Senior executives lack communications skills

Dec 10 2003 by Brian Amble Print This Article

Corporate communications professionals believe that boardroom executives in the UK lack the communications skills needed to put across corporate messages.

A survey of 100 corporate communications professionals carried out by TwoFourTV found that a mere one in ten believe that their organisation’s executives deliver corporate messages effectively while more than eight out of ten believe that the communications skills across the executive team could be improved.

More than half of communications professionals go as far as saying that their executives are simply not good communicators and are in danger of damaging the organisation as a result.

Despite this, two thirds of the respondents believe that executives acknowledge communication with employees as a critical aspect of their jobs, but it is rarely see it as a priority

"There is a growing body of evidence that supports the importance of effective corporate communications, its impact upon brand, employee moral and even share price," says Charles Wace, CEO TwoFourTV.

"With an increasing number of communication mediums, such as email, webconferencing and corporate broadcasting, being used by UK businesses, there is more pressure on executives to communicate in a concise and meaningful way. Our survey shows that there is work to be done by senior spokespeople to bring them up to scratch."

Wayne Drew, CEO of the International Visual Communications Association, added: "The most important communication problems facing businesses today are a multi-site workforce, reputation management and maintaining staff morale, all key subjects that a CEO should be commenting on to their staff.

"At present it seems board members are lacking the confidence and skills enabling them to talk to staff effectively. The growth of visual methods of communicating within the office means companies need to address these issues if they are to conquer the challenges facing them."