Be gentle with the new guy..

Well here it is - my first blog. I freely admit that it is something I have avoided for a while, deciding to stay a blog virgin for as long as possible - well at least until the right one came along anyway. So please forgive me as I learn the ropes. (Lesson no.1 - stop watching the football and concentrate!)

When Sue and Liam kindly asked me if I would like to take part I agreed without hesitation, not quite knowing what I would ramble on about or if my tiny man-brain could cope. So I began thinking about why I wanted to help out and get involved.  A shy, retiring type(?!), it certainly wasn't for a stage to perform on. In all honesty I think it came down to saying thank you (particularly to Liam and Sue) and playing my part in the black belt community that has helped me so much over the past year with ideas, tips and sometimes just friendly chit-chat to keep me sane.

I think that within the Internal Communications profession in particular, there can be a real sense of mutual understanding and togetherness. Maybe that stems from doing a job that is sometimes a lonely, frustrating and often thankless role.

I was lucky enough to attend the PPA Scotland awards last Thursday night and had the pleasure to sit next to a journalist (no seriously) who asked me what I do for a living. Now, as someone who tells his mum he 'works with computers', this is not a question I have mastered with a one-line response yet. However after describing in some detail and at some length what I do and why I believe it is important, the said journalist asked me where my passion for what I do comes from.

Now that may be a future blog in itself, but I am passionate about what I do and I strongly believe in everything that good communication and behaviour can help to achieve.  And that is why I try and get involved in professional associations such as the CiB and melcrum - to meet people with the same passion as me; to share ideas on what individually and together we can achieve. It's true that you only get out of these things what you put in, but like the current adverts on TV point out, who knows what might happen when you start to say yes...

(Lesson no.2  - know when to stop - ideally before the second half starts.)

Darren

Comments

[Tony]

Very best of luck to you Darren. Before anyone else says it, I will... sit down and work out your 'elevator pitch' so you are prepared with something snappy next time you're asked what you do.

I would also advise you to keep watching the football. It can invoke passionate responses that help a man to wax lyrical and produce some really effective copy.

Can you tell us more about your involvement with the CiB and what benefit you feel it offers? Happy blogging!

[Sue D]

Hi Darren,

Ah yes, the age old question. Is anyone willing to offer up examples of what they say when somebody asks them 'what they do'?

I have to admit, even after 15 years in IC, I haven't got it off pat. In the last two weeks some people who are VERY important to me (my hairdresser and my eyelash tinter, actually!) have asked me the very same question, and I've mumbled something about trying to get managers to actually communicate with their teams and helping organisations communicate big change like mergers.

If anyone has anymore eloquent examples, I'm sure we'd all love to steal with dignity ...!

[Liam]

Nice one Darren - it wasn't that hard was it?

Have you worked out how to post a picture yet - a glamorous publicity shot from one of those CiB brochures perhaps?

And your passion thing reminds me of something someone said on a Smythe Dorward Lambert course I attended many years ago.

At the time I was working on a joint British Rail/London Underground project and one of the other delegates said something like...

..."Every day when I walk past those blokes on the Tube who sit in those little cublicles glowering at the customers I remember why internal communications matters - those blokes must have started their first day at work feeling excited and desperate to do a good job - but somewhere along the line the system ground them down -- I'm here to stop that happening in my company".

As a manifesto it's a good starting point...

Liam

[Mark Darby]

Hello Darren

Great first post - and look forward to reading the next installment. I'm interested in hearing about how you ended up in Internal Communications - and why you are still in this industry?

It's easy to pick holes in this answer - but when I get asked what I do I often say that if you meet someone from my company in the pub and you asked about where they worked - they'd be able to tell a damn good and honest story. If they do that - then I'm doing my job.

I know I should be going on about creating business value, and measuring employee engagement - but even I glaze over at that point.

[Darren Crozier]

Mark/Tony

Thanks for the words of encouragement and apologies for not responding sooner! Tony - rest assured there is no chance of stopping any football-related passion - too far gone now to ever come back from that all-consuming passion.

Hope that my new blog answers some of the questions about professional associations - hard one to answer to be honest and can only speak from a personal point of view.

Mark - I was actually 'invited' into internal comms by a former manager who saw the work I was doing with HR and the staff magazine. He put me in charge of comms for a major company project - definitely in a the deep end. It was a huge leap of faith from a man that I still indebted to.

I have been fortunate enough to work with some good people over my career who have fuelled the belief in what I do. Hasten to add I have also worked for some awful people. Not sure if it is stubborness or determination, but I have eveb turned down job opportunities that I felt were a move too far awy from internal comms. Time will tell but I just feel that this is the right place for me.

In respone to my elevator pitch, I tend to have about four or five depending on who I speak to. Stakeholder management perhaps?

Look forward to hearing from you both soon

Darren