Mikulas: Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. today I'm joined by Priya Bates, the president at Inner Strength Communication. Priya, thank you for coming on and telling us your story.
Priya Bates: I'm excited to be here today, Mick.
Mikulas: So tell me, you've spent over seven years at HP Canada and nearly six years at Loblav. today you run inner strength communication. what made you, you know, go on your own and start your own firm?
Priya Bates: I always say that I always dreamed of being a consultant one day. when I was young and learning about the the industry and the profession and hearing people at conferences, the people I really admired were a set of folks who were consulting. They were out speaking at conferences, they were teaching people how to do things correctly, think differently. That was always the pinnacle for me. So there it was always in the back of my mind throughout my career. And I spent over 20 years in-house working in big organizations and corporations. And but it was always something I wanted to do. So I remember when I left Hewlett-Packard, I actually left Hewlett-Packard to go to Lobla on a one-year maternity leave contract, which here you can have maternity leave for one year, somebody had left their job. I was leaving a full-time job to go to this company where it wasn't any guarantees, no benefits, because I thought this is a big employer. Perhaps after the year is over, they'll hire me as a consultant. And that was the plan. Only that didn't happen. I ended up being sucked into the vortex, I say I got hired To lead the internal communications and grow the internal communications department there and ended up being there six years until they finally let me go. I'd been asking for three years so that I could attempt, you know, entrepreneurship. I I always knew it was something I wanted to try. And I was thinking at the time I'm going to be reaching a milestone birthday. I'd like to try consulting. In case it doesn't work out, I'm still young enough to go back. in house if that's what I plan to do. But lucky for me, almost thirteen years later I'm still with inner strength.
Mikulas: Okay, amazing. And so we already kind of touched upon this before recording, but you do a lot of internal communication. So my question to you, Priya, is what what makes internal communication actually move results?
Priya Bates: It I really believe it's kind of the glue. Think about this, Mick. Whenever you go to somebody and say, What went wrong? Whether it you're talking about somebody's marriage or you're talking about what happened in an organization. And one of the top three reasons they will say is we've we didn't communicate well. That happens in organizations. That usually when you find a change didn't happen, you saw employee resistance. People didn't understand what they needed to deliver in order to create that consistency that organizations want. It's usually because we haven't told them about it. It's amazing how many organizations don't even tell people what's going on. We haven't helped them understand why we've made decisions. We haven't helped them create the pride in the organization and the culture, and what does that look like? And we haven't actually told them what success looks like. What do we need them to do in order for the organization to be successful? We connect the dots. And I often say that we connect the dots between values and behaviors, words and actions, strategy and results, and those brand promises that we're making and turn them into employee experiences and customer experiences. It's really connecting the dots.
Mikulas: Hmm. I think this goes to my next question and this is what piqued my interest. on your LinkedIn, you have something on the lines of that leaders shrug their shoulders when employees resist. so what are you know those leaders missing? Why do people really resist?
Priya Bates: I think they're not thinking through communication as a way to actually explain things to employees and support the changes that we want along the way. So many leaders and so many organizations think that the memo that they send out or the town hall they held all will magically translate into the results they they want. And it doesn't work that way. We need to repeat and we need to reinforce. We need to explain. We need to do a lot of things. We need to understand the audiences. We also need to stop sending the same message to everyone. That one size fits all process. A internal communications professional will actually look at who are your audiences? Who needs to know and what do they need to know? What's happening to whom and when. What how do we guide them and so that they're actually delivering what we want them to deliver at the right times in a way that's consistent because when we think about the brands we respect around the world, what we're really respecting is that consistent experience that is representing the brand. And that's experience is being given to you by employees on the ground, whether it's a hospital or whether it's a a product that's being dil created or service, a service expectation. All of those things are, you know, training is one piece of that, but there's a whole communication system that reinforces that information on a regular basis. And we can kind of look at it from an employee lifecycle perspective. How are we making consistent have c communicating consistently along the way so that it's part of a greater journey? versus a one off event.
Mikulas: Hmm. pri Priya, given that you've been in the past working at big large organizations, I need to ask you this. what do you see as the biggest difference in terms of you know working in a big organization on internal communications and then actually stepping in your own line and you know doing the work yourself?
