President’s Column
By Angela Byers, IABC Tulsa President
Hello fellow IABC communicators,
While at IABC International Conference this June, I attended a session called, “Implementing the Global StandardSM of the Communication Profession into the Every Day.” I chose this session out of curiosity, as I wasn’t aware of any standards in our industry. I found the session enlightening, and wanted to share the information with you.
If you are an internal communications professional, and wondered what career track you might follow, you’ll be pleased to know IABC has developed standards in your industry, including Career Paths of the Communication Professional.
Your career path will more than likely fall into one of these 4 areas:
Foundation
This is the entry level of the profession. At this level the communication professional attains the education and develops the core skills required to be competent within all Principles of the Global Standard and to work across disciplines.
Foundational skills are required to do the job and understand the organization’s culture, structure and function.
At this milestone the professional is expected to contribute under relatively close supervision and direction from a more senior person, and is expected to exercise initiative and creativity within a well-defined area. They must master basic and routine communication tasks, and demonstrate competence on a portion of a larger communication project or task.
Generalist/Specialist
At this level the communication professional branches into a role with either a specific or a generalist focus, where work experience provides opportunities for a more strategic and problem-solving approach. The communication professional will apply a deeper understanding and practice of the Principles.
Here, the communication professional begins to refine their career choices. They can be satisfied as a generalist or specialist for a number of years or for a whole career, but expertise and responsibility will continue to grow. Some professionals never need or want to move away from this milestone, thriving on interdependent work. They will build expertise in at least one area of the industry. They will develop credibility and a reputation while building strong internal networks of relationships related on their area of expertise and gain greater ability to develop strategic focus and problem solving techniques.
Strategic Advisor
Maturing as a communication professional though consistent application of the Principles, at this milestone they are expanding expertise and innovation. The communication professional assumes increased responsibilities, including resource management.
They are interdependent, taking responsibility for work other than their own and developing others within the organization. To accommodate their personal development needs, they seek to build additional areas of expertise. They have strong interpersonal skills, broad business perspectives, stimulate others through ideas and knowledge, and effectively represent the organization’s clients and external groups. They have expanded their expertise in niche disciplines and explored innovations within these disciplines. They are highly skilled and confident, providing strategic communication advice and counsel to the organization’s leadership.
Business Leader
The communication professional at this milestone demonstrates the ability to serve at a senior peer level, leads within an organization by providing counsel, and helps to set organizational direction at a strategic level. They set a standard for application of the Principles.
As business leader, they play a key role in shaping the future of the organization by sponsoring promising people, programs and ideas. At this milestone they have developed a distinct competence in several areas of expertise and often have a regional or national reputation. The professional influences the future of the organization though original concepts that often lead to changing the way business is done. They are adept at seeing new business opportunities, motivating buy-in and gaining resources. They competently represent the organization on critical strategic issues, and are sought after to provide counsel and function at a peer level with other senior executives.
There are also The Six Principles of the Communication Profession, including ethics, consistency, context, analysis, strategy, engagement.
These are guidelines that every communications professional can follow, and the career paths are a great roadmap for an employee or hiring manager.
These roles are vital to every organization as you are the voice of your company, and often the voice of your leadership – always guiding in strategy and vision.
I’ll make this reference guide available on our website – download here.
Best to you in your communications career endeavors,
– Angela Byers
IABC Tulsa President
July Meeting
Register TODAY to hear Nicole Burgin detail how Tulsa Community College recovered after an electrical fire last year.
The Night the Lights Went Out in Tulsa (Community College)
On the evening of June 17, 2013, Tulsa Community College’s Metro Campus was evacuated due to a fire in the electrical system that supplies power to its cluster of buildings. Summer classes were underway; smoke permeated its three buildings; the sprinkler system provided the added effect of water damage; and the resulting power outage impacted the college’s campus wide information technology system.
TCC immediately implemented its emergency operations plan and the communications team went into crisis management mode. In the hours, days and weeks that followed, TCC had to share accurate, timely information about the unfolding events with 4,000 students, faculty and staff, as well as the general public.
