🎞️ Internal and Executive Communications: Emily Singer Mandel

Senior Director, Global Communications and Public Affairs at Google

In This Edition

• ✏️ Learn to “write with noise”

• 🦄 Tap into your unique employee stories

• 📽️ Approach learning as a screenwriter

About Emily

Emily Singer Mandel is a senior director of communications and public affairs for Google. She joined Google in 2011 to produce TGIF, the company’s all-employee meeting. In the years since, she’s helped scale Google’s communications to meet the needs of a growing company with 150k+ employees. Her team runs executive and leadership communications for Google’s most senior leaders, as well as global internal communications.

Emily holds a BA from the University of Michigan, an MFA from New York University Tisch School of the Arts Maurice Kanbar Institute of Film & Television, and a Certificat d'Études Politique (CEP) from the Institut d'Études Politiques d'Aix-en-Provence, Aix-Marseille University.  Before coming to Google, Emily worked in public service for six years as a speechwriter for former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. 

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What sparked your professional path into Executive and Internal Communications? 

It was a very happy accident! I didn’t know this line of work existed when I graduated from college. I was trying to become a filmmaker, and I wanted to take a job in New York City so I could be near NYU film school. 

My first job ended up being what I would ultimately do professionally — I was a speechwriter for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. In addition to writing speeches, I also wrote press releases and a printed newsletter called The Daily Plant that went out to all the “Parkies.” It featured original reporting, employee recognition, and a quote of the day. 

I learned to write fast, on deadline, and with multiple interruptions. While I was writing the speeches, I would answer phone calls from the press and members of the public who used to call and complain about a pile of trash in a park or dogs being off leash. These were the days before instant chat but there were plenty of other distractions in the open “bullpen” office. I learned how to tune it all out and just keep writing no matter what was going on around me. I’m still doing this today, but the interruptions are a bit different. 

For example, in a crisis scenario, I might be writing in a literal command center with multiple agency commissioners and heads of government shouting over my head and a press conference just minutes away (this happened to me during Hurricane Irene when I was writing for Mayor Bloomberg.) Or, I could be crafting a statement in a Google doc with multiple cursors hovering (this happens to me on a regular basis at Google.) Thanks to my early training I can write with noise, with an audience, and with very little time. 

What’s your favorite NYC park?

It’s Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York. It’s one of the parks that Frederick Law Olmsted designed together with Calvert Vaux. It’s peaceful with 526 acres of different landscapes. 

How do you describe Executive and Internal Communications?

For Executive Communications, you are surfacing the ideas your leader would have and the words they would use if time were infinite, and they could write everything themselves. You’re helping them communicate so authentically that you’re just channeling what they would say. Along the way, you help elevate it with a little humor here, a little empathy there, and all of the context you have about the audience you’ve been studying while they’ve been doing their job as a leader. 

For Internal Communications, the job is a bit different. It’s not about getting the leader's voice across or making the employees happy, it’s about finding common ground by solving for the company as a whole. This work involves sharing context with your leader about how employees are feeling so they can understand their perspectives. You’re also helping your leader understand when to stand firm and be bold because what’s needed is unwavering leadership. Even when people may not like the answer — especially then  —  employees need to hear it clearly and candidly.

I think of Internal Communications as the bridge between leaders and employees and employees and each other. It’s what connects multiple groups of people within a company and forms the core of the culture. 

What is one project you are particularly proud to have accomplished? 

I changed the way we delivered the news at Google! It’s been a team effort to make it happen. When I joined, the way we shared news focused on writing long-form stories that came out on an ad hoc basis. As the news industry was changing, I started to appreciate the quick scannable format of The Skimm and The New York Times’ Morning Briefing. I wanted to move us towards that model because I wasn’t sure people were reading these long stories, especially engineers who prefer tl;drs (too long; didn’t read). I also wanted to ensure that it wasn't just a broadcast channel and that the news incorporated interaction.

First, we decided to produce a daily news feed delivered to the inbox. It built the news habit in our employees to reliably receive news from us. Tens of thousands of employees continue to open this email every day. It’s a lot to sustain, but we have a great team behind it. There’s a top story that is original reporting or from our external blog. There’s also a section called “In the News” which features the company or industry highlights. 

