Are we overdosing on steps to success?

I posted a tongue-in-cheek comment to LinkedIn a couple of days ago that if I followed all 55 tips I consumed in one week on everything from communicating effectively and building a cohesive team to being a better leader to achieving career success, would I truly be better off or just confused? Sure, that's an extreme stance, and I realize we must possess good judgement to pick and choose that which is most valuable, but it's worth pondering.

This week alone, well-meaning and successful writers/career coaches have posted the following steps to success-type articles:

- "5 things to do to grow the Influencers in your organisation"

- "Let go of the rope? #18 Mentorship Lessons"

- "10 Ways to slow poisoning an organization (part 2/5) More scripts and plots"

- "Top 5 Tips To Having A Productive Team"

- "6 CASH FLOW TIPS FOR STARTUP COMPANIES"

- "8 steps to refresh your business plan"

- "10 ½ Quick Ways to Energize Your Team"

My favorite on the list has to be the last article because the author wasn't content to stop at the confines of ten, but was entrepreneurial enough to add a 1/2 tip at the end. Who am I to judge? A majority of these articles have anywhere between 170-500 comments ranging from "excellent advice" and "well written" to "that's a piece of hogwash" and "write for the appropriate audience please."

Anyway, is there a secret governing organization hidden in the frosty tundra of Alaska that determines what steps have a higher success rate than others? Is the leader a bald guy named Blofeld? If so, does he pet a grumpy cat and discard of unworthy 7-steps-to-success authors by dropping them through a trap door that leads to flesh-eating sharks?

So, what the heck is my point? Well, maybe there's increased value to be found in introspection and a willingness to learn from our own, unique experiences to become more successful or productive? Otherwise, at what point are we following steps, as crafted by people whom we've never met, that will lead us to a brick wall instead of mass admiration?

Honestly, if we're all following the same 55 1/2 tips, we're just going to run into each other and explode -- if only because we're simultaneously trying to figure out how to achieve a 1/2 tip.

CAUTION: What Facebook and Twitter have in common with Peanut the bird

I have the honor and privilege of being graced by the presence of a two-year-old conure (a species of

parrot) named Peanut.  For bird owners out there, you know what I mean. Conures have a naturally inquisitive look about them and they can certainly draw you in with their seemingly hospitable character and small size. However, catch Peanut on a bad day and that cute and fun little bird has just drawn blood on your finger, nose, etc. So, if you're approaching a bird like Peanut, you should know what you're dealing with and understand the boundaries you're operating within.

Much like Peanut, Facebook and Twitter are extremely tempting, especially for communicators. Both outlets provide a fantastic opportunity to have a more fun and informal dialogue with our customers, constituents, friends, reporters, etc.  Many of us engage in these channels in both our personal and professional lives. We invite people from both walks to be our “friends” or followers, many of whom are also community leaders and fellow communicators.

Generally, communications professionals should be afforded the same rights to privacy that anyone else is. However, when we choose to enter a government-related communications and spokesperson position, the line between what’s private and what’s public becomes increasingly blurred. Like it or not, if our salaries are funded through tax dollars, or like me, through rate paying customer-owners of a municipal utility, that line just became nearly invisible. Crossing that line is suddenly easier than catching Peanut on a bad day.

Hypothetically, say those Facebook “friends” just read your post on how a local leader likely had an affair with his secretary or should be fired because he’s an idiot. Well, the people you thought were your friends decided to share a screen capture of your comments with their friends, who then sent it to their friends, and so on and so on. Sooner or later, one of those people might not like what you had to say because they pay your salary. And worst yet, they might be a reporter. Even if you get off without any sort of formal punishment, you've just damaged your credibility as a spokesperson and indirectly harmed the image and reputation of your employer.

Using the excuse of, “it’s my personal Facebook page” just doesn't wash. As we all know, what’s posted on Facebook, stays on Facebook, and is anything but private. When we open ourselves up on social media with foolish behavior, we might as well take out a personal advertisement for someone else to take our job.

Social media has changed the landscape we work in. The positives greatly outweigh the negatives. However, as government communicators, our right to 100% privacy – while perhaps protected legally – becomes increasingly difficult to define in the court of public opinion, especially when our language crosses the line of society’s definition of acceptable behavior, e.g., calling for a local leader to be harmed physically or fired without proof of wrongdoing.

To do our jobs effectively, especially as a spokesperson, our credibility is our greatest ally. Damaging it because we didn’t look before leaping is inexcusable for people in our position.

Industry experience preferred

Reading some job postings would lead you to believe today’s public relations practitioner actually designs and builds rocket ships instead of explaining the quality, relevance and value of the rocket ships to a non-technical audience. Otherwise, why include, “industry experience preferred” in a posting whereby you hope to hire the very best strategic communicator possible and not the coolest industry techie?

I believe that industry experience – while nice to have in a candidate – is not the barometer for what separates a great public relations hire from just a good one.

