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Our featured leader for today is Matt Macklin, who just started as the Director of Communications and Media at the Swinburne University of Technology.
Matt is a senior communications and public affairs leader. He is a forward-thinking leader, with extensive experience in how to best frame and deliver a message, providing authoritative and expert strategic advice to C-Suite executives and complex public sector organisations.
Matt was previously the Head of Media and Public Affairs at the Victorian Building Authority, where he was responsible for the strategic direction and management of the media, government relations, public affairs, stakeholder engagement, internal and external communications, brand, events, marketing and advertising, campaigns and digital.
Read on as Matt talks about the lessons he has learned and the values he upholds as a communications professional.
I’m thrilled by the opportunity to join Swinburne and to work with a dedicated team of media and communications professionals, passionate about education.
Together, I want to establish Swinburne as the go-to university for journalists seeking expert commentary. I want to showcase our unrivalled collaborations with industry to a wider audience and I want to hero Swinburne’s mantra of being the prototype of a new and different university.
Swinburne’s staff are leaders in their respective fields and its students are accomplishing incredible things and changing our world for the better. There are so many stories to be told and I am excited to help tell them.
Less of a pain point and more of a common occurrence we see across the spectrum of communications is translating complex ideas into easily understandable information. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the public sector and you’re communicating changes in legislation, the private sector and communicating your quarterly results or at a university and working with researchers to communicate their findings to the community.
The key to communication is translating information into a format that is palatable for all your audiences – in this way I always seek to cut through the jargon, and make sure what we are trying to achieve or say is in plain English and is not overly complicated.
I’ve always found talking to the subject matter experts is the best place to start. Putting on my journalist hat and asking the questions I would ask if I was a reporter writing the story, why have we done this, what problem were we trying to solve, and how did we go about doing that?
Visit also: Featured Leaders 2022: Responding to the changes in the communication landscape – CommsRoom
As a leader, I support my team to deliver outcomes and results. Whether that’s managing a campaign, organising events, announcing a new policy, generating media coverage or handling a crisis.
There is always an outcome, and as a leader, I need to make sure the outcome is clear and remains in focus.
As for how we deliver the outcome, that will change depending on the individual team member. We all work differently and there is no one size fits all approach.
As for my values, I believe passion, respect, authenticity, integrity and vision are critical to being a successful leader.
I’ve learnt some important lessons from extraordinary people throughout my career. Some of those lessons include:
1. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Use them as an opportunity to learn. Look at what went wrong and what you can do differently next time.
2. If you’re unsure of something, ask the question. It’s always best to ask than pretend you know what’s going on.
3. Make the most of every opportunity. Don’t let self-doubt hold you back. You’re capable of more than you give yourself credit for.
4. Be a self-starter. Use your initiative and don’t be afraid to think big.
5. Proper planning prevents poor performance.
Matt’s comments are his own views, not that of any organisation he represents or has worked for.
Read also: NDIA’s Mariah Fox on the generalist approach to content creation (commsroom.co)
Jaw de Guzman is the content producer for Comms Room, a knowledge platform and website aimed at assisting the communications industry and its professionals.