Priya Bates: I think you why I miss, I miss my office. I miss the expense account. I missed a whole team that I could manage and lead throughout a project. I miss the long-term involvement in a project where you see it come to fruition over time, in some cases over years, right? I really love that seeing it from end to end. When you're a consultant, and especially in the work that I do as a consultant, I want the team in-house. To be able to deliver and maintain and sustain a strategy. I'll usually come in to help build. So I say I I'm the builder, not in the maintenance crew. So I'll come in and do your research and help you understand where you are now. I will come in and help create the strategy. And then I'll train your people and train your managers on how to communicate. And it and I may check in when you have another big initiative that you need support on. But I don't necessarily see it play out. I I'll follow up. I really do enjoy following up with my clients, the leaders I work with, the the communication professionals I work with to see how have things improved since we gave you that feedback. But that's the piece that's the biggest difference for me. I de get to work with a variety of organizations and I I get to be part of the beginning and building their direction and and their processes. But I am rarely involved through it from end to end of the program.
Mikulas: I keep looking at the book that you have behind you. t
Priya Bates: Ha
Mikulas: tell me more about what's kind of the main takeaway if someone hasn't read it. what should they take from the book?
Priya Bates: I I wrote a book with Advita Patel, who's a UK-based communication professional. and we wrote a book called Building a Culture of Inclusivity and its effective internal communications for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I think that you know, we've recently done the audio record of the book, and the book is really solid advice, even though things are changing in the world, right? People may not be talking as much about Diversity and equity and inclusion. They don't like the words DEI, but if you're a global company, you still need to be focused on inclusion. You still need to be focused on diversity. One of the biggest lessons that I like from the book is that all organizations really need to understand what we call their DEI why. Why is it important that they're focused on inclusion and diversity and equity? And we talk about a few things. Yes, most people get involved into in DEI because of rights. It's human rights, it's legal. you want to make sure you don't get caught doing something you shouldn't. And so many crises are caused by something that's connected to a DEI issue. you need to think about a representation. Who are the people on your front lines, your colleagues? Who are your customers? What do they look like and act like? and who are the community or in the communities where you operate. When you look at those numbers, if your organization and the leaders and the people making decisions are not representative of those communities, you really will struggle with making the right decisions that will land with those audiences. So so it's it's those really thinking, taking a business lens to why some of this stuff is r important that you want to ensure that there is. equal representation because you simply want equal perspectives for the audience that you eventually want to enable and impact.
Mikulas: You also co-founded a leader like me, so tell me about it. What what was the idea behind it?
Priya Bates: A leader like me was really about again looking at those who were struggling in organizations where they weren't seeing themselves, you know, reflected in leadership and helping them with their mindsets in terms of what do they need to do differently, what do they need to understand in order to deliver what leader get to that leadership table. Right. So it was really it's been really great for us. with the cohorts that started with a leader like me to see the change in their lives. That see so many of this quite a few of them become leaders themselves when it was just aspirational. Not everyone, not 100%. Because I think you at a certain point you need to really understand what you need to change the way you do things. And I'll I say that with internal communication in general, that we have a lot of internal communication professionals Talking about the fact that we don't get any respect, we don't get a seat at the table, we don't get included on conversations until people want us to deliver something versus make decisions on what we should be delivering to be most effective. In most of those cases, people will will talk to them about what they need to change, but then they argue about why they need to do things the same. And I I always like the Einstein quote that the definition of insanity. is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I really want to encourage people to learn what it takes to to be a leader, but I need them to do things differently as well.
Mikulas: Hm. How do you look at AI in the context of internal communication?
Priya Bates: I am absolutely fascinated with AI. I'm I'm playing with it as I have, having you know, kind of grown up in the technology, in technology companies who were, you know, HP was invent, you always got a little bit of a sneak preview of what was coming. And I love playing with the new tools, whether it was when at the dawn of internet, and I'm just aging myself here, the you know, the dawn of Personal computing, the dawn of social media, and now the dawn of like, you know, now seeing AI come to fruition. I think that using AI correctly can really enhance your ability to deliver things. A lot of, you know, commun internal communication folks complain about not having enough time because they spend so much time on the tactics that they don't have time for strategy. How about we now allow the tactics to be delivered more efficiently and effectively so that we can actually work on the strategy that's going to make a bigger difference. So I think it's really done right. If all you are as an internal communication professional is a tactical deliverer of information, you may struggle with AI taking your job. But if what you are is the strategist who understands how to connect people with the plans. And AI is actually helping you get there so you can spend more time on the relationships that you're building with leaders, on the advice and advice you're giving executives, because the other stuff happens a lot faster, or we've created agents or systems to make that happen. I think that human plus AI could be pretty powerful. And we've seen examples of that happening.
