Posts Tagged ‘management’

PRSA Silver Anvil Competition – Ideas for Improving Your Next PR Plan, Program

Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013
PRSA Silver Anvil

PRSA Silver Anvil

Posted by Tom Gable

The judges in the 2013 Silver Anvil competition were faced with a plethora of programs built on using the latest and hottest tool or distribution channel available. Beyond the fluff, we often found a spectacular lack of substance. This leads to sharing a compelling truth that runs through the heart of every winning Silver Anvil entry and may benefit all PR professionals: good research provides the foundation for smart strategic planning, brilliant creative and precise execution toward achieving measurable objectives that matter.

The PR tool kit has expanded considerably over the past two decades of my judging Silver Anvil entries (done in years when Gable PR didn’t enter). But are we using the tools in an integrated and strategic fashion? Will the results drive anything meaningful? Are we just having fun playing with things that don’t really drive sales, help achieve marketing goals or turn around an image?

The annual competition can feel like the classic movie, Groundhog Day. The same fuzzy-edged little critters keep popping up each year and in every category (usually chirping about media hits). In reviewing results with other veteran judges from the Counselors Academy and College of Fellows after this year’s recent session, I found a universal impression that some of the entrants hadn’t read the rules or bothered to check out past winners on the PRSA website. The latter exercise would have saved several hundred of the 847 entrants from wasting their entry fees.

The judging criteria are straightforward: 10 points maximum in each category of research, planning, implementation and evaluation, or 40 points total. Sadly, we had many entries that didn’t hit double digits.

I delved deeper in last year’s Silver Anvil coverage. This year, I asked some fellow judges for insights they felt were worth sharing.  Here are the highlights:

Top Five Winning Program Essentials

  1. Solid research to establish a baseline for measurement and evaluation (this can be both secondary and primary; polling; online surveys; crunching one year of social media data to find trends that could lead to a new position for a client; use of psychographics, demographics and other findings that would help in the positioning and planning).
  2. Setting measurable objectives (e.g. turning around image from 3-to-1 against the company to 2-to-1 favorable within one year; successfully introduce the new family of mobile applications, build market awareness to X percent within six months, generate reviews in the top ten media, grow subscribers by Y percent within one year, introduce one cause marketing program that adds another Z subscribers in one year and generates $X for the cause).
  3. Implementing strategically through all channels that can help drive a result (print, broadcast, social media, local events, direct mail, contests, guerrilla marketing, promotions, conference programs, and cause marketing).
  4. For evaluation, the best programs set measurable objectives in many categories. As noted last year, the top programs included achievements in: meetings and special events held, increased attendance, better product reviews, increased distribution, doubling social media likes and followers, winning design awards, expanding promotional program results by a certain percentage, improving share of voice, launching a cause marketing program that raised X dollars, doubling the number of analysts following the company, increasing stock volume, improving internal communications globally as measured by continuous progress in online surveys among all employees on impressions of quality, using social media to drive more hits and qualified leads to the company website, reducing calls to the 800 number in favor of website conversations and increasing sales and market share.
  5. Always keep the results-oriented continuum in mind: great research drives new creativity and smart planning; the detailed planning across all channels helps set measurable objectives and guides precise implementation; and evaluation ties back into all your brilliant work in research and planning.

Ten Biggest Shortcomings

  1. Poor or missing research (e.g. one entry noted that they conducted research by interviewing the client contacts; another cited research in the executive summary about consumer motivations but didn’t include anything in the Research section for validation; some didn’t have a Research section)
  2. Not setting measurable objectives
  3. Setting objectives based solely on amount of media coverage
  4. Setting vague objectives, such as building brand image, but with no means of measurement (the winners documented how they conducted research on baseline consumer awareness, and then built their programs to drive awareness, which was measured at the end, along with metrics)
  5. Developing one-dimensional plans, such as just having a social media strategy
  6. Not outlining the rationale behind strategies and plans (e.g. one judge called this “doing a lot of stuff because the tools were exciting”)
  7. Relying on huge budgets and spectacular events to carry the day (fellow judges shared background on several entries where the scope of the program was impressive but the results weren’t)
  8. Not having a precise plan for implementation
  9. Providing numbers on media hits, Twitter followers and other metrics but without tying them back into the research and planning
  10. And the number one shortcoming: not turning in an entry that covered each of the four areas being judged: research, planning, implementation and evaluation

Beyond the transgressions, there was agreement that the PR profession is continuing to raise the overall quality of all programs. We are being given more opportunities to conceive, create and implement complex and strategic programs that are out of the purview of most marketing, advertising and other consulting companies. We are becoming more trusted advisors in the C-suite and included in company-wide long-range strategic planning. But the bar needs to be raised another notch. These ideas may help.

