You Never Planned to Lead a Comms Team — Now What?

Roles often change and evolve in the ‘for good’ space, where we are working with limited budgets and large constraints. Many communications leaders don’t set out to supervise people, but find themselves in management and leadership roles.

You start as the social media strategist. First you’re asked to oversee a contractor, then a junior hire, then suddenly a whole team. Leadership sneaks up on you, often without training, support, or a clear understanding of what management should and will look like.

In a recent Upskill session at Emdash, we talked honestly about what actually helps when you find yourself leading a communications team, big or small.

Here are our five pillars for new (or new-ish) communications leaders in mission-driven organizations.

If comms is brought in last, the work will always suffer

One of the most common challenges communications teams face is being treated as the implementers or executors, rather than a fundamental part of strategy and planning.

Decisions and timelines are set by a policy or campaigns team, and comms is expected to “make it happen”. In this structure, communications teams are rushed and under stress, without being able to deliver the best results and impact.

Your role as a comms leader means pushing for your team of communications experts to be involved earlier in the strategic conversations. Your team is trained to think about audiences, understand accessibility, and identify risks when it comes to rolling out content to the public.

Campaigns and projects that integrate those key pieces are more effective; teams are far less likely to burn out trying to shoehorn ideas that were made without communications in mind into content that can engage or mobilize an audience.

What’s your first step? Take the time to educate the rest of your organization about what your team’s role is and push to make sure comms has a seat at the table early on.

Team structure matters more than team size

Small communications teams are the norm in many nonprofit or charitable organizations. While it often feels like size is the issue as you are launching massive campaigns off the side of your desk, size alone isn’t the issue.

Inadequate or unclear structure within your organization matters greatly. Teams that are treated like internal agencies or service providers, rather than an expert and equal department, tend to be over-tasked and under-resourced, regardless of how many people they have.

Teams with centralized and clear decision-making authority who set their own comms goals and work, lead internal and external communications, strategy, and implementation tend to function better—both in their output and in retaining skilled staff. This is true even when your team is made up of just one or two people.

Teams that are integrated into an organization well, as their own discrete team or as part of a larger fundraising or marketing team, have better collaboration and clearer responsibilities.

Find out what your structure is and ask your team what their perspective is. Does your comms team feel understaffed and over-asked? Are they drive-through window cashiers for quick requests, or the air traffic controllers guiding the strategy?

“Everyone does everything” isn’t a sustainable model

Many nonprofit comms roles quietly expand until they include social media, media relations, fundraising, websites, design, internal communications, and crisis response (sometimes all in one job description). Versatility is often framed as a strength, but when it comes to comms, too much can be a warning sign that your team is on the path to burn out.

Effective leaders are realistic about priorities and capacity. They acknowledge that communications is a field with real specialization, and that not every skill can (or should) live in one role. Support your team by creating roles that can succeed based on the real needs of your organization and the skills and expertise you have on staff.

Delegation is part of the job, not a nice-to-have

Delegation is one of the hardest transitions for new comms managers, especially those who were promoted because they were strong communications officers and strategists. When timelines are tight, it can feel faster to just do the work yourself— but over time, that habit undermines your leadership.

Delegation doesn’t mean you offload the task and walk away. A strong leader builds time into projects to give your team the information and support to get it done themselves. Giving feedback early and accepting that first drafts won’t be perfect might be a challenge, but it is a critical part of building capacity. If you want a team that can truly support you, you have to create space for people to grow into that support.

Process isn’t bureaucracy — it’s how teams stay on track

In nonprofit environments, processes and policies are often seen as unnecessary or overly corporate. In practice, clear processes are one of the most effective tools leaders have. Job descriptions, onboarding materials, request systems, timelines, and feedback loops reduce confusion and create clear paths to get work done.

Process also matters for equity and inclusion. When information lives only in people’s heads, only those who already feel confident navigating institutions or speaking up can succeed. Writing down practices and policies, standardizing workflows, and clarifying how decisions are made helps create a more accessible and inclusive workplace for everyone.

What this all adds up to

Leading a communications team isn’t about being good at communications. It’s about setting the right priorities, building the strongest team to meet your goals, and designing systems that still work when things get chaotic (which, in comms, they inevitably will).

You don’t need to become a different person to lead well, but good leadership means taking the time to set yourself and your team up with the right tools, structures, and goals.

When’s the last time your organization updated its communications strategy? This can often be a good first step to sort out roles, responsibilities, and goals, allowing you to work towards a common purpose. Get in touch if you need support.