What I Learned Managing a Communications Team
Managing a communications team taught me that being good at communications and being good at leading communicators are two very different skills. When you’re responsible for brand, digital, social, design, content, media, and everything else that inevitably finds its way to communications, there’s always more work than time, and managing the team can’t simply be about getting everything done it is also about helping your team to understand what matters most, why it matters and where they can make the greatest contribution.
Communications teams are magnets for requests. Can you post this? Please send this email. Can you design a flyer? Can you update the website? Can you make this look better? Everything can feel urgent, especially to the person asking, and clear priorities matter more than a long to-do list. Connecting our work to larger organizational goals and being willing to ask: What happens if we don't do this? And sometimes the answer tells you exactly where something belongs on the priority list.
One of my responsibilities as a leader was helping the team separate what was truly important from what was next on the list and giving people ownership, not just assignments, is the difference between simply telling someone what to do and giving them responsibility for an outcome.
I learned that giving people context: what we were trying to accomplish, who we needed to reach, what success looked like, and where their work fit into the larger strategy empowered them to do better work because they understood the goal and had some freedom in how to accomplish it. That doesn’t mean removing oversight. It means resisting the urge to micromanage every detail and allowing my team agency and trust to get the job done to the best of their ability.
Sometimes you have to be a buffer and protect your team from unnecessary noise. That can mean pushing back on unrealistic deadlines, asking for clearer briefs, negotiating priorities, or simply saying, “We can't do all three by Friday. Which one matters most?” Not every request needs to become your team's emergency, and the art of managing communications is managing expectations across the organization in order to protect the quality of the work and the people responsible for producing it.
Giving feedback should make the work better, not make it become yours. When you’ve spent years writing, editing, and developing communications yourself, it can be tempting to rewrite someone’s work until it sounds exactly like you, but that doesn’t necessarily make you a good manager. I learned to ask myself: Is this change necessary, or is it just how I would have done it? Having the discipline to decipher one from the other and choosing to give feedback instead of taking over the project can strengthen that person’s work and help them grow in the process.
It is crucial to build systems before you need them! Editorial calendars. Project trackers. Creative briefs. Approval processes. Brand guidelines. Shared asset libraries. None of these things are particularly exciting, but you realize how nearly impossible it is to work without them. Simple systems reduce unnecessary meetings, missed deadlines, duplicated work, and the inevitable “Who approved this?” conversation. They also give teams more time for the work that actually requires creativity and strategic thinking.
Make sure your team understands the “why”. Why does enrollment matter right now? What does this fundraising campaign make possible? Why is leadership concerned about this issue? What does our audience need from us? When people understand the why, they make better decisions without needing constant direction. Managing a communications team wasn't about having every idea, writing every headline or making every decision, it was to create the conditions for good work to happen and that changed how I thought about leadership.
Leading a strong communications team is a combination of setting clear priorities, building useful systems, providing context, and knowing when to get out of the way. Doing these things protects your team’s time and energy while showing that you trust their expertise and judgment. The strongest communications teams aren’t built around one person who can do everything. They’re built around people who understand what they’re responsible for, know how their work contributes to the bigger picture, and are given the runway to soar!
