Many times over my career I’ve worked with CEOs and business leaders who are looking to improve their communications functions, and nearly all have asked me the same question – “What should my communications organization look like?”

Buried in their request is the search for the Holy Grail of communications: How many people are required for an effective, even excellent, communications function? Essentially, they want a communications playbook listing roles, the numbers needed to fill those positions, and the experience and skills necessary (code for salary levels) to ensure they get everything their business requires from communications.

I’ve also had business leaders present me with an organization chart of their current communications function and say, “How does this look to you?” Or, an ever trickier (and loaded) question, “If I hired you tomorrow, what would you change about this?” This is often followed by queries such as, “Does this look like too many people? Too few?”

I know what they want to hear in answer to all of these questions: “Well, based on your number of employees, the size of your business, the number of locations, etc., you need one chief communications officer, one head of internal communications, one head of external communications, a media relations person, X number of people in marketing communications, x number in internal communications, x number doing social media, x people doing your website…” and so on and so on and so on.

That’s not my response, however. I can’t give them the answers they want. No one can (or should). “It depends,” I tell them.

Thankfully, my answer almost always opens the door to the discussion I’ve wanted to have all along. When it comes to building a communications function that will help the business succeed, “It depends” not only on what the business leader wants to do (i.e., elements of the strategic business plan), but also on what he or she is willing to do when it comes to truly engaging and working with communications.

Just like any other function in the corporate world (HR, finance, sales, marketing, legal), communications should be an integral part of business strategy discussions right from the start. In many companies, this takes place; communications leaders have a place at the table, and they have the opportunity to hear the critical discussions around marketing and sales strategies, staffing, employee relations, governmental affairs, etc. These discussions provide the insights needed for communications leaders to help craft the work they will do in the weeks and months ahead to support the business. Most importantly, it sets the blueprint for the communications organization that will be required to make it all happen.

In a perfect world (at least for a communications leader), that’s how it’s supposed to work. In our not-so-perfect world, however, challenges emerge – and business leader dissatisfaction with communications surfaces – when the communications function is not a part of the strategy discussions. When that happens, multiple tasks and activities are essentially “thrown over the fence” to the communications team which, lacking any perspective on the rationale of the business decisions made and also unaware of what will happen later, delivers work that is – not surprisingly – unsatisfactory.

That’s when my phone tends to ring and the questions asked about exactly what is needed for an effective communications organization. I try and convey three main points to leaders looking to improve their communications teams:

You will get out of communications exactly what you put into it. Stay engaged with your communications team and take the time to know what it’s doing. When I’ve been consulted about helping a business improve its communications, one of the first questions I ask is, “How much do you know about what your communications team is doing?” Invariably, the answer is something in the vein of, “Not much.” Even absent clear direction, communicators will communicate, and it’s up to business leaders to be aware of what they’re doing and provide regular feedback, even if it’s as simple as, “Do more of this … Do less of that.”

Involve communications early and often. If you want a communications organization that’s in lock step with your business leaders and knowledgeable about your business strategy, then you have to involve it every step of the way. This doesn’t mean you have to spend your entire day with your communicators, but it’s essential to involve them in your key strategy discussions. Yes, some of these sessions can amount to “sausage making,” but they also provide your communications professionals with the needed context and rationale that will allow them to be more effective in their roles.

Communications is not a “one size fits all” tool. It would be great if we lived in a world where people did everything well. We don’t. As companies adjust their strategies and improve how they do business, they must make sure the communications function has the right “horses in the barn” to do what needs to be done. The world of communications changes very quickly, and there‘s simply not time for long learning curves. If a clear need is identified for a mature and powerful social media strategy and your company does not have the talent – hire it immediately! I’ve seen too many organizations try to fill the social media position with an under-utilized team member or, worse, a team member who is fresh out of college. The approach of “let’s let Joe give it a shot” is typically doomed from the start. The great line ex-GE CEO Jack Welch used about “… teams with the best players win” definitely applies. Leaders should constantly push their communications functions to make sure they have the right people, in the right places, doing the right things.

Keep in mind none of these recommendations are easy. Making sure the communications team knows what it needs to know will take more time on the part of the business leader and the leadership team, but it’s time well spent. Putting these recommendations in place also will involve an extra step (at least until this becomes a normal part of your business processes) to ask the question, “Where should communications play in this effort?” Finally, making sure your communications function has the right talent is essential – even though it can be unpleasant when roles change and people have to be replaced.

