Don’t become an “I specialist”
By Richard Thomas
Newly minted PR/corporate communication consultants often experience an identity crisis of sorts, particularly when striking out on their own.
They spend 10 years, maybe 15, with the same organization and now they are hanging out their shingle. But it can be tough to make a clean break, both physically and mentally.
Think about it: you’ve been accustomed to a certain profile or reputation within the organization; every day people recognized and acknowledged you. What is more, your achievements and abilities were known to senior management.
But now, under the name of your own consultancy, you have to prove yourself all over again, and to every new client. In addition, there is the competition you didn’t have to face before. It’s tough on the ego.
To make things easier, it’s very tempting to turn around and hope for an opportunity to supply services to your former employer. This may work for a while and help to offset the initial panic of starting with no clients, but don’t let it become a crutch. It’s a bit like leaving home but pitching a tent on the back lawn.
You need to cut the cord, and this includes not constantly referring to what you did “back when I was at the ABC Corporation…”
Prospective clients are turned off when a consultant defines his or her experience in terms of a past employer. They can’t help wondering whether they may end up getting a repeat of your past efforts rather than something fresh and specific to their company’s needs. What is worse, you’ll come across as an “I specialist”, someone who put himself at the centre of the story.
You can supply clients with anecdotal evidence of your past achievements in more subtle ways once they have actually become clients. Until then, listen and learn. It’s about them not you.
Richard Thomas is VP Professional Development, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Barbados
Add comment March 16, 2010
POINT TO PONDER : Lawyers can’t help you in the court of public opinion
By Richard Thomas
“All business in a democratic country begins with public permission and exists by public approval. If that be true, it follows that business should be cheerfully willing to tell the public what its policies are, what it is doing, and what it hopes to do. This seems practically a duty.” – Arthur W. Page.
When he penned this statement more than half-a-century ago, Arthur Page was vice-president of public relations for American Telephone & Telegraph Co. (AT&T).
Page believed that the purpose of public relations was to help companies earn the public’s approval for the way they conducted their business, not to deceive and distract through propaganda. This philosophy made him one of the most enlightened public relations practitioners of his day, and he stands among the most respected pioneers who helped to shape the practice of modern PR.
Much of what Page proposed in his day we now call “corporate communication”. This is the ongoing, planned process by which a company shares relevant information with key stakeholders and the larger community.
The purpose of such communication is to build trust and credibility and earn support for corporate strategies and plans. It lies at the heart of all good public relations.
Many executives in the Caribbean might be uncomfortable with Page’s concept of communication as a “duty”. The command-and-control style of management is the more common in the region, and it does not lend itself to open sharing of information.
Indeed, the C-and-C philosophy towards communication tends to be “I will tell you what you need to know, if I think you need to know it.”
But this approach isn’t going to work for much longer, if in fact it worked at all.
Today, companies must be able to respond quickly to business opportunities and threats as they emerge. To do this, they need the full trust and support of key stakeholders – employees, investors, customers, regulators – as well as the larger community. And communication, accompanied by good character and responsible behaviour, plays a vital role in earning this trust and support.
Organisations in the region must make a serious investment in modern-day strategic public relations and its central discipline of corporate communication. What is more, they need to embed the necessary resources in-house to help build a genuine “culture of communication”.
The bean-counters may argue against what they perceive as another expensive cost centre. They need to weigh the expense against the price paid when their company is misunderstood; when it is subject to false assumptions and unflattering perceptions; or when it becomes a victim of targeted attacks from hostile groups who have coalesced around an issue.
Companies are prepared to pay lawyers hundreds of thousands of dollars to represent them successfully in a court of law. But these aren’t the folks who are best equipped to help you in the court of public opinion.
Richard Thomas is Vice-President, Professional Development, with the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) Barbados.
Add comment March 15, 2010
POINT TO PONDER – Corporate writing is service-oriented not ego-driven
Corporate writing is service-oriented not ego-driven
By Richard Thomas
What constitutes really good writing?
