19961007
MENTORING: AN APPROACH MEANT FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS
October 7, 1996
Unlike many professions, a good deal about PR is learned on the job. This is because many people enter PR from other fields, such as journalism or marketing. Also, while large numbers of PR university graduates have entered the field in the last 20 years, much of real world PR has to be learned on the job.
On-the-job training can be enhanced when PR departments or PR firms develop formal mentoring programs that allow seasoned staff to teach and guide junior professionals. We spoke with PR executives at three companies about their approaches.
Sue Bohle, President
The Bohle Co.
At The Bohle Co., a 37-person technology and business-to-business PR firm in Los Angeles, mentoring is a part of all employees' lives, says Sue Bohle, president.
When an intern begins work with the firm, they immediately are assigned to an account executive (AE) who becomes his or her mentor. This not only helps bring interns up to speed, it also often is the first supervisory role for young AEs, allowing them an opportunity to grow. "The responsibility of training the younger people or newer people in the firm starts as soon as you're an AE," she says.
Another part of the mentoring program is participating in various agency committees that address issues related to the management of the firm. Individuals are prohibited from serving on a committee that includes their boss. This gives staffers a chance to interact and learn from senior staffers outside of a direct reporting relationship.
The Bohle Co. also makes at least one of its top officers available for two hours one evening each month to answer questions from staffers.
Bohle believes all PR people need mentoring throughout their career. Early in her career, she found her mentors among the seasoned PR executives at the companies where she worked. "There's just so much to learn in your first six to eight years," she says. Today, having launched and successfully run two PR firms, she finds most of her mentors outside of PR in the business field--such as among clients.
Mike Sweeny, Director of PR
Symantec Corp. [SYMC]
Because counseling bosses and clients is a central part of public relations practice, "by our very nature we're mentors," says Mike Sweeny, director of public relations at software company Symantec Inc., Cupertino, Calif. As a result, he believes that many times those giving or receiving mentoring may be unaware that this exchange is taking place.
While most people focus on mentoring within organizations, Sweeny points out that a good deal of mentoring also goes on between colleagues in different companies, who call on each other for advice, or work together on industry committees.
Based on his prior experience in various PR firms and corporations, Sweeny believes that mentoring is more widely practiced by firms than by corporations. A major reason for this is that in agencies, individuals have many opportunities to work in teams, giving them a chance to be exposed to others' styles and techniques.
The intensive agency training retreats used by a number of firms can be very valuable, he believes. Sweeny participated in weekend programs at Hill and Knowlton's "College" when he was with that firm. By working on assined projects with a diverse group of peers and senior managers from different levels of the firm, he found that not only did he learn from the immediate experience, but he was able to use these people as sounding boards later on.
Imparting knowledge of skills and techniques is the easiest part of mentoring. The more subtle benefit of mentoring is its ability to cultivate "judgment, maturity and perspective, giving people the ability to take action and make the right decisions," Sweeny says.
Fred Hoar, President
Lisa Kelaita, General Manager
Miller/Shandwick Technologies
At high-tech PR firm Miller/Shandwick Technologies, Mountain View, Calif., management believes that new staffers must come in with strong writing skills and an aptitude for understanding technology. But that "leaven of professionalism" must be supplemented by training and ongoing mentoring at the firm, says Fred Hoar, president.
As soon as someone joins Miller/Shandwick, they are assigned a "buddy," he says. In addition to helping new staffers to understand administrative procedures and policies, this person is available as "a friendly critic on whom they can depend and from whom they can gain tremendous insights," says Hoar.
Part of the mentoring at Miller/Shandwick takes place through an approach the firm calls "management by walking around," says Lisa Kelaita, general manager of the Mountain View, Calif., office. This simply involves senior managers spending time out among other staffers, so they are able to observe and offer insights as work is being done.
In other cases, it means inviting junior staffers to sit in on a meeting or phone call so they can learn from a more experienced executive. For example, Hoar, who is experienced in investor relations from earlier stints at Apple Computer Inc. [AAPL] and other companies, often invites staffers to monitor phone calls he makes to a financial analyst or reporter, to see how this should be handled.
Another part of mentoring are brainstorming sessions held at least once a month. While the main purpose of these is to generate ideas for a client program, the sessions are a "great way" for junior staff to see the thinking of their more experienced colleagues, says Kelaita.