Communications strategists can be an organization’s best liaison between the folks who design the widgets and the people who buy or use them. Some of the best message development, in both good and bad times, comes from those professionals who can take a level-headed, customer-first perspective by focusing less on industry snobbery disguised in technical details and more on the core qualities of the product or service being offered.

Requiring your public relations counsel to become so deeply embedded in your industry or market can have less-than-stellar consequences. Why?  Strategic communicators are most effective when they can create messages that are relatable to customers when things are going well and empathetic to your audience when things don't go as planned. Becoming entrenched in a particular industry for a long period of time can cause even the best PR professionals to lose sight of this and formulate more passion about their given industry than the people their industry serves.

I've been a communications strategist in the utilities industry for the past thirteen years, yet I've had the privilege to work alongside talented PR professionals who have entered the utilities world from the outside rather than from the inside. They've offered fresh perspectives, out-of-the-box thought, a customer-first priority and found new ways to tell our story – all of which made me a better professional. I've learned more from them than anyone else.

This is perhaps a broad brush and is not intended to disrespect PR practitioners who are seasoned in a given industry. After all, I’m among that group. Instead, it’s to point out that effective public relations counsel extends well beyond the walls of industries and markets.

I believe strongly that trained and tested professionals can easily make the leap from industry to industry, and perhaps offer hiring authorities something beyond their pre-conceived notions of what public relations is and is not.

Organizations hire communications strategists for a reason, and it’s not always to tell them what they want to hear or that the model of “we've always done things this way because it’s the industry standard” is good PR. It’s time to break down the walls of industry experience preferred and expand the horizons of what a trained practitioner can truly offer you and your organization.

Blasphemy! Is APR designation becoming overrated?

In a field where who you know is sometimes much more important than what you know, and where trends are pointing to career news directors and reporters being hired into high-profile public relations positions, increasingly obscure and PR-centric titles are becoming less relevant to career advancement and overall success. 

At the risk of committing PR blasphemy, I do wonder if the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Accredited in Public Relations (APR) designation is losing the luster it once had? I'm increasingly concerned that it will slip into oblivion until our profession’s leadership at the national, regional and local level take a more assertive role in advocating for trained practitioners with would-be employers. 

Sadly, I write this as a long-time, accredited member of PRSA. While I may eventually let the APR designation slip – I’ve been accredited since 2001 – I will remain a PRSA member until I retire or leave the profession. So, while this will be seen as a critical piece, I will always stay loyal to PRSA, for it is still the profession’s best hope for representation.

It is my desire that through criticism comes an awakening that there is more work to be done at all levels, right down to me. This is work that transcends designations, and focuses more on what we can do as professionals to bring increased credibility to what it means to be a strategic communicator. 

I distinctly recall being told over and over again by long-time PRSA members that an APR designation would reap near-instant respect among employers and inch you closer to the top of the applicant stack. In fairness, perhaps I only heard what I wanted to hear. After all, that was 13 years ago and my dreams were slightly grander than what they are now. 

Rosy, self-imagined glory aside, my personal journey and that of some of my closest friends in the field is one that points to the APR as an overly-hyped designation that has done little to help one progress through the highly competitive field that is public relations, much less get an interview for a key job. 

Let’s face it, bias reigns supreme on most hiring teams seeking their next PR practitioner. While there are still pockets where that bias prefers members who are accredited, I’d argue that it’s becoming increasingly rare. Instead, I’ve been told of entire statewide hospital systems not hiring or even interviewing people who did not have a background as a reporter or news director. That news should send a big message to those of us of the more traditional mindset. 

There have been several instances regionally where highly qualified, accredited members were unable to land even a phone interview for positions that ultimately went to a former news director or journalist, or a person from a former big-name employer or city with otherwise similar credentials to the bypassed, accredited practitioner. 

Rather than addendums to a name, it’s so much more about landing in the right place at the right time, networking relentlessly, learning leadership skills at a young age, sampling the news industry and embracing diversification from the start – all qualities employers seem to be craving from their PR hires. 

In this tough economy and in a field where everyone and their grandmother believes they can excel in PR because they can write or meet a deadline, employers have tremendous latitude and selectivity when picking their next PR leader. Such latitude pushes accreditation titles way down on the list. 

Rather than encouraging practitioners to pursue an APR, perhaps we should be pointing them toward a master’s degree instead? Not that they’re mutually exclusive, but if titles and certificates matter to an employer, I’d venture to guess that a master’s degree in business administration will trump an APR every time. So, for example, would a PRSA-sponsored, masters-level scholarship program be a more worthwhile use of resources?

Nothing against my colleagues in the media industry, but if experienced public relations professionals are losing out on key positions, we ultimately have no one else to blame but ourselves. For the profession to not become even more marginalized into an employer’s desire for “positive press” and an over simplification of ROI, we – both collectively and personally – have to be willing to shake things up and become more assertive in defining what it means to be strategic public relations professionals. 

Accreditations are still nice to haves, if anything for personal growth, but obviously have little meaning to employers who are looking for the quick fix in a challenging marketplace.