Mikulas: Yeah, I've seen examples from my side also where it really makes the difference because you know the the the smaller the company I think the the less limited resources you have in terms of time. So you have to choose wisely on what you spend your time on. And so
Priya Bates: Exactly.
Mikulas: as you said, it's it's about building those relationships and doing what AI cannot do and having AI do what you know the repet repetitive tasks and those sort of things.
Priya Bates: Exactly.
Mikulas: tell me what what's next for inner strength in terms of your your goals in the next I don't know I don't want to give a long timeline but let's just say one one a year because everything is changing so fast
Priya Bates: For for me, it's really helping internal communication professionals and managers even really build the things that are beyond the implementation. I I talk about my I5 framework and communication folks are really good at sending the message, creating the message, creating the down town halls, you know, doing the stuff. But I want them to focus on it I have this I five put framework. So it's I want them instead of implementation. actually start thinking about interaction, relationship, and listening. I want them to think about integration, connecting the dots. I want them to think about influence, how they they really influence others and how they communicate. Because our power is not in communicating on behalf of the organizations. It's influencing how our leaders and employees communicate. Right? So all of a sudden it's amplifying that message and creating that consistency. And finally I want them to really think about impact. What is the business outcome and and organizational impact that we want to deliver so it's real? It's not this nice to have check the box that, you know, we're sending out stuff that we don't know if it matters. Right. So I want really people to focus in on what they can add and be more strategic. So I think I'd like to see people level up and I'd like to be part of helping them level up.
Mikulas: Amazing. Okay Priya, so if people would like to continue the conversation, what's the best place?
Priya Bates: Really it's a l you can find me on LinkedIn. If you follow me on LinkedIn, I post things regularly. I also have a website called Inner Strength Communication. You can find me there. And there are, you know, links to Calendly to connect to talk about some opportunities and any place I can
Mikulas: Amazing. So I also found you on LinkedIn. So I will leave links down below and thank you for coming on.
Priya Bates: Thanks so much. It was nice talking to you, Mick.
Priya Bates: I'm excited to be here today, Mick.
Mikulas: So tell me, you've spent over seven years at HP Canada and nearly six years at Loblav. today you run inner strength communication. what made you, you know, go on your own and start your own firm?
Priya Bates: I always say that I always dreamed of being a consultant one day. when I was young and learning about the the industry and the profession and hearing people at conferences, the people I really admired were a set of folks who were consulting. They were out speaking at conferences, they were teaching people how to do things correctly, think differently. That was always the pinnacle for me. So there it was always in the back of my mind throughout my career. And I spent over 20 years in-house working in big organizations and corporations. And but it was always something I wanted to do. So I remember when I left Hewlett-Packard, I actually left Hewlett-Packard to go to Lobla on a one-year maternity leave contract, which here you can have maternity leave for one year, somebody had left their job. I was leaving a full-time job to go to this company where it wasn't any guarantees, no benefits, because I thought this is a big employer. Perhaps after the year is over, they'll hire me as a consultant. And that was the plan. Only that didn't happen. I ended up being sucked into the vortex, I say I got hired To lead the internal communications and grow the internal communications department there and ended up being there six years until they finally let me go. I'd been asking for three years so that I could attempt, you know, entrepreneurship. I I always knew it was something I wanted to try. And I was thinking at the time I'm going to be reaching a milestone birthday. I'd like to try consulting. In case it doesn't work out, I'm still young enough to go back. in house if that's what I plan to do. But lucky for me, almost thirteen years later I'm still with inner strength.
Mikulas: Okay, amazing. And so we already kind of touched upon this before recording, but you do a lot of internal communication. So my question to you, Priya, is what what makes internal communication actually move results?