Thirty-five years ago I asked this of a professor at the University of Western Ontario’s journalism school. She had been a senior editor at The Globe and Mail, arguably Canada’s top newspaper, so I figured she would know.
She said: “Really good writing is when it’s so good no one notices.”
It sounded sort of “Zen” at the time; you know, one of those moments from “Kung Fu” when young Kane receives a morsel of seemingly impenetrable wisdom from his master. But as a corporate communicator who still spends a lot of time writing, I have come to appreciate the pure truth of it.
In the context of corporate communication, language is a medium – a conduit – that we use to deliver information, ideas and points of view. And we seek to do so persuasively.
But in doing this job, how successful can language be if its main goal is to attract attention to the way it is written?
Writing that preens and struts doesn’t work for corporate communication: it distracts readers; it inhibits their ability to receive and process messages, ideas and points-of-view; and it lacks credibility.
In essence, good writing is much like the copper and fibre optic cables that LIME uses as landlines: they carry messages between sender and receiver, but they are invisible.
There are still too many writers in corporate communication and PR who want their readers not only to see the cables, but also to appreciate all the brilliant engineering it took to lay them down.
After all, what’s the point of being a writer if you can’t draw people’s attention to your “command of language”, to say nothing of your vast vocabulary?
But if you want to be in demand as a writer, at least by the more discerning organisations, don’t look at corporate writing as an art. It’s a craft, and at its best it is service-oriented not ego-driven. If you simply can’t strip yourself out of your writing, best switch to poetry.
Richard Thomas is principal of Clarity Communication and VP of Professional Development, IABC Barbados
Add comment March 5, 2010
Plan communication before the crisis, warns IABC Barbados president
When a crisis hits, companies without a crisis communication plan may lose control of the story while management and the legal department are still agonising over the press release, says the head of a local organisation for corporate communicators.
“You can’t wait until the crisis is upon you to start figuring out how you will communicate with stakeholders and the wider public,” warns Christal McIntosh, president of the Barbados chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC).
“You need a written plan that anticipates the major crises that could affect your company, and spells out who is going to do what and by when, if any of those crises occur.”
McIntosh says the advent of social media has dramatically altered the speed at which companies have been accustomed to communicate when a crisis happens.
“Forget about arranging a press conference for later in the day, or operating according to the timelines of traditional news media,” she says. “By the time the legal department has decided what you should say for the seven o’clock news and for tomorrow’s newspapers, the story of your crisis – whether accurate or not – will have already travelled around the world via text messages, blog sites, or even U-Tube.”
McIntosh says corporate communicators need to factor social media into their crisis communication plans. To this end, IABC Barbados is hosting a teleseminar for the association’s members and other communication professionals entitled “When social media and crisis communications collide”.
The seminar is scheduled for 6.00 p.m. on Thursday, February 25th, at the Christie Room, Barbados Light & Power Annex, Garrison Hill, and will cost $40 for non-members.
Professionals interested in registering should call 626-6728.
1 comment February 19, 2010
IABC Barbados Presents Crisis Communication Teleseminar in February
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THE CRISIS COMMUNICATION PLAN Without one you can lose control of the story – FAST! |
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IABC Barbados Invites You To:
“When Social Media and Crisis Communications Collide”
This hour-long teleseminar will reveal valuable tips on how to approach the task of developing a crisis communication plan that recognises the speed of today’s social media. It is presented by Gerard Braud, of Braud Communications, New Orleans. An IABC member, Gerard specialises in developing and writing crisis communication plans for organisations including hospitals, universities, and corporations. Come prepared to listen, learn, and share your own experiences. Date: Thursday, February 25th, 2010 Time: 6.00 p.m. – 8.30 p.m. Location: Christie Room, Barbados Light & Power Annex; Garrison Hill, St, Michael Fee: Non-members $40; members $25 Light refreshments will be served. For catering purposes, please confirm attendance by Monday, February 22nd.
