The communication champion role is a valuable addition to any company. Communication champions should be numerous in a large organization – making up a communication network of sorts.
They run point on information and help others collaborate, work, and acquire information better.
It’s not rare, however, for the communication champion to be underrated and underused. In many companies, their entire job gets reduced to printing posters locally for various teams to communicate strategic company policies.
When done right, however, communication champions bring in a lot of value to and seriously improve the efficiency of the organization and employee engagement.
What’s the role of the ideal communication champion
The communication champion role is one only a few understand.
It’s not just about coordinating the employees by dispersing information. Anyone could do that. Communication champions should ideally make up a network within the organization.
This network is responsible for improving the workflow and the flow of information within teams with a goal to reach everyone, including those who have just started the onboarding process.
A communication champion is responsible for propagating all the necessary information. This is a constant process.
Communication Champion as the heart of the company
The communication champions of the organization should be well equipped with the information regarding the company, its policies, and all the events. Even if you don’t wish to spend a lot of time propagation a less important piece of information, the communication champions should still be aware of it.
Thinking of communication as a process, not an event
The biggest myth that companies believe is that the communication champions are responsible for communicating important events or news to the contacts, teams, or employees.
They are not communication messengers. They are communication champions.
The communication champion role is more nuanced.
They are supposed to “champion” the spread of information. They are supposed to keep everyone in the loop and the information flowing freely.
So, how do you do that?
The organization’s managers have to shift their perception of communication from an “event or news information broadcast” to “perpetual information.”
Staying in touch is a continuous cycle. It’s not limited to making event news or breaking news reach your contacts.
The managerial team’s communication with the employees, project managers, or team leaders needs to be a prominent force that’s felt throughout the workplace.
Communication Champion – always ready to help
However, we all know that being able to do that is pretty difficult.
Managers are likely to find it easier to resort to only sending critical updates and demanding progress reports when deadlines are closing in.
That’s not an ideal work scenario at all.
Thinking of communication as a process, as such, sounds great on paper. It falls apart when actually put into practice. And that’s precisely why you need a communication champion.
These employees improve the flow of back and forth communication. This optimizes the collaboration and work sentiment, leading to better productivity in general.
What do communication champions need?
It’s not easy to manage a communication champion role. A leader as communication champion is only as good as the managers above them.
It’s a good practice to make sure that your communication champions have access to all the talking points, relevant information, troubleshooting or inquiry answers, slide decks, and any related material.
A communication champion should be prepared.
The early years of communication champion work can be taxing. There’s a pretty steep learning curve. The managers should always be encouraging.
Communication champions need some time to settle in their position and build reputation and trust among their colleagues.
As such, it’s critical that they are not pestered with demands of results.
Creating communication champions in companies is a long-term process. If you’re eyeing quick gains then you might find other options more attractive. Fostering the necessary relationships to have proper communication championing takes time.
Communication champions also need to know exactly who are they targeting.
Management should clearly identify the organizational contacts that need to be communicated with. A communication champion role entails more than just sending email notifications, printing posters, or writing company-wide policy-focused blogs.
Unless the recipients are clear everything can fall apart. The entire information workflow depends largely on how smoothly everything is set up – and the prerequisite to that is getting down to the organization contacts that should be on the receiving end of the communication.
It’s typical for larger organizations to segment their contacts into multiple groups or categories. The communication champion then handles the flow of information from point A to point B (for example, from a manager to the team leaders).
This eradicates the problem of everyone receiving information and only a few being able to make heads and tails of it. It also allows better control when sharing more sensitive or financial information.
The relationship between the communication champion and team leaders or project managers
Communication champions work closely with team leaders and project managers within an organization.
The key responsibilities of a communication champion in this case include:
- Coordinating with the project manager and relaying important information regarding the vision, progress, feedback (including the constructive criticism), updates, or corrections to various departments and employees.
- Developing a full-fledged communication plan as per the project requirements so information is readily available and handy whenever needed.
- Working as a point of contact. This is especially good for newer employees, who might struggle to navigate the workplace or the team paradigm. If they know that there’s a person specifically meant to handle communication, they can always reach out to them regardless of what the directives from the project manager are.
- Making sure that the management is properly supporting and participating in a project or team. More often than not, the managers become bosses of the project leaders because none of them have the time to catch up frequently. A communication champion improves efficiency by bridging this gap.
- Developing communication roadmaps for others. For example, communication champions are a good choice for formulating communication plans for entire projects. This permeates domains and can be applied to communication with the users, clients, or customers.
Long story short, the project manager or the team leader cannot do it all.
Their time is limited and handling communication becomes a tough job.
But without proper communication and timely information, the overall productivity can suffer a great deal of loss.
That’s where the communication champion comes in.
The workflow improves and everyone is happy. It’s a win-win situation.
Choosing the right communication champions
By now, you have a pretty clear idea of what’s what. A communication champion can easily be a vital asset to your company. They can boost productivity and improve the flow of information within larger organizations.
However, how do you choose the communication champions?
The communication champion role of course needs an employee to have great communication skills. They also need to have good people skills.
Choose the right employees who have representation across relevant sites or teams.
Informal leaders or employees with some level of influence often make good communication champions but that’s not a guarantee.
You should do your due diligence when choosing communication champions. And remember, when you have good communication champions, make sure communication with them is a two-way street. Don’t just talk, but listen to their feedback or reporting as well.