Priya Bates: It I really believe it's kind of the glue. Think about this, Mick. Whenever you go to somebody and say, What went wrong? Whether it you're talking about somebody's marriage or you're talking about what happened in an organization. And one of the top three reasons they will say is we've we didn't communicate well. That happens in organizations. That usually when you find a change didn't happen, you saw employee resistance. People didn't understand what they needed to deliver in order to create that consistency that organizations want. It's usually because we haven't told them about it. It's amazing how many organizations don't even tell people what's going on. We haven't helped them understand why we've made decisions. We haven't helped them create the pride in the organization and the culture, and what does that look like? And we haven't actually told them what success looks like. What do we need them to do in order for the organization to be successful? We connect the dots. And I often say that we connect the dots between values and behaviors, words and actions, strategy and results, and those brand promises that we're making and turn them into employee experiences and customer experiences. It's really connecting the dots.
Mikulas: Hmm. I think this goes to my next question and this is what piqued my interest. on your LinkedIn, you have something on the lines of that leaders shrug their shoulders when employees resist. so what are you know those leaders missing? Why do people really resist?
Priya Bates: I think they're not thinking through communication as a way to actually explain things to employees and support the changes that we want along the way. So many leaders and so many organizations think that the memo that they send out or the town hall they held all will magically translate into the results they they want. And it doesn't work that way. We need to repeat and we need to reinforce. We need to explain. We need to do a lot of things. We need to understand the audiences. We also need to stop sending the same message to everyone. That one size fits all process. A internal communications professional will actually look at who are your audiences? Who needs to know and what do they need to know? What's happening to whom and when. What how do we guide them and so that they're actually delivering what we want them to deliver at the right times in a way that's consistent because when we think about the brands we respect around the world, what we're really respecting is that consistent experience that is representing the brand. And that's experience is being given to you by employees on the ground, whether it's a hospital or whether it's a a product that's being dil created or service, a service expectation. All of those things are, you know, training is one piece of that, but there's a whole communication system that reinforces that information on a regular basis. And we can kind of look at it from an employee lifecycle perspective. How are we making consistent have c communicating consistently along the way so that it's part of a greater journey? versus a one off event.
Mikulas: Hmm. pri Priya, given that you've been in the past working at big large organizations, I need to ask you this. what do you see as the biggest difference in terms of you know working in a big organization on internal communications and then actually stepping in your own line and you know doing the work yourself?
Priya Bates: I think you why I miss, I miss my office. I miss the expense account. I missed a whole team that I could manage and lead throughout a project. I miss the long-term involvement in a project where you see it come to fruition over time, in some cases over years, right? I really love that seeing it from end to end. When you're a consultant, and especially in the work that I do as a consultant, I want the team in-house. To be able to deliver and maintain and sustain a strategy. I'll usually come in to help build. So I say I I'm the builder, not in the maintenance crew. So I'll come in and do your research and help you understand where you are now. I will come in and help create the strategy. And then I'll train your people and train your managers on how to communicate. And it and I may check in when you have another big initiative that you need support on. But I don't necessarily see it play out. I I'll follow up. I really do enjoy following up with my clients, the leaders I work with, the the communication professionals I work with to see how have things improved since we gave you that feedback. But that's the piece that's the biggest difference for me. I de get to work with a variety of organizations and I I get to be part of the beginning and building their direction and and their processes. But I am rarely involved through it from end to end of the program.
Mikulas: I keep looking at the book that you have behind you. t
Priya Bates: Ha
Mikulas: tell me more about what's kind of the main takeaway if someone hasn't read it. what should they take from the book?
Priya Bates: I I wrote a book with Advita Patel, who's a UK-based communication professional. and we wrote a book called Building a Culture of Inclusivity and its effective internal communications for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I think that you know, we've recently done the audio record of the book, and the book is really solid advice, even though things are changing in the world, right? People may not be talking as much about Diversity and equity and inclusion. They don't like the words DEI, but if you're a global company, you still need to be focused on inclusion. You still need to be focused on diversity. One of the biggest lessons that I like from the book is that all organizations really need to understand what we call their DEI why. Why is it important that they're focused on inclusion and diversity and equity? And we talk about a few things. Yes, most people get involved into in DEI because of rights. It's human rights, it's legal. you want to make sure you don't get caught doing something you shouldn't. And so many crises are caused by something that's connected to a DEI issue. you need to think about a representation. Who are the people on your front lines, your colleagues? Who are your customers? What do they look like and act like? and who are the community or in the communities where you operate. When you look at those numbers, if your organization and the leaders and the people making decisions are not representative of those communities, you really will struggle with making the right decisions that will land with those audiences. So so it's it's those really thinking, taking a business lens to why some of this stuff is r important that you want to ensure that there is. equal representation because you simply want equal perspectives for the audience that you eventually want to enable and impact.