To register contact Richard Thomas – VP Professional Development at 626-6728 or email richard.thomas@bb.pwc.com.
Improving organizational effectiveness through strategic communication |
Add comment February 16, 2010
IABC Barbados Presents Social Media Workshop
Do you understand the power of social media?
Are you having trouble bringing it into the communications mix?
Are you unsure of how to sell its strategic value to management?
You are not alone. All across the globe people are signing up for training sessions seeking to grasp this new phenomenon and its implications for the corporate communications function. The challenge for us in the Caribbean is to determine how relevant most of this knowledge is to our business context.
Leveraging Social Media Networks for Business Purposes
To learn more join president of IABC Barbados, Christal P. McIntosh, an avid social media practitioner, as she shares on how to leverage Facebook, Twitter, Del.icio.us, Google Alerts and other social networking tools for business purposes.
Event Info
Venue: Christie Room, Barbados Light & Power Annex, Bay Street, St. Michael
Time & Date: September 10, 2009; 6 – 8 p.m.
Registration Fee: Members – $25; Non-members – $35
Persons are encouraged to contact Richard Thomas, VP Professional Development at 467-6728 to pre-register. Your early response is appreciated as it will aid in the effective catering for this event.
About the Speaker
Christal P. McIntosh is a corporate communications specialist at the Barbados Tourism Authority (BTA) with responsibility for social media management and is the founder and president of the Barbados chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC Barbados). Christal has specialized training in web 2.0 destination marketing through the European Union and an advanced level certificate in e-commerce and intellectual property from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
She also runs her own personal blog on web 2.0 marketing and public relations at www.lyricallava.blogspot.com. She is currently pursuing a Master in Business Administration at the University of Surrey at the Wildey St. Michael campus of the Barbados Institute of Management and Productivity (BIMAP) and is working toward a dissertation on the corporate relevance of social media marketing in the Caribbean.
Add comment August 20, 2009
All Set for All-Day Seminar
IABC Barbados is pleased to confirm that Jim has arrived here on the island and is rearing to go for tomorrow’s seminar at the Savannah Hotel.
Our VP Professional Development, Richard Thomas met him at the airport and confirms that Jim reached Barbados safe and sound and is bursting with energy and knowledge to share with us.
For those of you who are doing lunch/ skull session tomorrow and want to submit your questions in advance, please do so at christalpm@gmail.com by midnight tonight!
If you have not yet to submit a completed registration form please email info@prmrinc.net and we may still be able to provide you with your name tag!
As promised, Jim’s book, ‘Why Should the Boss Listen To You?’ will also be on sale through the kind assistance of Book Source Online for the special price of BDS $50 but after tomorrow it will cost BDS $65, so come prepared to grab yours tomorrow.
I already own a copy and it is very practical text that forces you to gradually read and apply the information throughout your career. Well, having said all of this I hope that you are as excited as we are about tomorrow’s conference.
See you then.
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Christal P. McIntosh
President, IABC Barbados
Add comment June 17, 2009
Communication Key to Productivity
For too long in Barbados when people think about public relations they automatically think publicity and promotion, press releases and photo-ops, which is tantamount to low productivity of this critical function.
The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC Barbados) was founded in June 2008 to change the mindset of PR professionals to one that is better aligned with helping senior management to achieve corporate objectives through strategic business communication.
One of the major issues mentioned on the programme was developing effective two-way communication between employees and employers to ensure that employees are more engaged and that the psychological contract or unwritten expectations of trust are well managed.
Continue Reading Add comment May 16, 2009
Lukaszewski to Conduct Seminar in Barbados
James E. Lukaszewski, voted by The Corporate Legal Times as one of the top ‘28 experts to call when all hell breaks loose’, will conduct a one day seminar in Barbados on June 18 at the Savannah Hotel in Hastings entitled, ‘Does the boss listen to you?’
Continue Reading Add comment May 16, 2009
