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LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING
CHAPTER 4
and what will happen as a result of their actions. Steve Jobs lets people
at Apple know why they should care about their work and gets them
excited about the difference they are making in the world of design and
technology.
Drive results. Achieve what the organization is supposed to do: Make

great products, deliver terrific service, improve people’s lives, and so 47
on. Jack Welch was a master at pushing the organization to achieve its
stated goals, and he used his communications to prioritize the impor-
tance of making the numbers.
The other part of the leadership communications equation is giving peo-
ple reasons to want to embrace the strategy. You develop your messages as rea-
sons for people to support the strategy. Keep in mind that there is a natural
overlap between purpose (as described in Chapter 1) and strategy; in some
cases they are one and the same. Strategies and supporting messages echo one
another to support organizational goals.
FOUR LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
Just as individuals use different forms of communications—words, gestures,
signals of attentiveness—organizations use various communication channels.
Typically an organization utilizes four types of communications, or channels
(see Figure 4-1). While it may be advantageous to use all four channels to
communicate a single initiative, it is often feasible to select a single channel
for a particular message.

Organizational communications refers to the ways in which individu-
als, teams, and the entire organization communicate one to one, group
to group, or organizationwide. There are no hard and fast rules about
what is and what is not “organizational communications,” but think of
it this way: It is the way messages are disseminated throughout an orga-
nization.
Organizational communications can be as simple as a single email,
or as complex as a media campaign regarding transformation. No single
entity has ownership of organizational communications; it belongs to
everyone. Why? Because communicating with others is each person’s
responsibility.

Editorial communications refers to messages designed to elicit
endorsement from a third party, typically the media and by extension
the public at large. Public relations departments send out media
releases to describe what is going on inside an organization; these
releases may cover new products and services or discuss internal