response collectively. It took a bit more time, which is okay on complicated and important issues.

My key learning was that it’s not just my job to write down the messages or make sure we are doing the right things. It’s part of my job to be a “convener,” to look at the people sitting around the table in the room, or online, and ask the explicit questions “Are we being inclusive?” “Do we have the right people, not just senior people but people with live experience?” And if we don’t have the right people, we have to reach out and find them. When you get the right people in the room, you end up doing the right things more rapidly, and you end up saying the right things with more fidelity.

Lesson Three: Be a Negotiator

Another “non communications” piece of the communications function that is not covered in communications training is how to negotiate.

Here's an example involving an on the record briefing, an affordable housing announcement that was not supposed to be announced at that briefing, and a promised exclusive. We had an on-the-record gathering with media and our senior executives where we were sketching out our view for the year ahead. One of our executives accidentally disclosed the news that the next day we were going to be making a big affordable housing announcement. The pub with the promised exclusive was not in the room, and another outlet was, and wanted to run the story now. So we now had a set of really unhappy stakeholders.

The solution we landed on made everyone unhappy. The outlet in the room ran a shorter story, a few minutes before the longer promised exclusive. One pub was unhappy they lost the exclusive, even though they had more context and color. The other was unhappy about having to wait and seeing another outlet get more. Both were right. We got there not by demanding, but by asking, admitting we’d made a mistake and hoping for some help, and  at the end of the day, everyone said “yes,” and everyone was unhappy, and it was a good day. 😊

The key learning here is about the value of diplomacy and negotiation. We really want everyone to be universally happy with the work we’re doing. But there are times where there is conflict internally or externally and our job is to find a solution that makes the most people as minimally unhappy as possible. Not everyone around the table will be happy. And that’s okay.

Our role as communicators is more important today than it's ever been because our organizations are dealing with more complicated, longer-term issues than they've ever dealt with. The likelihood is it will only get more complicated as people grapple with how they get information, how they share it, and who they trust to provide it.

Of course, we need to continue to build on all the skills that we learned in school and perfected along the way in our careers – like being great storytellers, great writers and great content creators. But we also need to embrace the role that we have of speaking out at the right time with an informed point of view. Getting the right people in a room to help drive the right outcomes. And negotiating for this tiny little sliver of common shared understanding along the way.

When we do that, it’s a good day.