I always thought communication skills were a no brainer. Obvious. What’s the big deal?

Then I had the benefit of working with someone who I call “Yoda” who taught me that communications has best practices. So a couple of things he taught me:

1. Communication in companies has changed. It used to be more like a newspaper: you’d report on what happened. Now, communication is more akin to a political campaign headquarters. The information coming in is constant, and you’re continually refining what you communicate out in response to what your voters are telling you.

2. When you develop your key strategic messages, they need to be simple, meaningful, and take into account what you want people to know, think, do and feel. They shouldn’t change significantly year over year. What you choose to emphasize may change.

3. Framing the message is critical….meaning context is key. A memo sent out “we’re closing down stores” feels different than a CEO getting in front of everyone and saying:  “As you all know, our company has had some financial challenges. While we have reduced our expenses where we can, the senior team has decided that we will need to close stores in the Midwest region this year.  We haven’t yet decided which ones. We will communicate to those impacted people as soon as possible, and we appreciate your support while this is going on.”

Be honest about what you know will happen, what may happen, what won’t happen. That way you’re always telling the truth, but you’re not waiting until you know all the facts before communicating. Remember, in the absence of information, people will make up their own version of the truth to fill in the gap. Make sure you involve human resources and legal if the situation needs it. I find HR to be a great group to run ideas by.

4. What you say means nothing if your behavior doesn’t support it. You can’t say you care about people if your behavior suggests the contrary. People look for the symbols that indicate the message is real. So if you say people are important, and then you spend more time in all hands meetings, improving benefits, refurbishing the cafeteria, you will be much more credible.

5. Optics matter. You may not necessarily be doing anything wrong, but the optics don’t work. Remember the three big automakers who asked Congress for billions of dollars? Later it was found out that they flew in on private jets.