What are your core communication values?

1 Being empathetic 

A wonderful writing professor I once studied under told our class, "If you can't get into the heads and hearts of your audience, you'll never get published."

Without vicariously experiencing the thoughts and feelings of others, then sharing those thoughts and feelings through the tools we use to communicate, we're doomed to failure. The survivors -- those of you reading these words right now -- understand empathy. And you know empathy can't be shallow. It means constantly getting outside of ourselves. It means having unending sensitivity for people's views and feelings. It means putting a high value on human differences, then demonstrating how your corporation can capitalize on those differences.

2 Being thought leaders

Someone once complimented Mark Twain for his extraordinary writing talent. Twain replied something like this, "I'm not a great writer. I just put a few good thoughts on paper, then surround them with words."

If we emulate Twain, if we think of ourselves as thought-leaders rather than communicators, if we become our organizations' visionaries rather than being messengers of the corporate vision -- we will lift our profession to a new level. Throughout my career, I've been struck by how few thought-leaders and original-thinkers are out there. It's an open field. Why not strive for thought-leader status in your corporation?

3 Being honesty models

Churchill, de Gaulle, Lincoln and Truman were known for their honest and straightforward leadership styles. Few political leaders have learned that lesson well. And, apparently, even fewer corporate leaders have studied their history books. Occasionally, a Jack Welch of GE or a Lee Iacocca (of earlier years) gains a reputation for being a straight shooter. But let's face it. Honesty doesn't run rampant in corporate management circles. Love 'em or hate 'em, the honest leaders -- no matter how tough, no matter how driven -- will usually gain the respect of employees, the business press and, more importantly, customers.

Too often, corporate communicators have compromised their integrity by bending honesty to suit their management's double-talk or no-talk style. Let's face it. How many times can you tell employees that the latest merger or reengineering exercise won't result in job losses? It's a lie, and they know it. Admittedly, your job security is a factor. But if integrity doesn't start with the messenger, it's the messenger who eventually gets shot anyway.

4 Being satisfaction specialists

Satisfying the customer has become supreme. Nothing passes the lips of senior management more than the words "customer satisfaction." And, fortunately, more and more senior managers are including their employees as customers. Hardly a satisfaction survey has been conducted that doesn't show that good communication is one of the highest satisfiers. What is it about communication that's most satisfying? Most employees will tell you there's absolutely nothing more rewarding (except, of course, hard cash) than recognition -- those accolades we all adore.

I recall interviewing a rolling-mill operator in a plastic plant many years ago as part of a "Day on the Job with ..." company magazine feature. After the article appeared in print -- along with a well-sized photo, several engaging quotes and a number of testimonials from the rolling operator's fellow workers -- I received a handwritten letter copied to the company president that went like this:

"That's the first time I've ever had my picture anywhere except in my high school year book. And it's the first time I ever had people in the plant coming up to me as if I was a hero or something. I've got to say it felt great. This is a great company for doing that. Thanks."

For sure, he's never forgotten. For sure, I've never forgotten how he felt -- and how great I felt. And, no doubt, the company president repeated the story to his peers, too. There's plenty of mileage along the recognition road.

5 Being marketers

In a former job, I learned that the only differences between one soap and another were 10-percent smell, five-percent color, five-percent shape and 80-percent marketing. Being communication marketers -- finding the points of difference that give our messages their value -- can be one of our greatest strengths. It just takes some basic, tried-and-tested marketing skills.

Marketing starts with research. If you don't understand the art of surveying, if you haven't discovered the value of focus group interaction and if you don't know how to do a quantitative and qualitative analysis of your research findings, your marketing efforts will fail. If you don't have a good feel for your audience demographics, of what messages/media should be targeted to each unique group, your marketing strategy will fall flat. And if you don'ttake the time to test market your communication products, you may learn too late that despite good research and development, the end result can still be all wrong.

Finally, if you haven't built in a thorough evaluation process -- so you can measure and monitor employee customer satisfaction -- your communication products will die the same slow death as a bad-smelling bar of soap.

6 Being educators

Recently, I interviewed a job candidate who had taught high school English and now wanted to make the switch to communication consultant. Years ago that switch wouldn't have been possible. But today, it makes good sense to think and act like an educator. Companies want coaches, not managers. They want their front-line coaches to be communicators -- whether coaching quality teams, customer satisfaction teams or project teams. Who's qualified to educate the coaches on how to communicate? If you say, "I am," are you conducting the in-house training courses on communication and presentation skills for your managers? Are you expert in facilitation techniques? Are you capable of designing the courses?

Think about who's doing the communication training at your organization. If you aren't, go for it. Because as the work force becomes ever more diverse, the education needs will continue to increase -- everything from investment education to literacy skills training to quality-of-life seminars.

7 Being social engineers

Remember the old employee-employer contract? It went something like this: There's a childish work force out there that needs paternal protection provided by an omnipotent, omniscient and profitable employer.

Of course, that's all changed. With a little empowerment from our parents, we quickly learned how to take control of our own destiny and become fully accountable for our work future. No longer do our employers think about employing us. Instead, they're making us employable -- in line with the new short-term employee contract.

But there's a budding new contract -- one between employers and society that will have a far greater influence on communicators. The two-part social contract reads something like this:

ONE

"Children are our future. Social ills that affect children, such as illiteracy, drugs, violence and family breakdowns, are a detriment to our future work force. Therefore, corporations must do their part (without spending substantial sums of money) by providing on-site workplace services or offering access to outside support services that encourage work/life balance and put a value on human differences."

TWO

"Elders must be financially secure so society (i.e., employers) won't have to bear the burden."

To satisfy the new social contract's objectives, corporations will have to nurture work places that stress sensitivity and service, e.g., child/elder care resource and referral services, alternative work schedules (flextime, telecommuting, compressed work weeks) or work-place conveniences (take-home meals, on-site ATMs, dry cleaning, video rentals, concierge services). These new-age benefits encourage the time flexibility required to live a balanced work and personal life.

As for the financial security of elders, U.S.-based companies have already started to educate their people on how to invest in their 401 (k) savings plans. But as traditional pension and retiree health plans fade away and government pension funding shrinks, corporations will have to take on more accountability for how wisely their employees plan for their financial future -- both inside and outside the company.

Communicators supporting the new social contract will have endless opportunities to market new products, promote new work-place cultures and implement new education programs. But they must also have the willingness to redefine their roles -- from communicator to social engineer.

Perhaps these core communication values can serve as a model for your list. Or maybe you'll develop something totally different. No matter. As long as we each meet the pseudo-communicators' challenge -- so the information superhighway doesn't become a real communicator's roadblock.

Rich Federico is an associate with William Mercer, Inc., Stamford, Conn.