“Internal Communications: A Manual for Practitioners” is the guide that authors Liam FitzPatrick and Klavs Valskov say they wished they’d been given at the start of their careers. In this excerpt, they list some of the essential rules of internal communication. Talking to your workforce involves almost every skill set in the communication profession and a few that are unique to employee communication.

Writing, event management, message planning, design and advising leaders have to supplement an understanding of line supervisors and coping with the darker corners of HR.

1. It’s about results and outcomes; not activity. Every conversation in internal communication begins with, “What do we want people to DO?” No matter how exciting it is to deliver a beautiful brochure, leadership conference or intranet site, if nobody works differently, what is the point?

2. It’s about the business. Why should the boss fund the never-ending party that is the internal communication team if there is no impact on the business? When you can show the link back to the business need or the organization’s problems, you can expect the CFO to fall adoringly at your feet (well, sometimes…).

3. Don’t drive with your eyes shut. Communicators are a bridge between two worlds. They have to understand how the workforce thinks so they can explain to leaders why their latest mad idea is going to be hard to communicate. And internal communicators can only do that if they’re always on the move, talking and listening.

4. People have two ears and one mouth—so should organizations. When people are listened to at work, amazing things happen; people are more loyal, work harder and embrace change.

5. Come with data, leave with respect. Senior managers live in a world of facts and spreadsheets so show them data about process and outcomes and present it simply.

6. Line managers matter. When local leaders care about communication, can explain how events and plans affect their people and feel listened to, staff work harder and are more committed.

7. There is no silver bullet. Count the number of emails or web posts you see in a week announcing that all employee communication problems will be solved by XYZ product/service/ tool. It has never been true and never will be!

8. What we do matters. Who actually gets to change things daily at work in small and large ways? That’s pretty cool, isn’t it? But it also behooves us to take our professionalism seriously, to develop our skills and to treat what we do with respect! (Excerpted from cw.iabc.com)