Join us Wednesday, July 16, as Nicole Burgin provides an inside look at the communications challenges TCC faced and how it managed the process successfully to a re-opening of the campus just five short weeks later. She’ll share lessons learned that she guarantees every communications professional can benefit from – regardless of the industry in which you work.
All About Nicole
Nicole Burgin became the media relations specialist for Tulsa Community College in September 2012 after a 19-year career in broadcast journalism. She handles all media inquiries for the college and works with reporters from local and national media outlets to help tell TCC’s story. Nicole’s received a Grand Award from the Oklahoma College Public Relations Association for news writing and received numerous awards from the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters and Associated Press for her work as a journalist.
Register today!
IABC/Tulsa will not host an August Professional Development meeting but instead we are co-sponsoring Cynthia Cooper, Worldcom whistleblower and CEO of The Cooper Group, along with OK Ethics on Wednesday, August 20. Get the details here.
IABC/Tulsa Now Accepting Credit Cards
You see the stickers everywhere…clothing boutiques, food trucks and other small businesses. Now you will see the same advertisement at IABC/Tulsa meetings because we are now accepting all major credit cards with Square.
Grab your card and scoot out of the door Wednesday for our next Professional Development meeting. This time, you wont have to double and triple check that you have that check from Accounts Payable or the check book you stopped carrying years ago. In fact, never go through that process again! We are making it easier to attend events by using the secure and well-known service.
Register for our September PD meeting (remember, IABC/Tulsa is not hosting an August meeting) with the pay in person option. Liza Mata, IABC VP of finance; JoAnn Bartlett, IABC VP of hospitality; or other board members will be able to accept your card on the spot.
We look forward to seeing you Wednesday!
Embracing Big Data
Few topics have created as much buzz recently as big data.
As a marketing professional, are you confident in your understanding of the communication implications of big data? Have you clearly defined your role in advising clients and executives on how to use data responsibly?
If you haven’t been paying attention, now’s the time—before armies of data analysts, statisticians and software vendors lock the doors to the C-suite boardroom behind them.
In case you have missed the major selling point of big data, to executives it spells big profits. According to a KPMG study last August, almost two-thirds of CFOs and CIOs in the Americas admitted they had changed their business strategy because of big data and analytics. The results were nearly the same in Asia/Pacific
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READ COMMUNICATION WORLD MAGAZINE »
Job Line – Local and International
Looking for local, regional or international career opportunities? Have an open position and looking for a talented professional to fill it?
IABC Tulsa and IABC International both have career listings available.
The IABC Job Center is the definitive career resource for the communication profession, serving job seekers and employers in all industries and communication functions.
In 2002, I was working as a graphic designer in a corporate communications department. It was during that time that WorldCom’s corporate accounting fraud came to light – and I remember it well. As we know, WorldCom was not alone in these illegal accounting practices and several other corporations fell in similar fashion. It was a painful lesson to many companies, their employees and investors. It was also in 2002 that U.S. Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (or SOX), which set public companies and accounting firms on a new path to accountability, transparency and better business ethics.
Joe Williams, IABC Fellow and founder of Joe Williams Communications, has been an IABC Fellow since 2009 and has been given 12 Gold Quill awards. To be named as a Fellow is the highest honor in IABC. The association takes into account the applicants’ career achievements, leadership, authorship and overall contribution to the field of communications. Unlike other IABC annual awards, being named an IABC Fellow is a lifetime title. Joe’s achievements are endless, and he’s all-around a great guy.
John Clemons, ABC, APR, and IABC Fellow has served as the Chair of the International Executive Board. At Walmart, John is responsible for development, implementation and measurement/evaluation of internal communication programs, and strategic communication initiatives for the Walmart Leverage organization. Prior to joining Walmart in 2012, John served as the IABC Interim Executive Director. In 2001, he was the Chairman and Chief Volunteer Officer for IABC’s International Executive Board and in 2012, he was named an IABC Fellow. Besides the Fellows’ Circle of Wisdom, John Clemons will also be on another panel at World Conference with two other Fellows. The topic will be Internal Communications Unplugged; there they will be revisiting some internal communication firm rules. We are lucky to have such an incredible communicator in our chapter.
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