099: Re-aligning Your Business’ Communications with Phil Kelly - Pro Noctis Group
Are your staff all on the same page about your broader business strategy? How do you communicate this on both an individual and a collective basis? How can alterations to your comms process fructify recruitment?
In this episode of the Insurance Broker Podcast, we’re thrilled to be speaking with Phil Kelly, Managing Director of Pro Noctis Group. In the episode, Phil outlines the crucial importance of retaining ‘alignment’ within your business, by ensuring that your various teams and individuals are always aware of and actively contributing towards your company’s strategy. In conversation with Boston Tullis’ Sarah Myerscough, he emphasises that good communication is crucial to the alignment process, and notes that technology can be beneficial in this regard, but only if a channel suitable for your business is utilised.
Quote of the Episode
“The world's forever changing, and I think the way we embrace and engage our people really does pay dividends, if we can align it to what we're trying to achieve and communicate that effectively. More often than not, I think the people within an organisation are an afterthought, it's more ‘strategy first, and then they'll play catch up’. But actually, the biggest challenge to delivering progress or growth [is engaging staff], as part of the decision-making process.”
An organisation only functions through the work of the individuals within it. For Phil Kelly, it is crucial for the people at all levels of a business to be both well-informed about and involved in its decision-making. If you only treat the employees within your business as functionaries facilitating a broader strategy, they will only perform their roles as such. Alternatively, if you can engage your staff with consistent and encouraging internal messaging, repeatedly emphasising your broader goals, they will be more willing to roll up their sleeves when the business inevitably hits bumps in the road. People derive fulfilment and satisfaction from understanding how their contributions are facilitating the mechanism of the business, and focused messaging in this regard will pay dividends in both productivity and staff retention.
Key Takeaways
This form of engaging staff communication will also help with recruitment, a key issue currently facing the insurance industry. Contrary to common misconceptions about Generation Z, young people want to work, but they also want clarity about the nature of their prospective employers – who are you as an organisation? What are you trying to achieve? By communicating this, you can demonstrate to prospective employees what their goals would be, and the broader strategy they would be contributing to, which are key factors by which young people navigate the recruitment process.
Throughout this episode, Phil repeatedly returns to the term ‘alignment’, to articulate how easy it is for various teams to be functioning on splintered or even contradictory conceptions of their business’ overall strategy. It is essential that at every level of the business, there is a consensus of ‘Who are we as an organisation? What are our goals? How are we going to achieve them?’. Once this clear messaging has been delivered at all levels of the business, it becomes more resilient to the unpredictable impacts of external factors, namely the continuing socioeconomic turbulence we are facing.
The key to achieving and delivering alignment within your business is effective and consistent communication. This must be repeatedly reinforced, by ensuring that every team in the business, and every individual within those teams, is always clear on its overall strategy. To keep your staff engaged with this messaging, creating a warm and friendly environment is crucial. A productive office ecosystem in which everyone is engaged creates to a rewarding and collaborative work experience.
Best Moments/Key Quotes
“As human beings, to get the best out of each other, we need to be a feeling that we are cared about, and we contribute, and we get regular feedback, good, bad and indifferent… If we really want to have that ecosystem of wellbeing and looking after each other, and really having a sort of a movement and working towards a goal, that's the type of effective leadership or management we need and that's not the role, obviously, of the CEO. They’re too far removed, but certainly, they should have an understanding with their senior or executive leadership team of what's going on with them rather than everything being transactional.”
“It fundamentally comes down to, ‘How do we have better conversations and create clarity in our messages?’ because that creates alignment.”
“Who are we as an organisation, as a team, what are we trying to achieve? And how do we go about our business? How do we behave and perform? When you get that aligned, you get congruence, and then when you're communicating those marketing messages, those key sales messages or even in the interviews, you're going to attract the right type of talent, and then all of a sudden, then you're going to have people making the right decision to come with you.”
Resources
Pro-Noctis - https://www.pro-noctis.com/
About the Guest
Phil Kelly is the Managing Director of Pro Noctis, a training and consultancy business which helps organisations to align their strategies and streamline day-to-day decision-making. He was previously a professional footballer, before working for 11 years in the RAF as a trainer and educator.
Phil’s LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/phil-kelly-pro-noctis/
About the Host
Sarah Myerscough is the Sales and Marketing Director of Boston Tullis Group. The founder of The Insurance Brokers Podcast, she brings a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective on communication in the insurance sector. Boston Tullis works with insurance professionals to build effective communication both internally and externally through podcasting, event reporting, videography, and internal communications facilitation.
Website: https://bostontullis.co.uk/
Evaluation Link: https://s.bostontullis.co.uk/s/podcastevaluation
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