An article published here, “Most Leaders Suck At Communications,” got me thinking about the characteristics shared by great leaders and PR professionals—and some tips for both.
A few things to consider…
Great Leaders Ask More Than They Tell
PR professionals understand the value of asking questions, which leads to insights and communications strategies.
Asking questions helps leaders understand what’s going on with their teams. That’s Leadership 101. Truly evolved and great leaders understand the benefits of asking empowering, open-ended questions.
Doing so lights up the brains of those we ask, specifically the parts of their brains where creation, creativity, collaboration, memory, and action reside. Asking open-ended questions provides additional critical benefits that are imperative for leaders to understand.
It’s essential that leaders do not ask questions designed to direct the team members to the leader’s conclusion. That’s telling by asking. Doing so will not provide the aforementioned effects on the listener’s brain and will not help the leader learn anything about the team member, which is a key reason for asking questions in the first place.
My favorite book outlining the questions leaders should ask is, “The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More, & Change the Way You Lead Forever” by Michael Bungay Stanier. It’s an easy read, the recommendations are practical, and it gives leaders the tools to get team members out of their office (real or virtual) when they come to you with questions, empowering them to think through solutions.
Great Leaders Listen More
Now that we’ve gotten you to ask more questions, or if you’re already doing that, it’s critical to truly listen to what you hear. I’ve always felt that many PR professionals and leaders talk more than they speak, say 60/40, or do so equally, say 50/50. But you can become a much more effective leader by making that 40/60. Leaders who are perceived as good listeners are perceived to be great leaders. And that doesn’t even factor in what happens when those leaders act on what they’ve heard!
The same is true for PR professionals. In fact, if you build a reputation for listening more than speaking, you’ll stand apart from other publicists who haven’t learned that lesson. That’s a huge advantage for you and your clients, whether they’re external or internal, and whether you’re at an agency, government organization, non-profit, or any other organization.
Great Leaders Are Highly Empathetic
Empathy is one of those phrases that begin with “e,” the other being “emotional intelligence,” which reflects a make-or-break skill for leaders. It’s also a critical skill for communications practitioners. PR professionals must empathize with the audiences they try to move to action to be truly effective. If not, they may be just trumpeting messages, but will they be effective? Hardly.
And PR practitioners who are empathetic to anyone they’re “pitching,” be they reporters, writers, news directors, or influencers, the more they can influence those audiences to be open to their messages.
Want to learn more about empathy, including the three types of empathy? Simply Google Daniel Goleman. He’s the expert.
(And yes, Virginia, there are three types of empathy, and anyone wanting to be more empathetic must understand their differences.)
Great Leaders Build Trust
I’ve taught and written about critical skills for leaders, and I passionately believe that trust is the most important. Why? Because without trust, there’s no relationship, and without a relationship, you’re not building followership. If your followers don’t trust you and aren’t choosing to follow you—and yes, they do have a choice—if they’re doing their work and ticking off assignments from their to-do list, it’s just transactional.
Effective leadership, however, creates the opportunity for transformation. Transformative for the followers, the leaders, the organizations, and their clients.
Doesn’t the same thing apply to PR professionals? Can they be effective if not trusted by the groups mentioned in the previous section? Of course not. Back in the day when I was a young publicist (and before Gini weighs in, let me acknowledge it was a long time ago!)
Leadership Tips for PR Professionals
Beyond those must-use skills and strategies, here are my tips that will benefit both communicators and leaders:
Keep It Simple
In my experience, both leaders and communications professionals overload their messages, focusing too much on everything they know and everything they want their audiences or followers to know.
Unfortunately, that strategy is bound to fail, mostly because our audiences’ ability to truly understand our information is much more limited than we realize.
So instead of thinking about everything you want your audiences, media targets, and/or followers to know, think instead about what you want them to 1) understand, 2) retain, and most of all, 3) repeat to others.
That’s a far shorter list than everything we want them to know, and that’s fine. When we focus on what we want them to Understand, Retain, and Repeat, we’re driving word-of-mouth.
And that’s mission-critical to both communicators and leaders.
Be Transparent
While we can’t share everything we may know in our communications, we should lean towards more transparency because that’s what builds the aforementioned trust and, like in life, a relationship.
This is especially true for leaders.
According to Darren Perucci (from when he was with Bamboo HR), more transparent leaders drive five key benefits:
- Strengthened workplace culture
- Increased employee engagement
- Improved communication
- Improved customer relations,
- An increased bottom line
To any leader reading this: Don’t you want more of this, especially in an age of uncertainty? Of course, you do.
Do you not see how this will build engagement and loyalty among your followers? I’m sure you do.
Based on the list above, there is a business imperative for doing so!
