Postscript: PR advice for PR pros

Deadly spin postscript:

Three pieces of PR advice for PR pros from a PR pro.

You have a choice as a PR pro. Serve your organization. Or serve your leader.

If you're lucky, your leader puts serving the organization ahead of serving their own self interests. I've worked with these organization-first leaders before. I work for one now. I appreciate just how lucky I am.

With this kind of leader at the helm, you can do your job with a clear conscience. There are no ulterior motives, hidden agendas, nasty surprises or secrets waiting to be told. And you're communicating to an audience of employees who trust and respect the leader and have confidence in the future of your organization.

Things get trickier with a leader who's put self-interest ahead of doing what's best for the organization. They're in it for the fortune and the fame, whether that's a super-sized retirement nest egg, the maximum allowable performance bonus despite a year of minimal effort and middling results, a headhunter calling with the offer of a golden ticket to a bigger and better job somewhere else, or industry awards and accolades plus adoration and envy from their peers.

So why would you choose this kind of leader ahead of serving your organization?

A self-interested leader on an ego trip can offer up a sweet, sweet ride. No expenses are spared and loyalty's richly rewarded. There's also the thrill of getting pulled from the kids' table and welcomed into the inner circle. But this may not be your smartest choice for five reasons.

You could turn into a jerk, thanks to an acute sense of entitlement and delusions of self-importance. Early symptoms would include bitching about the quality and variety of the catered breakfasts and lunches that get wheeled in for leadership meetings (usually by staff who brown bag it because they can't afford to buy their lunches) and whining about the wine selections and pairings during off-site retreats and post-conference dinners.

You could find yourself put into morally compromising situations, having to explain, defend and justify something the leader's said or done. And you're told to do this while being kept in the dark yourself and having not been told the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Earlier in my career, I was hauled on the carpet for a story that ran in the local newspaper. The coverage was very good for our organization and very bad for another organization. My supervisor wanted to me to call the reporter and demand a correction, to replace a truth with a lie and dent our organization's reputation in the process.

Cooler heads prevailed. No correction was demanded. None of this made sense until a few months later when the organization that got hammered in the story announced their new leader.

Flagging emerging issues and the dangers ahead is a key part of your job. Sometimes, you're the bearer of bad news and you have to say what others are thinking but are too afraid (or smart) to say within earshot of the leader. Maybe your self-serving leader will even encourage you to be open and honest, to speak truth to power and point out the elephants in the room. But you're not keen to find out if the leader's serious or if you're about to bite the hand that feeds you. You really don't want to get banished from the inner circle and sent back to the kids' table. Yet staying silent can blindside your leader, isolate your senior leadership team (this is when the team starts referring to employees as "them" or "FTEs" instead of colleagues) and steer your organization into an iceberg.

And even if you work up the courage to speak up, you no longer have your finger on the pulse of the organization. Your colleagues will quit talking to you. They'll stop confiding in you because they won't trust you to keep confidences. They won't give you a heads up or be open and honest because they know that raising any issues or concerns with you will launch you into a spirited defense of the leader.

I once had a colleague tell me he was surprised I'd stuck around and hadn't bolted with the leader. You seemed like you were the president of the leader's fan club. Sometimes, the truth hurts. So I course corrected. A few years later, another colleague said I was the least "PRish" PR person he'd ever met. He said he meant that as a compliment. I took it as one. And finally, every leader leaves eventually. Some leave sooner and more unexpectedly than others. There's no guarantee that you'll get invited to tag along as the leader moves to a new job. Loyalty can be fickle and fleeting. And they'll be no job openings if the leader's retiring or has been quietly persuaded to spend more quality time at home with their family (unless you want a second career as the leader's caddie or a nanny for their kids). Loyalists tend to be the first to go when a new leader takes the helm, especially if the previous leader left with underwater approval ratings, under a cloud of suspicion or in the wake of a scandal. You either were clueless as to what was going on and were played for a fool or your silence equaled complicity. Either way, your days are likely numbered. So choose wisely when deciding whether to serve the leader or your organization. There's nothing wrong with staying at the kids' table. And bringing your own lunch to work.

