3 Ways to Help Your Busy Communications Director
Written by Katie Test Davis
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Overwhelmed as a solo communications director? Discover how Forthright Advising’s strategic coaching provides nonprofits and school districts with an extra set of hands, data analytics insights, and annual comms planning.
The "Team of One" Challenge: Communications directors at public school districts, foundations and nonprofits often carry the entire workload alone, facing massive 40+ hour weeks without an internal strategic sounding board or editorial partner.
On-Demand Strategic Support: Forthright’s coaching model acts as an external partner and editor, stepping in to review weekly email newsletters, guide big announcements and lighten the daily tactical load.
Data-Driven Digital Strategy: Rather than letting analytics fall by the wayside, Forthright dives into digital communications data alongside clients – teaching them how to interpret numbers to make pivotal shifts, such as optimizing LinkedIn or halting unproductive channels.
Annual Communications Planning: Coaching provides a collaborative framework to build a structured annual communications plan. This plan aligns individual goals, streamlines 1:1 check-ins with executive directors or superintendents and ensures time is spent intentionally to maximize impact for kids and families.
We do a lot of coaching here at Forthright. Partners hire us to be an outside resource, second set of eyes, sounding board and strategic thought partner.
Our average coaching client is a communications director. For the sake of this blog, let’s call her Chloe.
Chloe typically works at a public school district, a foundation or a nonprofit.
She landed in her director role coming from the policy, program or development team. She may only have a few years of direct communications experience, but she’s a natural.
Most of the time, she’s a team of one, and she’s carrying everything communications for her organization.
That’s where we step in as a coach.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes peek at what we normally help out with:
An extra set of hands
Our solo comms director coaching clients? Well, they almost always have jobs that are easily more than 40 hours a week. EASILY.
And so do their colleagues and manager. So there’s often no one around Chloe with the bandwidth, mental space and free time nearby to be a thought partner or eagle-eyed editor. Chloe’s colleagues normally don’t have enough time to give meaningful editing feedback that leads to solid professional growth.
So we hop in and become Chloe’s bestie and go-to gal. Need a second set of eyes real fast on this week’s email newsletter? We’re on it. We’ll make sure it’s spic-and-span. Want to talk through a strategy on next week’s big announcement? We’re ready to listen and guide.
Analytics and improving digital communications
Another thing that our clients often don’t have time for is analyzing data in order to shape strategy. We always say that at Forthright, data is queen. We make the time to dive into your analytics data and suggest new strategies.
As part of coaching, we often pull data, and then walk Chloe through our findings. We make meaning together of what the numbers mean. We teach as we go, and we make sure that Chloe has the skills and knowledge afterwards to do this kind of analysis on her own.
This can result in lots of important shifts.
For one client, it meant stopping Facebook posting altogether, taking a whole heck of a lot off Chloe’s to do list.
For another client, it meant doubling down on their LinkedIn strategy, because there was a lot of untapped potential there.
Because we’re an outsider with lots of experience across our clients (all in your space) and a deep understanding of what your numbers mean, we’re perfectly poised to work with Chloe to tweak, update and improve your digital communications.
Creating your communications plan for the year
You’d be amazed how many of our clients don’t have a communications plan for the year. Look, that’s not a criticism, who has the time? But it’s ever-so-helpful for our coaching clients when we walk them through how to create a communications plan and do it together.
At the end of the process, the plan serves as a basis for their individual goals for the year. The comms plan also creates structure for their 1:1 check-ins with their manager and the executive director. The plan serves as an alignment tool for Chloe on where she’s spending her time, and why.
It also gives Chloe the skills to create a communications plan herself in the future. We take our time at every step, helping her understand why we’re doing what we’re doing.
We also do a whole lot more – from talking through a tough conversation with a boss to acting as a sounding board and providing feedback. We’re in it with Chloe, every step of the way.
If you (or a Chloe on your team!) could use a strategic thought partner to take a load off, let's chat. We’d love to link arms and help you make a bigger impact for kids and families.
About Katie Test Davis
Katie is the Founder of Forthright Advising, a national PR and communications firm dedicated exclusively to organizations that love kids. With over two decades of hands-on experience working in-house at public school districts, national PR agencies, and family-focused nonprofits like ASCD and the Children’s Law Center, Katie has truly done it all. She routinely coaches solo communications directors, helping them navigate annual planning, data analytics and team-of-one burnout. A member of the Forbes Next 1000 and a recognized thought leader featured in Education Week and SmartBrief, Katie combines her deep industry expertise with genuine empathy to give education and nonprofit leaders the strategic partnership they need to drive systemic change.
