Successful public relations professionals need to be strong communicators, good storytellers, critical thinkers, well-rounded individuals and so much more.
While it is necessary to have basic communications traits, it's the soft skills such as relationship building, emotional intelligence and creativity that help people advance in their careers. Throughout my own PR career, I've followed simple principles that have expanded my skill set and made me a better leader. Consider these tips to build the skills that can help you get ahead and enjoy your career journey even more.
Learn New Things
PR professionals are constantly interacting with different people and media outlets, so they should stay up-to-date on a diverse range of topics to keep their ideas relevant. Ideally, I try to spend a couple hours a week reading, watching or listening to something that falls outside of my usual interests to learn about the latest trends and the interests of my core customers. Being exposed to a variety of different things helps me connect seemingly unrelated trends and interests for more effective PR.
A few years ago, I learned that the "duck face" was a popular look for selfies. I asked celebrities to make a duck face as they posed for selfies with the
Tell Stories
The most effective leaders tell stories about what people have done that has annoyed them, delighted them and gotten them promoted. Listening to these stories has taught me what my bosses expected of me and what I needed to accomplish. Learning through stories is one of the reasons that behavioral interviewing is so popular. If you're interviewing for a new job or a promotion, make sure that you have perfected a few good stories of your own. Use these stories to demonstrate how you have overcome challenges to deliver a project on time or on budget.
I've interviewed a lot of job candidates over time, but I still remember those who could illustrate their accomplishments through stories. They tend to leave much more positive impressions than people who simply use adjectives to describe their accomplishments.
Take Someone From Another Department To Lunch
All organizations have silos that impede the exchange of information. To combat this problem, become a silo buster. Start by taking someone from a different department out to lunch. When I worked at ABC, I noticed that CEO Thomas Murphy would regularly visit the company cafeteria and eat lunch with his employees. When I asked him why he ate lunch in the cafeteria, he told me that it's important to get out and talk to people from every corner of the company, and lunch is a great place to get to know people.
While I still have too many lunches at my desk, I make a point to have coffee or lunch with someone from another department once a month. Every time I do, I learn something new. Occasionally, these discussions have turned into newsletter stories, other times they have served as red flags that deserve closer consideration, but mostly they have helped me gain a better understanding of the company culture.
Bring Outside Interests To Work
A good PR professional can build ideas off of their outside hobbies and interests to better connect with a target audience. As a movie and documentary buff, I have encountered a variety of characters and situations that are very different from my own life. By becoming an observer of these new worlds, I have gained a better understanding of human emotion and what motivates different people, which helps me craft messages that resonate with my target audience. Studying the behavior and underlying motivations of featured characters has even helped me get a better handle on office politics.
I have found movie characters especially useful when I am creating customer personas and coming up with social media monitoring terms. If I can connect the traits of my customers to movie characters, it makes it easier to identify their hobbies, demographic information and interests.
Accept The Stretch Assignment
Traditional career advice tells you that it is important to play to your strengths. While this is true, it’s also good to challenge yourself from time to time. When you're offered a chance to work on a project outside of your expertise, consider it carefully. The opportunity could get you noticed by senior executives at your company and help you expand your skill set.
Early in my career, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to work on ABC's first Internet site. While I understood the concepts of good storytelling, I had only taken one computer programming course in my life. Through working on this project, I had to learn HTML, which has since opened up a world of new opportunities for me. This attitude has kept me learning new skills throughout the years.
Always strive to do your job a little bit better than expected. Explore new things and follow your passion. If you really commit to finding and doing what you love, you will make an impact in the PR world.