#2. Keep giving your leader someone to talk about

The best leaders make a point of giving public shout-outs and heartfelt private praise. They're quick to thank employees who've gone above and beyond and made a difference. They know that recognizing employees who are doing what needs done is the best way to ensure that more employees start doing it too and keep at it. But it's tough for leaders, who spend pretty much their entire days sequestered in meetings, to find these employees on their own.

So that's where you come in. Picture yourself as the booker for Good News Today and your leader's the host. When you find an employee who's gone above and beyond and made a difference, let the leader know. Even better is an employee who's gone above and beyond and made a difference by advancing one of your organization's strategic priorities. Great leaders will weave shout-outs into their all-staff notes, town hall remarks and hallway conversations. They'll shoot the employees an email or drop off a handwritten note.

I worked for a president who kept a wellworn thank-you note folded in his wallet. He had been given the note decades earlier at the start of his career from his supervisor. He showed me the note once and said he looked at it often as a reminder to give thanks and show appreciation.

Helping your leader make the same impact on employees can be the best part of your job. And the most important, given the lasting and big impact of a little recognition from a grateful leader.

#3 - Set your leader up for success.

Confidence in the leader is a key driver of employee engagement. So never put your leader in situations where they're going to shake the confidence of employees. Here's my parting advice, based on 28 years of getting it right, and sometimes very wrong, in helping leaders communicate with employees. There's a fine line between employees laughing with your leader and laughing at them. Don't put your leader on the wrong side of that line. A little self-deprecating humour is a good thing. Playing the clown, or making mean-spirited jokes at someone else's expense, is not.

Never send your leader to the lectern with an unreadable script (hello, worldclass classrooms). As Harrison Ford said to George Lucas on the set of Star Wars, "George, you can type this shit but you sure can't say it.“

Spell peoples' names phonetically to save your leader from embarrassing themselves as they stumble over and butcher someone's name. Especially if that name belongs to a long-time employee, the keynote speaker or an award recipient being introduced by the leader.

Put your leader's scripts and speeches in a binder. Number the pages. I worked for a leader who'd crumple the corner of each page so it was easier to turn and the pages won't stick together. That binder with the crumpled pages means one less thing to worry about when your leader has to stand and deliver.

Gently recommend a reshoot of a video if, on the first, second or third take, your leader looks like a hostage, someone who hasn't slept in a week or speaks and moves like an animatronic that's escaped from Disney's Hall of Presidents.

Gently dissuade your leader from using big words in their written communications to employees. Stick with "weekend words" and use short sentences. Big words will confuse, bore or embarrass employees. No one wants to feel dumb. No one wants a sermon, lecture or dissertation. And no one has the time or patience to decipher what the leader's trying to say.

Don't laugh if your leader's not being funny. It'll only encourage them.

Play to your leader's strengths. If they're socially awkward doing small talk in small groups but shine on the stage in front of a large audience, find ways to get them on stage and don't let them wander into a small group without someone tagging along to initiate and wrap up the small talk. If your leader's an introvert, make sure they have downtime to recharge before sending them back out to connect with employees or shoot a video.

Thank your leader when they've done good. Everyone -even the leader -wants to know when they're doing a good job.

And always remember, your leader has a plate. Their plate is always full. Your job is to take work off that plate and to never add to it.

Acknowledgements

A very big thank you to some exceptional leaders who showed how to connect and communicate with employees:

John Mayberry, Joan Weppler and Bronko Jazvac

Brenda Flaherty, Pat Mandy and Charlotte Daniels

Cheryl Jensen and Bob Carrington, and

Maureen MacDonald

Thanks also to Bill Gair for the constant reminders to “push the pride button” in all communications going out to employees. Didn’t fully appreciate the advice then. But I do now.

And a tip of thehat to Steve Crescenzo for his reminder to use “weekend words” and Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose for warning against posting content exclusively on the rented land that is social media.