Then, we were able to make it more of a conversation by incorporating user-generated content from employees. We crowdsource photos — nature walks, work offsites, family vacations, and other things. We have had a lot of takeover editions. When our CEO Sundar Pichai went on Jeopardy!, we did a call out to find the stories of our colleagues who had also been on Jeopardy!. We took the same approach with the Olympics! It’s really fun to spotlight the talents of our employees. 

These takeover editions have been helpful for major events such as Google I/O where we look at it from multiple perspectives and tell the points of view of different people in the company — from the CEO to somebody who is attending for the first time to people on stage presenting. It allows us to approach news from so many different angles. 

What are the skills that are most important for someone to succeed in Executive and Internal Communications?

There are four major skills that I’ll emphasize. First, you need to be an excellent writer. If you don’t love writing, it’s an uphill battle. 

Second, the ability to influence people is incredibly important. As part of that, you should be able to add to good ideas, but don’t be afraid to push back on ideas that won’t work. It’s really important with executives — you may feel like the most junior person in the room, but you are entrusted to help this leader communicate. You have the responsibility to push back if it’s going in the wrong direction.  

Third, stakeholder management is an essential skill. The reality of working is that once you’ve written something, other people need to align around it. You need to ensure people are on board with the message, especially if it’s a change or hard news. It’s your role to think about the impact news might have on others, anticipate the potential objections, and seek out other leaders to incorporate their feedback. 

The fourth skill is cross-functional collaboration with your peers. You need to succeed as a team, no matter how you are structured. You need to learn to work across a company, keep people informed, and stay aligned. You will be more successful this way. 

How do you continue learning about the field of Executive and Internal Communications?

Because of my background in film, I learn from watching people talk and react in real-life settings. I approach learning as a screenwriter. It’s not about what people are saying, but the intention and energy behind it.

When you're writing a scene, the words don’t matter. The characters have their motivation. They know what they’re supposed to accomplish in the scene. The words could be anything because all of the acting is coming from non-verbal communications. The same is true of communications.

We have our objectives and intentions as we go into conversations. Talking points on their own mean nothing unless they hook into what will emotionally resonate with the person you are writing for. Your job is to write something that is so close to what they would have written that they can bring energy and empathy naturally. People don’t remember what you say, they remember how you made them feel. Someone much smarter than me said this long ago; it was the incomparable Maya Angelou. 

For this reason, the content that I watch and read is not specifically about business — it’s more about acting. There’s a podcast called Back to One that interviews different actors about their techniques. I also watch a lot of movies and television. I like to read about the craft of acting and performing. It’s helped inform how I write, and how I approach executive and speaker coaching. It’s good training for understanding how to tell a story and land a message that will really change hearts and minds. 

There are so many shows that I enjoy watching: I love Ted Lasso because the show is so optimistic! And I really like After Life which is the total opposite of Ted Lasso, but dark comedy is my favorite genre. The Wire was the best show on television ever. I often go back and re-watch it. Now, I’m watching Severance — it is a fascinating ground-breaking show. I’ve also enjoyed every second of watching Bridgerton. 

What do you feel is important for people to know about the field of Communications? 

For too long, people have thought about PR and Internal Communications as separate disciplines. I don’t see it that way. In fact, the only major difference I see is that PR folks are out and about talking about their craft, and recognizing the best in their profession via lots of lists and industry publications. It’s not really the same for internal and executive comms because there is discretion required in helping someone get their message out. 

They are not two separate disciplines anymore. You communicate to the world, and it impacts how your employees feel. Everything you say externally will have an effect on your employees. Increasingly, everything you say internally will become external. I see it as a loop now without any clear boundary. We need to talk more about this art and skill of Internal and Executive Communications. 

I am so pleased that someone is shining a light on this work. It’s been behind the scenes for far too long, and it’s really critical work. Thank you for helping do this for our industry. Your newsletter is a must-read! (author note: thank you 🙏🏼)

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☎️ Every edition of The Switchboard is personally curated by me — Julia Levy. This post is based on a live interview conversation and edited for publication. Learn more about why I write.