Mikulas: You also co-founded a leader like me, so tell me about it. What what was the idea behind it?
Priya Bates: A leader like me was really about again looking at those who were struggling in organizations where they weren't seeing themselves, you know, reflected in leadership and helping them with their mindsets in terms of what do they need to do differently, what do they need to understand in order to deliver what leader get to that leadership table. Right. So it was really it's been really great for us. with the cohorts that started with a leader like me to see the change in their lives. That see so many of this quite a few of them become leaders themselves when it was just aspirational. Not everyone, not 100%. Because I think you at a certain point you need to really understand what you need to change the way you do things. And I'll I say that with internal communication in general, that we have a lot of internal communication professionals Talking about the fact that we don't get any respect, we don't get a seat at the table, we don't get included on conversations until people want us to deliver something versus make decisions on what we should be delivering to be most effective. In most of those cases, people will will talk to them about what they need to change, but then they argue about why they need to do things the same. And I I always like the Einstein quote that the definition of insanity. is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. I really want to encourage people to learn what it takes to to be a leader, but I need them to do things differently as well.
Mikulas: Hm. How do you look at AI in the context of internal communication?
Priya Bates: I am absolutely fascinated with AI. I'm I'm playing with it as I have, having you know, kind of grown up in the technology, in technology companies who were, you know, HP was invent, you always got a little bit of a sneak preview of what was coming. And I love playing with the new tools, whether it was when at the dawn of internet, and I'm just aging myself here, the you know, the dawn of Personal computing, the dawn of social media, and now the dawn of like, you know, now seeing AI come to fruition. I think that using AI correctly can really enhance your ability to deliver things. A lot of, you know, commun internal communication folks complain about not having enough time because they spend so much time on the tactics that they don't have time for strategy. How about we now allow the tactics to be delivered more efficiently and effectively so that we can actually work on the strategy that's going to make a bigger difference. So I think it's really done right. If all you are as an internal communication professional is a tactical deliverer of information, you may struggle with AI taking your job. But if what you are is the strategist who understands how to connect people with the plans. And AI is actually helping you get there so you can spend more time on the relationships that you're building with leaders, on the advice and advice you're giving executives, because the other stuff happens a lot faster, or we've created agents or systems to make that happen. I think that human plus AI could be pretty powerful. And we've seen examples of that happening.
Mikulas: Yeah, I've seen examples from my side also where it really makes the difference because you know the the the smaller the company I think the the less limited resources you have in terms of time. So you have to choose wisely on what you spend your time on. And so
Priya Bates: Exactly.
Mikulas: as you said, it's it's about building those relationships and doing what AI cannot do and having AI do what you know the repet repetitive tasks and those sort of things.
Priya Bates: Exactly.
Mikulas: tell me what what's next for inner strength in terms of your your goals in the next I don't know I don't want to give a long timeline but let's just say one one a year because everything is changing so fast
Priya Bates: For for me, it's really helping internal communication professionals and managers even really build the things that are beyond the implementation. I I talk about my I5 framework and communication folks are really good at sending the message, creating the message, creating the down town halls, you know, doing the stuff. But I want them to focus on it I have this I five put framework. So it's I want them instead of implementation. actually start thinking about interaction, relationship, and listening. I want them to think about integration, connecting the dots. I want them to think about influence, how they they really influence others and how they communicate. Because our power is not in communicating on behalf of the organizations. It's influencing how our leaders and employees communicate. Right? So all of a sudden it's amplifying that message and creating that consistency. And finally I want them to really think about impact. What is the business outcome and and organizational impact that we want to deliver so it's real? It's not this nice to have check the box that, you know, we're sending out stuff that we don't know if it matters. Right. So I want really people to focus in on what they can add and be more strategic. So I think I'd like to see people level up and I'd like to be part of helping them level up.
Mikulas: Amazing. Okay Priya, so if people would like to continue the conversation, what's the best place?
Priya Bates: Really it's a l you can find me on LinkedIn. If you follow me on LinkedIn, I post things regularly. I also have a website called Inner Strength Communication. You can find me there. And there are, you know, links to Calendly to connect to talk about some opportunities and any place I can
Mikulas: Amazing. So I also found you on LinkedIn. So I will leave links down below and thank you for coming on.
Priya Bates: Thanks so much. It was nice talking to you, Mick.
