Leadership in public relations (or…ditch the bitch)
By Craig on Sep 4, 2009 in Leadership, Public relations, Strategic communication | View Comments
Leadership is an inherent characteristic of public relations when it is practiced to its optimum level. This is clearly articulated within James Grunig’s description of the discipline through his two-way symmetrical communication model. Here are ten elements of what makes for effective leadership in business, with a bias towards those who practice public relations.
1. Being a good person
The most fundamental component of a good leader is being – hello! – a good person. What makes a good person? Well, for starters, it’s caring about others, considering their feelings, needs and wants. Without that core fundamental characteristic, a leader will be that in name only.
2. Empathy
Caring about people starts with listening to them, empathising with them and, hopefully, understanding them. And guess which profession, more than any other, prides itself on being able to undertake such activities to assist in organisation-stakeholder relationships? That’s right, public relations!
This means that, inherently, to be the most excellent public relations professional, possible, you need to be a leader.
3. Failure is good
Giving people permission to fail. One of my favourite lines is, ‘If you’re not failing then you are not trying hard enough.’ A great way to learn is to give something a shot, fall short of success, then reflect on how it could have been done more effectively.
Of course, a leader will never put an employee so far out of their comfort zone so as to potentially humiliate and damage them. But, by the same token, a challenge is healthy and will lead to enhanced organisational commitment and relish for their role.
4. Handle with care
‘Criticise privately, praise publicly.’ Another cliché, but one that holds true. Self-esteem is at the core of functional people and bosses play a significant role in building or undermining employees’ self-esteem. And even when the criticism in private does occur, the primary component of the criticism should be learning-centred.
How could the employee have achieved a better result? Even better if an approach is taken for the employee to come up with a methodology that is likely to lead to a better result, which leads me to…
5. Ask for answers, don’t give them
Let the employee devise a solution to a challenge, rather than spoon-feed them the answer and ask for it to be implemented. This can be a hard one for a leader to apply as the temptation in a pressured environment is to give the direction and move on. But this is an example of an approach that separates leaders from managers.
A converse variation on this theme (and cliché number three for the day…) is when going to your own boss with an issue or problem, take a recommended solution with you – a great way to enhance your own standing and also take a step up in your professional capability.
6. Ditch the bitch (or butch…)
Don’t tolerate nasty people. They are a cancer. If they cannot be ‘performance-managed’ to an acceptable level in double-quick time, get rid of them. People find it hard to change to any profound degree and their colleagues should not have to suffer them.
Too much of our lives are spent at work to have to tolerate those whose personal characteristics lead them to make our collective existence a misery. Tolerating nasty people will lead to a reduced commitment from other employees, lower quality work and increase turnover (of the good people).
In the end, tolerance of nastiness is an implicit approval of that behaviour. It can even lead to otherwise good people turning nasty as a form of self-defence.
7. Do unto others as…
Walking the talk (okay, I’m losing ‘cliché count’ now…). This is behavioural psychology 101 and parents will be well aware (I hope) of this one basic precept: it is not what you say, but what you do, that those who you putatively lead will seek to emulate.
You will never be entirely successful if you rely on rhetoric alone to instigate behavioural change. Public relations professionals, once again, should inherently understand and live this maxim if we are to be truly excellent.
It is our jobs to instigate behavioural change, whether in organisations or organisations’ stakeholders, so if we cannot practice this basic methodology, then we are not operating at a best practice level.
8. Education and best practice
James Grunig argues that public relations professionals get to operate at their optimum level (two-way symmetrical communication) only when they are educated to a satisfactory degree on the strategic capabilities of the discipline. There are two dimensions to this observation. To be a truly effective and fully functioning public relations leader you:
- need to be up to speed with established public relations industry and academic literature and emerging best practice trends and/or discussions
- should be encouraging those whom you lead to educate themselves via mechanisms such as accredited courses and industry associations to improve their knowledge.
Other aspects of two-way symmetrical communication that are analogous to leadership include:
- Negotiation (i.e. to bring about a win-win scenario)
- Its embracing of a plurality of perspectives
- Collaboration.
9. Confound yourself with people
There are two principles I believe true leaders apply to employees that I have learnt in recent years and strongly believe in:
- Employ older people and put aside any prejudices you may have against the ‘aged’ as being out of sync with a profession that seems to have ‘youthful’ brand characteristics
- Employ people in roles they are not good enough for.
Older people are more likely to stay in their positions longer, they are often more prudent and reticent to get involved in politics or diverting and/or counterproductive altercations with people and, most importantly, they frequently bring a level of expertise, devotion to their work and organisation and assiduousness that younger people cannot match.
On the second point, an employee will work harder and deliver, over time and overall, better results if they are employed in roles they are not perfect for. Certainly, they need to be in the ball park, but hunger to learn and be a high achiever in the role is more important than someone who has walked down these streets many times before.
There needs to be room for aspiration. ‘Been there/done that’ breeds contempt and dissatisfaction and poor culture.
10. This is a team game
Share the power. It has been written that public relations is an inherently feminine discipline. One of the reasons for this is that women are more likely to share power than men. Another is that women are inherently more empathetic than men, which I have already noted as a valuable characteristic amongst public relations professionals. But leaders who share power will enhance the self-esteem, organisational commitment and productivity of their peers.
Power, essentially, equals responsibility. Giving people more responsibility gives them an opportunity to fulfil their potential and, by implication, their dreams. What greater leadership outcome can there be than that?
It would be excellent to hear what you have to say on leadership, especially leadership in public relations. What characterises it? What have I said above you disagree with? Share your thoughts!
