6 of the Most Annoying Things to Say to a Communications Specialist

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A note to all project managers and team leads everywhere: Communications Specialists are probably your biggest allies when it comes to helping your campaign or business initiative shine. On the positive side, they're usually the happiest people in the boardroom or on the conference call. They'll show up with a peppy voice and a smile - because in general, they love what they do. On the negative side, however, you are fully capable of pissing them off. That's because you work closely with them to ensure your project gets communicated to the masses. So how could the happiest employees in the office get riled up? Enter the top six most annoying things you can say to a #communications (comms) specialist.

Refine - Telling your comms specialist to refine your #content is saying a whole lot of nothing. What exactly does “refine” mean? Shorten? Make it sound more elegant? Make it sound less elegant? Make it more concise?

Solution: Providing your comms team with specific instructions is going to help you get the exact communication you’re looking for. Don’t always assume that they can read your mind.

"I can just write it." - No, you can’t. That’s why you have a #communications team. Writing content in a #corporate environment involves a lot more than putting words on a piece of paper. It involves adhering to internal and external style guides, understanding content flow and having access to an #editorial plan or calendar ensuring that key initiatives don’t overlap.

Solution: Can you write it? No, you can’t.

"What is your recommendation?" - This sounds great on the surface. Unfortunately, this question is most annoying because it generally comes after a recommendation has already been discussed by a #team lead. This leads to a battle of wits and will - and only the strong survive. In this case, the communications employee is usually outnumbered by a panel of subject-matter experts who all agree that their recommendation is best - they just threw the question out there as protocol.

Solution: Take your comms specialist’s recommendations on how to best communicate to your employees, and give them ample time to weigh in. They know what they’re doing.

Push. - Generally related to pushing deadlines or pushing last-minute work on the comms team member, this word has become the bane of the corporate communicator's existence. There is truly pain associated with this word in corporate communications' circles - similar to pushing out a baby or pushing a stalled car. It just doesn't evoke happy thoughts - usually because the push is associated with pushing last-minute work on the communications team or pushing a #deadline, throwing the entire editorial calendar out of alignment.

Solution: Moving #project timelines are a given in the corporate environment. However, if it happens a lot, ask yourself as a team lead whether or not the entire project needs to be put on hold or assessed again in order to get things back on the right track and stick to deadlines. Which brings us to our next most annoying word...

Deadline. - The dreaded “D” word comes up generally when the project team lead has no intention of adhering to it. “We know the deadline is (insert date?) to get back to you with our feedback, but can we push that?”

Solution: With as much as it is in you, try to adhere to the communication team’s deadlines. If that’s just not possible, try to inform the team as early as possible in order to prevent an unnecessary domino effect.

"Can I ask a favor?" - We saved the best for last! This #annoying question usually means last-minute work for the communications team - and last-minute work is not really a communications employee's forte. When you’re working with right-brained, creative people, they need time to marinate in their ideas, to daydream about them, to mull over them in the shower and to finally put them on paper. When you throw last-minute work on your content, #creative or communications #team, this usually results in subpar output. In other words, you won't get the best work. You’ll get a pared down version of an idea that was not awarded the time or space to generate, and this doesn’t make anyone happy. Solution: Favors are only for friends and family. Favors in the workplace are bad news. Let your comms specialist know what you need in a generous amount of time. If you need a last-minute request, try to give as much detail as possible if you want the best results.