A conversation with a long-time professional colleague and sometimes client, confirmed the essential link between who we are and how effectively we communicate.  This holds not just for people, but for companies, too.

When my friend became the head of corporate communications for a global, consumer products company two years ago it came after a long stretch of a lot of things being thrown against a lot of walls.  Not much stuck.  The first task was to answer the question: “Who are we?”  When that answer was matched against the insight of real market opportunity, what emerged was a focused plan that began with getting the company’s own house in order.

Consistency has gotten a bad rap in the 150 years or so since Ralph Waldo Emerson noted that “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.”  In the hyperactive, always on communications environment of the current day, consistency — one that aligns with who we are — is all that keeps us from being misunderstood.  In fact, there are elements in each of us and the companies we keep that serve as valuable and distinguishing characteristics.

In the last two years, my friend has helped identify, burnish, connect and project the best of the products, performance and personality of the company.  It has created a strong and successful platform for communications.  The market success of the company offers bottom line proof of the approach.

It may be that rather than be captive to an off-hand comment of a 19th century poet, we might be better served to adhere to the words of a 16th century playwright, William Shakespeare who, in “Hamlet” put it this way: “This above all: to thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou cans’t not be false to any man ”

Pretty good advice for surviving in a communications environment where everyone is a publisher and message control is lost as soon as it is said.