S1 E23 Comms Need PD Too? Yep Sure They Do.

School Leader Soundbites

Welcome to School Leader Soundbites, a podcast dedicated to empowering K-12 leaders with the latest insights and strategies in marketing and communications! Today, we're discussing Comms Need PD Too? Yep Sure They Do.

Why is Professional Development so important for your communications team?

-As lifelong learners and educational institutions, we are always pouring into our teachers and curriculum teams

-Unfortunately, in communications department, the PD is about compliance or changes happening in the system

-It gives us an opportunity to see where we are not investing into team building, creativity, work flows, processes, etc.

There are so many resources out there for professional development

-If you have a communications team, during the summer is the best time to pull your resources together and start building some synergy.

-Sometimes it’s about aligning your messaging and what's happening in your school system

-It is critical for to give the communications team time to build the strategic plan into the work they are doing

-The communications team needs to believe and live inside the strategic plan so they can bring it to life

Professional Development is sometimes one of the first places to get cuts

-Consider what the ROI (return of investment) is for potential professional development

-Sometimes if you can bring teams together and we identify what is in every person’s workloads, we find places where work can be shared

-If your district would benefit from this, look at designing full day workshops for your communications team

-If your team is struggling with communication or synergy, build some time in to investigate what is happening

Use the summer to get your strategic plan in place and in motion

-Look at your blueprint, strategic plans and map out how you are going to get there

-Spend the afternoon doing the work

-When you build a batch time into your communications team, you’re really giving people permission to not duplicate work they would be doing and repurpose content for different platforms

-Photos and websites should be updated

-By Fourth of July, have this mapped out with your team and who will be working on what task and when they are going to do it

If you are a communications leader and you aren’t sure how to get ready for back to school, sit down with the calendar and map it out. Retreats are a fantastic way to do that. If you are needing help with this, please reach out, I’m happy to help. If you want more info, please contact me or drop questions in the comments and be sure to share this episode with your colleagues! If you have any questions or suggestions for future topics, I'm here to listen. Thanks for tuning in to School Leader Soundbites.

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