Improving your communications ‘Spidey sense’ 

Every communicator has been there: A request comes across your desk. Your department has been asked to roll out an initiative or deliver a message to employees, but it just doesn’t feel right.

Kristin Hoose, senior director of external constituent communications for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, calls this the communicator’s “Spidey sense” — that hair-raising awareness of potential pitfalls akin to Spider-Man’s superpowers.

Ad this year’s Employee Communications and Culture Conference, Hoose sat down with Ragan’s director of learning and council content, Mike Prokopeak, to explain how this additional sense works, how to improve it and how to ensure you’re informed when the alarm bells start to go off.

“If you come into this world of communications, you really immerse yourself into what’s happening socially around you, and if you’re not doing that, do it,” Hoose said.

Start by ensuring you’re clear on who your employee base is — as well as clients and customers, if your role involves communication with both — and their motivations and mindsets. Consider what they’re worried about and sensitive to, their stressors and motivators, and what they want from your organization and leadership.