Picture this.
It’s Monday morning and a business school communications manager is on their way to work. Sitting on the train, they pull their phone out of their bag and open their email.
The first message is from the Dean. He’s asking them to prepare a report for Friday’s SLT meeting about how the school is showing up in AI search.
Next up, a journalist is looking for a quote from a professor on a breaking news story about trade tariffs. The deadline is lunchtime.
There’s a follow-up message from the Head of Programmes about the launch of a new specialist Masters. Did they manage to secure the journalist moderator they discussed?
And there’s a reminder that they are due to attend a conference on Wednesday. Please can they organise a photographer and would it be possible to have some last-minute social media posts on the school’s main LinkedIn please?
Sound familiar?
Overloaded and under supported
Unfortunately, this story is not an unusual one.
This summer we released the third edition of Knowing Me Knowing You – research with EFMD and CarringtonCrisp into the challenges faced by marketing and communications professionals in business schools.
The results painted a picture of marcoms departments being vastly under-resourced – with insufficient budget being cited as the number one challenge.
Conflicting institutional priorities emerged as the second biggest issue for marcoms teams. It suggests that misalignment between internal teams and marcoms has deepened – with the result that marcoms teams feel pulled in different directions by competing internal agendas.
Insufficient staffing took the third spot – a rise on the previous 2024 report. This continued rise points to a structural under-resourcing of marcoms departments. They are being asked to do more with less and still demonstrate impact.
When your head is in a spin
Budget and staff constraints, contradicted by multiple internal demands, means that focusing on what makes the biggest impact is more important than ever.
But when your inbox is overflowing, how do you decide what’s most important?
Here are 6 suggestions.
1) Focus on impact
Start with your school’s objectives, not what is in the calendar.
Agree a few priorities with leadership for a defined period.
Examples could include:
- Demonstrating your strengths in a certain topic e.g. AI or sustainability.
- Attracting more leads from potential MBA students.
- Launching a particular initiative e.g. a start-up incubator.
Think about how these objectives can be specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART).
Include a call to action – what do you want your audiences to think, feel or do because of this campaign?
So, for instance:
- Deliver two op-ed opportunities in international business press on the topic of AI in the next quarter with messaging about our next AI summit and how people can join.
2) Be choosy about your media outreach
When you are struggling for time, it can feel like a tall order to constantly engage with the press.
If this is going to be a problem, revisit your media list to focus on the outlets that are most influential for the goals you are trying to achieve.
You might find that this list is shorter than you are used to, but don’t panic. This is about achieving outcomes, not boosting vanity metrics.
3) Be proactive about managing expectations
Visibility and communication internally are key.
When people know what to expect from you, they are more likely to understand what you are trying to achieve, the activities you are likely to support – and which need to take a backseat.
Knowing what you have on your plate will enable you to be transparent with both peers and colleagues (including your boss).
Keep them updated on the progress of projects so that they understand the wider picture. And be clear about trade-offs. Your time is finite, so people need to understand that if you choose their project, something else needs to fall lower down the priority list.
Not everyone needs the same amount of time or detail. It’s fine to say, “you will get a response on Monday”, rather than feeling like you need to respond to every request as it comes in.
Lastly, don’t assign blame. Whether it’s the Dean, journalists, Heads of Programmes or your own team…all of them have their own legitimate objectives for making a request.
4) Say no in a positive way
That’s all very well, you might be thinking, but how do I say no to people without upsetting them – particularly if the request is face-to-face?
If someone is hovering over your desk expecting an immediate decision, it’s a good strategy to deliberately put a small delay in. You could explain to them that you need to look at your diary, or that you need to decide whether you have the capacity to give their project the attention it deserves. Give them your answer later when you are clear.
Another useful tactic can be to bat the choice back to them. For example:
“We can bring this forward, but it would mean postponing the research campaign agreed for this month. What shall we do first?”
Or a half-way house would be to give people low-level support now but push any extra research back to them. For example:
“We can support this with a targeted announcement now. For wider media outreach, we would need more supporting data.”
Finally, you can always say no but push people to other resources or sources of help.
Try to avoid apologising excessively or overexplaining.
5) Assess requests consistently
For a potential media story to work for your school, it must hit three buttons:
- It needs to be strategically important for the school.
- It must be newsworthy.
- It must be relevant for your target audience.
On top of these, it’s also important to consider resources and significant deadlines. Does the time and energy needed for this project justify the potential outcomes?
It’s also a good idea to design some flexibility into your agenda. This means you can still respond to genuinely relevant news opportunities or emerging reputational issues.
6) Keep reviewing
When it comes to reviewing activity and reporting to leadership, it’s better to measure impact than activity.
Keep in the back of your mind that especially in media relations, there will always be things out of your control. An example would be a massive news story that knocks everything else off the front page.
Here are some useful questions to act as a basis for regular reviews:
- Which activities supported our agreed objectives?
- What audience responses or other measurement shows progress?
- Which requests used substantial effort without a clear purpose or return?
- What should continue, change or stop?
A shared responsibility
When everything seems to be a priority, it’s important to make choices clear for everyone. Having a shared understanding of what you are trying to achieve, the outcomes you want and the impact you want to make, backed by leadership, will go a long way.
Summary
- Start with your school’s goals. Agree a few clear communications priorities with leadership, so you can focus on what matters most rather than the request that arrives first.
- Be selective about media outreach. Focus on the outlets and opportunities most likely to reach your target audiences and support your objectives.
- Make the trade-offs clear. Keep colleagues informed about your workload and explain what taking on a new request would mean for existing commitments.
- Use a consistent checklist. Assess requests against strategic importance, newsworthiness, audience relevance and the resources needed. Leave room for urgent opportunities.
- Measure impact not activity. Lead regular reviews with leadership to agree what should continue, change or stop.
