It seems like everywhere you look, there are growing opportunities for PR to be a more trusted strategic resource for CEOs and other executives. While CEOs often place the greatest value in PR for managing the crisis-of-the-day, leaders need the skills of PR practitioners to successfully maneuver through today’s increasingly complex business environment. This could be the moment that PR has been waiting for, after decades of training and education.
Creativity, the ability to deal with ambiguity, personal flexibility and strategic agility are core competencies that are valued by leaders. PR pros have spent a lifetime developing those skills, and now is the time to apply them to real business problem solving—going beyond the next special event plan or promotion.
This encouraging news for PR can be found in the recent global CEO survey conducted by IBM. The survey reveals that CEOs believe that creativity and integrity are the two most valuable leadership qualities. By ranking creativity at the top, CEOs are opening the door for PR and other staff functions to contribute new ways of thinking and doing.
NEW THINKING
This represents an opportunity to apply the creative strengths of PR in ways that will strategically help business. This first requires, however, that PR practitioners understand and embrace strategy-making as a systematic and creative process. The definition that best reflects this approach describes strategy as “a process of planning, thinking and doing to create something new and different.” Unfortunately, the love for creativity over strategy, or any process for that matter, is often a weakness of public relations—and a negative in the eyes of executives.
PR practitioners must understand the needs and problems facing corporate leaders. Have you read or even seen your organization’s latest business plan, financial reports, sales figures and customer survey data? What are the CEO’s top 10 priorities when she or he arrives in the office each morning? With a thorough knowledge of the business, the strategic PR counselor can bring a perspective to the CEO unlike any other staff member.
COMPLEX MATTERS
The IBM study also reports that “CEOs seriously doubt their ability to cope with rapidly escalating complexity…Increased connectivity has also created strong—and, too often, unknown—interdependencies. For this reason, the ultimate consequence of any decision has often been poorly understood.”
Have more positive words ever been heard for PR from the C-suite? PR executives are uniquely equipped to provide advice on these new “interdependencies.” You spend your professional life understanding what happens at the intersection between the needs of stakeholders and the organizations you represent. Make it your job to help leaders anticipate or “see what is coming around the corner,” and assess the impact management decisions have on stakeholders.
An example of new sensitivities and complexities in the C-suite is the five-year transformation of the leadership practices of a CEO at a midsize, Mid-Atlantic business. This 54-year-old, former command-and-control operating executive had been struggling with the increased scrutiny of the media, community groups and his board of directors during a $1 billion facilities expansion and a period of business losses. After blaming the media and competitors for his troubles, he turned to an outside PR consultant to assess how he was handling all of his stakeholder relationships.
The CEO’s commitment to change was clarified by the PR adviser’s one-on-one interviews with all of his direct reports and by employee surveys. As a result, the CEO initiated a shared-values process and a new management development and training program. The PR consultant now serves in a broader role as a leadership adviser.
Finally, here are three tips for how PR executives can help CEOs deal with increasing complexity:
1. Take an integrated approach to communications: Bringing together branding, workplace, investor, community and product communications will enhance corporate reputation and business results.
2. Think big picture: Your demonstrated understanding, even passion, for both business and communications strategy, is critical to being a more trusted adviser to senior management.
3. Practice leadership communications: Through your PR expertise, you can help the CEO succeed in a complex business environment. PRN
CONTACT:
J.R. Hipple is CEO of reputation management agency Hipple&Co., based in Atlanta. He is chair-elect of the PRSA Counselor’s Academy. He can be reached at [email protected].