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PR Resume Heaven (or the other place); the Gable PR Refresher Course

Wednesday, August 8th, 2012

Standing Out

Posted by Tom Gable

We blogged last year about “Looking for a Job in PR? Gable PR Has Tips for Getting Resumes Read, Advancing Toward an Offer.”  After receiving more than 100 resumes recently for an intern opening and seeing everything from candidates for sainthood and the Pulizter Prize to the uneducated (or on some form of hallucinogen), it seemed time for a quick refresher course.

Our emotions surged and waned: admiration for the work ethic of some (multiple internships, working more than one job, active in organizations); disbelief that some students were actually in college or recently graduated (poor grammar, typos); and some LOL experiences (using the name of another agency in the salutation when emailing Gable PR; and probably doing the same to the other agency).

Other issues: blank emails with no introductory messages, just attachments named “resume”;  all the resumes named “resume” (think about personal branding!); wrong agency name in the subject line; and including photos taken with a phone at a party.

For specifics, here is one we are going to submit to the What Were They Thinking Resume Hall of Fame.

From: REDACTED

Subject: ATTN: Gable PR (to whome it may concern)

To whom it may concern, hello my name is XYZ and I am a undergrad student at San Diego State and while browsing the Public Relations Soceity of America site I came across your webpage and in my efforts to try and obtain a internship in the field I am writing to whom it may concern in regards to any possible intenship positions you all may be offering. Thank you for your time, if there is anything at all that might be availble please contact me, I am a more than willing student trying to get a start and oppurtunity in the field, I can also send my resume, etc. over as well.

Thank you all for your time

We did provide feedback:

Thank you for your inquiry.  Unfortunately, we won’t be able to consider you because of the number of typographical and grammatical errors in this email. 

For future inquiries, you might want to spellcheck your work and also have someone else proof it.

Good luck in your search.

Gable PR

Count the errors, post a comment and the winner gets a free PDF copy of the PR Client Service Manual.

On the good news side, we liked the following as an example of a smart, short introductory email:

Hello,

I am a senior at San Diego State University studying public relations and minoring in political science. As I am close to graduating and starting a career in the public relations field I am looking for an internship that will help me put my education in perspective to the real world. I have held previous internship positions doing public relations for San Diego businesses and I am interested in growing with a firm. I have a passion for blogging, reading newspapers, writing, fashion and travel. I was wondering if Gable Public Relations had any internship openings. I have attached my resume for your convenience.

And a final one from someone with a few years of professional experience, which we liked because of the detail that related to our profession:

From: REDACTED

Subject: Rockstar Publicist Looking for New Home

Hi Tom,

I’ve recently relocated from Florida to San Diego and I’m seeking a publicist position at a dynamic agency in town. At a meeting with ABC of DEF PR, she spoke very highly of your agency and I wanted to reach out and see if there are any current opportunities.

I have 3+ years’ experience as a results-oriented PR professional who has a passion for media relations and client satisfaction. Highlights of my capabilities include:

• Exceptional writing and editing skills; from press releases and newsletters to media kits distributed to retailers nationwide.

• Developing client plans, presentations and creative ideas while working with executive team.

• Creating and maintaining excellent media relations on regional and national levels through aggressive print, online and broadcast pitching. Clients received exposure in top outlets such as: Good Housekeeping, Parents, CBS Early Show, NBC Today, and Good Day LA.

•Extensive knowledge of broadcast media, securing and executing over 45 segments last year alone.

• Working in both a team and individual dynamic to exceed client expectations.

• Planning various media tours, from small destination immersions to hosting 30+ media professionals.

If there are any open positions I’d love to be considered.

Unfortunately, we didn’t have openings at the time.  We did let the individuals know that we would be saving their resumes for future reference should our needs change.  Great cover letters and resumes do make a difference in the PR job search.

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Time Management Tips for Busy PR (and other) People

Saturday, June 9th, 2012

On the Clock

 

Posted by Tom Gable

The following daily planning ritual, adapted from many resources, helps busy people manage multiple activities more effectively. Success requires establishing simple new habits. Some busy people use their personal process at the end of the day, so they are ready for a fresh start in the morning. Others like to go through these steps first thing in the morning, to refresh their memories, put the previous day in perspective and then update the daily and weekly checklists to plan and prioritize future actions.

Busy executives and PR account teams are buffeted by regular interruptions, outside demands (media and otherwise) and the internal churn of agency interactions. Our days are often filled with ambiguities and uncertainties. Establishing a daily ritual to plan and even create just a simple prioritized checklist can set the stage for more productive and effective work. Your road map for the day and week will make it easier to take the inevitable side trip or two, and then hop back on your personal Interstate Highway or more scenic planned route to resume your journey toward results. With a little practice, this daily planning and analysis ritual can take just 15 to 30 minutes. Once mastered, you will find it amazingly effective and liberating.

