Now that you have established your presidential priority, how do you communicate about it and about the myriad other issues that arise? I think most freshman presidents will find that communication is a much bigger part of the job than they anticipated. Communication will have multiple objectives, and therefore be multimodal, but it must build your leadership persona and emphasize your priority.
This post will focus on getting one’s message out. The first thing to note about getting one’s message out as a President is that communication is a two-way street; understand the “listening” part of each mode, recognize the opportunity for conversation, and consider means of more specific listening.
As a new president, you may for the firts time be overseeing a Marketing and Communications group. Ideally, this group works closely with you and your Cabinet to determine the key messages, constituencies, and communications. I was particularly fortunate to also have a Director for Executive Communications who worked one-on-one with me; smaller universities may not present that opportunity. Time spent with such people to ensure they understand your message and your voice is a valuable investment. Unsurprisingly, the clarity of your goals and mission with your team impacts the efficacy of it’s delivery. If you’re not equipped with your own marketing and communications team, consider whether you should make this investment. In any event, take a very conscious approach to communication.
Additionally, realize that many others speak on your behalf – from your Vice Presidents through department chairs or directors. Ensure that they have the messages and voice that guarantees effective communication at all levels. In this post, however, we will be focusing specifically on presidential communication and the opportunities most likely to arise.
Public Speaking
- Programmed Occasions: Whatever the occasion, identify 1 to at most 3 objectives you wish to communicate and how best to send that message. Though I am a data guy, I recognize that the most impactful message often involves a more personal narrative. Is there an example of a student whose life was transformed, or a faculty member who modeled the behavior you wish to motivate that can demonstrate the point you wish to make?
- Faculty meetings, Senate meetings, Staff Meetings: Craft specific, but consistent messages for each audience. If you are comfortable with question-answer, these can also provide an element of listening and approachability. As you think about question and answer, be sure you are armed with a few stats and stories that make your main point. If your priority is student success, be sure you know your graduation and retention rates and perhaps those typical of peer universities.
- State of the University Address: If you don’t have one, start it and make it an all-inclusive, open event. Understand that this is a general audience, and the message must be specific and impactful as well as informative.
- Guest speaking: Those Chamber of Commerce luncheons can be a bully pulpit for your message. Think about how the community can engage with the university and help you achieve your goals.
- Specific events (donor recognition, award ceremonies, welcomes, guest appearances): You will be at the podium for many occasions. I always found it useful to have the program schedule and prepared remarks so that I did not forget donor names, achievements, etc. Again, a narrative-perhaps about how the donor embodies something important like student success or community involvement can be a powerful way of illustrating your priority to an important audience. The risk of prepared remarks is that they can be stiff and unproductive, so do be prepared to go off script if you are comfortable.
Media Relations
- Editorial Boards: schedule at least a yearly meeting with each local editor and/or editorial board.
- Interviews: Prepare ahead of time, with talking points and probable questions, especially problematic ones. With this last note in mind, have pivots to use for difficult or unanticipated moments -remember that you don’t have to answer the reporter’s question directly, you can pivot to something else, like…”I think our focus should be on student success, and I’d like to note the 5% improvement in our retention rate…but more importantly the impact that the University’s education had on Ms. Smith, who is now a leader in our community due to her experience.
- OpEds: I only wrote about 10 OpEds during my 5 year presidency, and I think that I should have tried to do them quarterly; start of the semester, before and after legislative sessions, to keep the University positively in the news at local and, ideally, national levels.
Direct Written Communications
- University email, website: Don’t expect that everyone reads emails from the President, but reserve this channel for critical commentary, policy announcements, etc. Make official emails short, informative and, if necessary, refer to more extensive material on the website. You may find yourself commenting on the university’s budget situation or expressing your thoughts on freedom of speech. Craft these messages carefully, recognizing that they will also go beyond the university community. For example, an email that I sent about freedom of speech and responsible communication was widely quoted on 4chan, a rather reactionary blog site. Moral of the story: when writing or speaking on behalf of the university, expect yourself to be taken out of context to best avoid miscommunication. As President of a university, use your title as a gentle reminder to communicate like a politician!
- Blogging: I wrote (with help from my Communications Director) a topical letter published every Friday (Friday Letter) to 60,000 members of the university community-primarily alumni. This is an excellent opportunity to communicate your priorities because it is a more personal, less official update from the president. The frequency of the letter as well as the format of the correspondence allows one to use the power of narrative and example and to show your engagement on campus and awareness of events on campus from football to academic excellence. A weekly post is a lot of work, but well worth the opportunity. Consider inviting guest authors from time to time to lessen the burden. We collected comments on these posts; several of the more informative and controversial posts received up to about 50 responses, that gave a sense of alumni concerns and allowed us to more effectively engage with our audience.
Social media
- Facebook: Lock down your personal Facebook page and share it only with friends and relatives. The University almost certainly has a facebook presence; contributing to that may be easiest and wisest course of action. Your own presidential page will be a good deal of work, and I am not sure it is worth it. I had about 1700 followers on a specific President Chuck Staben page by the end of my presidency. I approved the postings from my media director, but I think they did not have the substance or information of a blog post nor the immediacy of Twitter. Facebook is passe among students, and probably does not build an audience quickly for most presidents.
- Twitter: Increasingly popular-even with the President of the United States! I have always felt that Twitter trivialized policy discussion, but if used primarily to enhance approachability and engagement, I think this may be a good tool. Again, only useful if you commit to it and post several times daily. President Santa Ono at the University of British Columbia is often held up as the best example of a Twitter user as president.