Improving a communications function, just like any other organization, is a never-ending process. It can always be better, and leaders should insist on having nothing but the best – even if what the best looks like is not easy to determine. I have no doubt that when it comes to the right recipe for an effective communications function, the search for the Holy Grail will continue, and the answer “it depends” will continue to be unpopular … even though it’s right.

They were two great questions. Unfortunately, at the time, I only had one good answer.

It was almost a decade ago, and I was traveling with one of my newest team members to an exhibit hall. Instead of the usual small talk, she was determined to make good use of the time, and decided to pick my brain about how to succeed in corporate communications. As a recent graduate of GE's Communications Leadership Development Program (CLDP), she was, and still is, one of the best and brightest talents in the function. She was looking to get even better.

Her first question was an easy one: “If you had to pick one thing a communicator needs to succeed, what would it be?”

I’m sure my colleagues across the world of communications will have a range of answers but, for me, the slam-dunk answer is self-confidence. I’m not certain if other functions experience this, but in the world of communications, everybody, and by that I mean EVERY BODY – from the janitor to the CEO -- thinks they can do your job. Even worse, they’ll sometimes try to do it!

Over my career I’ve had senior officers enter my office with their own sketched-out version of websites they created “over their lunch hour.” I’ve had engineers e-mail me with what they described as “exciting and compelling” ideas for television ads. I’ve even had executive leaders tell me they could probably do my job if they only had the time.

Easily my favorite meeting was when a highly placed leader told me he could write ads as well as anyone in the company, but he could never find the 15 minutes he’d need to get it done. We were 10 minutes into our scheduled one-hour meeting and I slid my pad across his desk and agreed to surrender the rest of my meeting time to give him that extra time. After three minutes and two lines of copy that he quickly crossed out, he smiled, slid my pad back to me and said, “Point taken.”

The point of all of these stories is not that what I was given was bad (even though most of it was). It’s that communicators live in a world where their skills will sometimes be unappreciated and under-valued. It’s almost never personal, but it requires self-confidence and a good sense of humor (or restraint) to manage through it. The best course of action is to politely listen, take in the ideas, and get on with your day. Thankfully, there will even be occasions where the input I’ve described will spark an approach you’ve never considered. As a communicator, you have to be willing to keep an open mind to all ideas – but have the confidence that you’ll make the right choices to pass or play.

As I noted, my colleague’s first question was easy. The second one – not so much. She asked, “What are three to four things you know now that you wished you knew when you started your communications career?”

Back then, I had trouble answering that question. But nearly a decade later, I’ve come up with the four things I wish I knew when I began my career:

Never stop learning. I’ve worked with and met a number of communications professionals who decided many years ago that they knew all they would ever need to know about working and succeeding in corporate communications. They were wrong. There will always be a new skill to learn or a new tool to use. Take advantage! It’s also essential to keep learning about the business you support. You’ll never service a jet engine personally, but it helps to have some basic understanding of a jet engine if you hope to market it.

Keep building your network. Communicators, no matter what our business, face many of the same challenges. Marketing communications, crisis communications, investor communications, internal communications and other areas have best practices that can be shared easily. In addition to sharing best practices, your network can be an invaluable resource in helping you find talent or even a new role. Most great jobs are never posted, but a broad and connected network of communications and business professionals can help you find them.

Stand your ground…or walk away. Speaking of a new job, there may come a time when, especially as a leader, you’ll have to make a decision to stay or go. The dynamics of a business can change quickly and a number of factors, usually driven by a change in leadership, can quickly change a business’ communications landscape. Even worse, some leaders have the impression that the communications function is a dumping ground for people who have failed in other roles. The end game is that communications teams are sometimes asked to add people who lack the skills to adequately do their job. I’ve seen organizations, too, that give parts of what the communications normally does (i.e. employee communications) to an entirely new function. It happens. Your decision is to decide if you can live with it or not. My view is that when a communications function begin to lose pieces of what they have historically done it becomes a “death by a thousand cuts.” Eventually, the organization does not survive.

Take chances. The beauty of trying new things in communications is that many of them cost very little. If you try some social media campaigns or take a shot at some different ways to promote or drive customer interest at trade shows, it can usually be scaled in a way that will tell you if it’s a go or no go. If it works – do more. If it fails – you’re really not out much. Try something else. Take advantage of this unique element of communications as much as you can. Most other functions in business would kill for this luxury.

Over my career I’ve been fortunate to work for and with some of the best business leaders and communications talent in the world. I’ve also experienced success and failure and learned from both. As I look back on the question I was asked almost ten years ago (the one that I JUST answered!), I suspect the four things I wish I knew then are common to many of my peers.

I’m also sure there are some other great lessons out there. I’d love to hear them!