1. Clean Up – I found a common thread in the habits of our most effective clients and the many people I admire who lead top PR firms and share ideas with their fellow members of the PRSA Counselors Academy: they end each day by cleaning up all email, memos and other correspondence. Time management gurus recommend handling a message just once – decide what needs to be done with it immediately so you don’t waste time going back to it a third or fourth time before making a decision. Empty both IN and OUT email boxes; file the messages accordingly. It took me a little while to get into this ritual. But it is amazing to end or start each day with empty email in-boxes and sent mail boxes. As a former email pack rat, I found a huge feeling of accomplishment just getting rid of the glut and move emails into folders in an orderly filing system. Using the powerful search function in mail is fine for some. I prefer not having 4,238 emails in my In Box! As noted above, this means “single-handling or dealing with any piece of paper or email only once. Take action, respond, and delete, whatever. The time-wasting quagmire: setting something aside and going back to it over and over again. Procrastination and unneeded repetition are proven to be tremendous wastes of time.

1.a. Document – For those of us who keep time, record the time, which helps with analysis and perspective as well. I start the clean up process with the Sent folder in email. Those emails usually involve giving direction, tracking programs and sending materials to clients, the media and colleagues for action. The Sent folder provides a neat little chronology of the actions of the day.

2. Analyze and Put Into Perspective – Analyze what you’ve just reviewed quickly. It puts the day in perspective and starts the brain cogitating on future action items.

3. Record – Make a short list of major action items for the coming day and beyond if needed.

4. Prioritize – Assign your own code to prioritize action items, such as an “A” list or “B” or “C” list. Some people get more specific and number the list in order of how they plan to knock off each action item, i.e. 1, 2, 3, etc. Tinkering with administrative work or doing anything that doesn’t advance your plan are sure signs of procrastination and perhaps not wanting to deal with difficult challenges. Experts recommend attacking the hardest item first, so the rest of the day is a down-hill cruise.

5. Plan – Think about the day and week ahead. This is very much like looking at something with journalistic eyes — the five Ws and H (who, what, where, when, why and how). A quick thought process: what happened before and what needs to happen now, who needs to be involved if it requires additional resources, where, why is it important or on the list, how do we best make this happen and by when?  How do we leverage resources as needed for greater impact?

6. Schedule – Some people make notes on their daily calendar on when they anticipate taking specific actions. This includes scheduling quiet time for research, creative or other activities that require concentration without interruption (turn off the cell phone, don’t look at email and totally focus on the task at hand). Block time for yourself. Schedule meetings with others as needed. Also, schedule to your strengths, such as blocking the time of the day when you are most creative for brainstorming and setting aside the dullest times of the day for administrative work.

7. Implement Your Plan – Manage and adjust as necessary. You’ll find you get into a rhythm and pattern. Knock off one priority item, then another, and build momentum. You gain confidence as you realize how effective you can be in taking control and managing toward results.

8. Celebrate! – Give yourself a high-five, pat-on-the-back, kudos, extra snack, glass of wine or other reward, for taking charge of your day, week, month, nagging issue, complex projects, etc. Take great pleasure is knocking off those items one at a time and in bundles.

As a caveat, developing this new habit is like any other new skill, it requires committing to the time to learn, practice and improve upon. Some people are instant masters of this. For others, it’s adapting the ritual to their own particular rhythms and strengths. Then, with regular use, this ritual becomes almost automatic and even more effective.

(Note: this is adapted from a chapter in the upcoming Fifth Edition of “The PR Client Service Manual — Managing for Results”)

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Nine Steps to Improved Mentoring and PR Team Results

Friday, May 4th, 2012

Get the PR Ball Rolling

Posted by Tom Gable

In the previous post, I introduced the concept of PR as a team sport.  How to organize to deliver consistent, quality results for clients? How can you achieve your goals with the minimum possible resources?  How to leverage time, so one hour of senior management can turn into ten hours or more of productive work by others on multiple fronts?

I covered the two big traps: do it yourself; and throw everything at the issue (full-court press, hair on fire, etc.). Now, what positive, pro-active thought processes and check lists can help in leveraging your talent?  As noted before, Michael Gerber, in the classic e-Myth Revisited, advises building the team from the bottom up. Create checks and balances and systems so average people can achieve extraordinary results.  Here are nine steps that have worked over time to leverage talent for improved mentoring and team results, not just in PR but in almost every type of business:

1. Spread the Wealth – Analyze what needs to be accomplished and plan to achieve it with the fewest resources possible. Start at the lowest level and work upward.

