The value of being honest in internal communications

Honesty is certainly the best policy when communicating within your company

Public relations is all about honesty. If you’re honest, you can build customer trust and accurately tell a company’s story. However, lying can destroy a reputation in an instant. A lie might sound good at first, but it can come back to ruin your public relations regardless of when the lie is discovered.

However, honesty isn’t just important when doing public relations; it’s also important for your internal communications as well.

Honesty in internal communications can be several things, such as:

• Having a difficult conversation about something happening
•  Telling someone you’re overburdened
•  Giving someone honest feedback

A PR firm or division that’s internally honest creates a culture of honesty that extends to their work. If you’re not being honest within your own firm or division, then you’re not demonstrating the honesty needed for public relations to succeed.

Honesty isn’t just for helping maintain a culture of honesty in your work; it can also clarify. In public relations, you need to be clear with your communications, so by being honest internally, you’re telling others that being clear in their communications is vital to success. A company that’s filled with half-truths and lies in internal communications is unlikely to put clarity as one of the core values in their public relations efforts.

Even if you’re doing public relations by yourself, such as a small business or a one-person company, you can still stay honest in your internal communications. Whether it’s communicating with a co-worker who doesn’t know anything about PR or a local company that’s interested in selling your products, you can still be honest in your internal communications and foster a culture of honesty that’s reflected in your public relations work.

Being honest can also create an appreciation for your co-workers. Think about it: if someone tells you your shoes are untied or one of your blinkers is not working, you’re embarrassed, but you appreciate someone telling you instead of being unaware.

Without honesty in internal communications, you’re setting a bad example for the work you do in public relations. Honest internal communications creates a culture where your firm or division's work is honest and establishes a culture in which clarity is important. If you’re not being honest in your internal communications and public relations, it’s time to find a different career.

Clients love Jacob’s speed. Jacob is an inbound marketing-certified webmaster. He earned an integrated communications degree from Florida State College at Jacksonville. Jacob joined Axia PR as an intern in August 2015 and earned his way into a critical role at our PR agency.