Today's New York Times asks whether
women make better managers than men. I'll let their server melt over
that issue. But it occurs to me to that communication people ought to
consider a similar question:
For all our skill with the
language and the mechanisms of communication, for all our understanding
about how human beings receive information, for all our expressed fear
and loathing of senior executives who "just don't get it" when it comes
to communication … do we really run our communication departments any
better than the IT director runs hers or the accounting manager his?
In
my experience, as a consultant to communication departments and a
correspondent with many communicators, the answer is, no. Yes, there
are wonderful bosses in this business, and I could name you 10 off the
top of my head. But 10 tyrants come to me just as easily, and aside
from them, I can think of lots of ineffectual mopes, cowards, and
windbags too.
Communicators, does our training make us any better
at managing our people—and managing relationships with others in the
organization—than the next middle-management jamoke?
I say, sadly, no. Cheer me up with a powerful rebuttal!
Worst three bosses I’ve ever had were ostensibly communicators who had an unfailing gift for being unable to communicate with anyone as human beings. Odd.
I once consulted for an employee communication director who wanted to use an employee newspaper to turn employees into company ambassadors–a dubious notion that I went along with only because the consultancy I worked for was being paid $30K to execute it.
But things didn’t get really nuts until the client, a six-figure marketing VP, insisted over all sensible objections on naming the publication:
“The Ambassador.”
Huh?
We’re communicators. We want to write, not manage the writers. However, I will say a business degree, minor or even just a few Business 101 courses will make us all better corporate communicators — allowing us to see the business first and communications role in it.
You should think that communication managers are good bosses. After all good communication skills are key to getting the best out of a team. But sadly it isn’t always so. I’ve met many communication managers who were so keen on talking, that they forgot that listening is a very important part of communicating as well. A deadly sin for any good manager.
That’s been my experience too, Tara. Thanks for your comment,
David