Internal communication and staff engagement must surely be at the top of Jeremy Corbyn’s to do list, as he leaves Labour’s national conference in Liverpool today.
Months of resignations, recriminations, rants and rollockings then earlier this week, a wall allegedly punched in frustration … just another day under Jeremy Corbyn’s watch. In what other kind of organisation could a leader face such public displays of discontent and disrespect and yet still have a mandate to lead? But that’s politics!
Although the ‘business’ of Westminster usually feels a million miles away from most everyday organisations, the internal strife within the Labour Party might feel familiar to many business leaders. Is presenting a strong party, much different to presenting a strong business? Maybe not.
If you lead an organisation, whoever you are, whatever you do, you absolutely have to get your house in order before you try and communicate externally. Everything starts with your people and how they articulate what you believe in. Strong leadership and staff engagement is crucial; the best brands get people onboard and on message … good luck with that one Jeremy!
The world is weary of the breed of business or politics that only offer a veneer of authenticity – people are wise to communications without substance and ideas that lack unity.
With an engaged team you can be confident that you are all communicating in a way that benefits the organisation – an audience cannot make a clear assessment of what’s on offer if the messages from within are vast and varied.
This is even more important in politics as individual MPs may have different, even opposing opinions … We can’t expect everybody to have the same views on everything, but publicly we should be able to see the same core party beliefs being articulated.
Mr Corbyn has to find a way to get his team onboard for the Labour Party to stand a hope in hell of being a viable option. Whether it’s about votes or customers, ultimately a motivated and engaged workforce will feel that their opinion counts, contribute to achieving business objectives and be a far greater asset to an organisation.