“I really embrace my role of delivering frank and fearless advice. I am a huge believer that communications is a critical business function, not just the place you go to write PowerPoints or factsheets.”
- Nicole Davey is nbn Australia’s executive manager for Media and External Communications. Before lending her talents to the Australian national broadband carrier, Davey also spent filled communications roles in various government and corporate organisations such as the United Nations, NSW Department of Education, Telstra, and icare NSW.
- Davey talks about how the communications job has become a critical business function that involves engaging multiple departments.
- Davey will be speaking at the upcoming Comms and Social Media Summit 2023, where she will be presenting a keynote about Increasing your organisation’s disaster and crisis communications preparedness.
Based on your LinkedIn profile, you’ve spent quite a career in communications for various government and private organisations. Can you tell us how that journey began?
I never thought I’d send up in communications going through school. For some reason om year 12 a careers advisor at school suggested it could be a good fit for me because I really liked media, government and was a decent writer.
Communication is a dynamic field. How different is communication today compared to when you were working in 2007?
So much change. There was no social media when I started out. We literally did press cuttings that we photo copied and there no such thing as publishing your own content.
The biggest change I have seen is the convergence between, communications, marketing, marcomms, social, internal. To do communications really well everything you do really need a full through-the-line approach, gone are the days of the press office sitting off to the side and running its own show.
What does a typical workday as nbn Australia’s executive manager for media and external communications look like?
There is no typical day really, that’s what I like about working in comms. I have a saying, that if your day is not totally shot by 10am you’re having a good day. I do still start every day checking the media though and have usually read everything I need to by 6am.
I have somewhat of a rhythm to my week. It starts with making sure all our plans for our announcements and content for the week is where it needs to be, getting all my reviews done etc. I work with our broader leadership team to make sure that the functions priorities are aligned and looking at our future pipeline and making any adjustments.
I’m brought into a lot of business discussions to bring my perspective and advice. This is one of the things I like most about working at nbn, that we are seen as key strategic advisors into the business. In my role I also hold important media relationships, so I always make sure I spend a portion of my week talking to journos about any number of things.
Can you share one setback that you have encountered in your years as a communicator? How did it influence your work style?
I am sure everyone can relate to the saying “everyone is a comms expert”. I have had some shocking stakeholders over the years that have been just awful to deal with.
For me those experiences have made me really strong rather than question myself, which is also a result of age too, I am sure.
I really embrace my role of delivering frank and fearless advice. I am a huge believer that communications is a critical business function, not just the place you go to write PowerPoints or factsheets.
I have grown in confidence over the years and I lean into tough conversations now and am much more comfortable in uncomfortable moments, none have killed me yet!
Nowadays, it’s easier for the average Australian to carry out typical daily tasks using the internet. How important is ensuring that people have equitable access to high-speed internet?
Connectivity is so important to all of us and will just get more important as times goes on. One of the reasons I came to nbn is because the purpose – to lift the digital capability of Australia – really spoke to me.
I love working on programs that are bringing even better connectivity to people across Australia. Seeing how the network stood up and kept the country functioning over COVID is a huge source of pride for me. It’s really rewarding work.