Commission Spokesperson: not your ordinary Joe

If you live in Brussels and work in policy and communication, you know that one of the coolest jobs you can aspire to is to become the Spokesperson to an EU Commissioner. Of course they work a lot, and they probably have their share of bureaucratic woes, but let’s admit it: in the Brussels communications arena this is THE JOB to have. When you think of a typical Spokesperson you probably think Marlene Holzner ( spokesperson to Energy Commissioner) about whom I could write a post for an entirely different reason.

But, as Dylan would say  " The times they are a-changing" and you would be surprised nowadays to meet a Commission Spokesperson who actually looks like the guy in the picture on the left. Meet Joseph Hennon, Spokesman to Environment Commissioner Janez Potocnik. How often have you seen anyone dressed like that for such a serious sounding job? Here we have a real life example of the following principle: you can have a career in government /EU institution and still continue being yourself.

Here is a guy who loves his music (he plays and tours with a band in his free time) and wants to continue doing it no matter what. But here is also a guy who needs to pay his mortgage and wants to have a family life. So instead of choosing one path over another, he strives to combine both…and it works!  How does he do it? I would say it is because he has the skill to communicate his professionalism and gain the trust of others independently of a suit or a smooth way of talking. This is a great skill to have if you strive to be a good communicator.

Another thing I like about this guy is that although he never studied communications (which is not so uncommon among Comms people in the EU actually), he is brave enough to apply his experience of communicating for his band/music to communicating about his Commissioner and his work. So, he tries to create a media buzz and even gets his Commissioner touring the EU. He uses Twitter to keep fans updated about what is going on in DG Environment and carefully chooses which hot topics to promote. He doesn’t worry too much over who his target audience should be, or how to make the EU more popular. He doesn’t try to act smart by proclaiming the End of the Press Release and he doesn’t worry about getting his tweets pre-approved: his boss trusts him well enough to know that you can’t have quality communication without trust.

EU institutional communication is changing for the better and getting closer to "ordinary citizens" thanks to people like Joe. Keep it up!