2. Communicate Clearly – Set your lever in motion with the power of clear, precise communication. Provide specific direction, timetables, expectations and creative guidance.  Then ask if the person understands the mission. Reach agreement on the details. This two-way communication is essential in keeping junior people, in particular, from struggling with ambiguous assignments.

3. Leverage – Once you’ve given good direction, think about how far others can advance the work before you need to get involved. The goal: have others accomplish 70 to 80 percent of the most time-consuming work.

4. Orchestrate – This starts with clear directions. Then, the good manager has check points along the way. Five to ten minutes of quality time at critical junctures adds more leverage. The manager keeps the parts moving forward together toward the desired goal, making adjustments as needed and communicating appropriately.

5. Respond – Managers need to respond to requests for more direction or clarity as soon as possible. Your job is to help other people do their job better than they would have otherwise. The reverse lever starts working when you don’t, building up negative pressure throughout the organization. Positive reinforcement and encouragement will improve the ultimate product. Harsh criticism or condescending approaches, like the old professor in journalism school, can be demoralizing and counter-productive.

6. Monitor, Course Correct, Critique, Delegate Again – Don’t get stuck in the do-it-yourself trap. Send poor or mediocre work back for another round. Provide specific feedback and point them to other resources if needed. The basic process: pre-brief and discuss, provide adequate background and resources, monitor progress, QC, critique, and evolve to demand increasingly higher levels of results. The process ensures that each person soon understands what is expected of them and what needs to be done to generate the right result. People want to learn and grow. Send it back until it’s 80 to 90 percent of the desired level, then step in and guide them the rest of the way.

7. Look for Inefficiencies in Your Approach – Analyze if you are following the above steps with precision. What do you need to do better?  What will it take?  Are you helping people do their job better or are you an obstacle?

8. Don’t Get Stuck in Minutiae – To ensure you have time to put your best energies and brainpower into things with the highest payoff, deal with all the nagging, short-term issues with alacrity. Don’t put it off. If it can be moved forward or a need satisfied in less than five minutes, do it!  The trap is to keep setting aside these little things until you have a big pile of garbage projects or tasks. Then, instead of having dealt with something once and been done with it, you touched it again and again, wasting more time and brainpower and perhaps causing frustration among your team.

9. Promote and Praise – With ongoing delegation and smart management, you will help your team members graduate to increasingly higher levels of competence. As people improve, give them new challenges. Take a few chances. Test people at one level, then advance them higher as they improve. Praise good behavior right away. Harvard calls this the “Pygmalion Effect.”  Praise and good guidance can help people achieve levels of competence they never before imagined. Unduly harsh criticism and negativity can have the opposite effect.

Final Words

The best managers play an ongoing game inside their head of figuring out how to do more with less. They look at each goal, then strategies and tactics within, as potential opportunities to magnify their power through others. As Archimedes said, the lever works both ways. So the most successful managers do everything in their power to eliminate inefficiencies, redundancies, duplications, bad processes and systems or other obstacles to performance. Turning one into ten – it’s the alchemy of good management.

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PR is a Team Sport; Organizing to Win

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Leading the Surge

Posted by Tom Gable

The key to a manager’s success in a PR firm or otherwise is how well he or she can organize other people and direct them toward achieving specific goals in the most effective and efficient manner. The process needs to have an outward, multidirectional focus. What needs to be accomplished on multiple fronts? How can you achieve your goals with the minimum possible resources?  How to leverage time, so one hour of senior management can turn into ten hours or more of productive work by others on multiple fronts?  Go for a ten-fold leverage; if you achieve five-fold you will still be WAY ahead of the game.

Speaking of game, management works best as a team sport. In working on the Fifth Edition of my PR Client Service Manual, I came across guidance from an early mentor, a former dean of the College of Business at San Diego State University and a Vistage chair. He had a growth model showing how a company goes from a one-man shop (the long-distance runner, competitive swimmer, archer, gymnast, etc.), to the race car driver (one person supported by a team of mechanics), to basketball, to football and soccer (multiple players, different tasks, focused on results according to a game plan). Some liken it to a philharmonic orchestra. Whatever the model, the direction is clear: the better you can do in assembling, training, organizing, coaching and improving your talent as you move your game plan forward, the more impressive the results.

Michael Gerber, in the classic e-Myth Revisited, advises building the team from the bottom up.  Who does the tactical work?  How do you build checks and balances into your system so average people can achieve extraordinary results? Not unlike a university setting, how do you keep your talent learning and advancing, which both improves overall organizational results and gives management more time for strategic thinking or marketing? Discipline is key, particularly when it involves creative teams.

Two Big Traps

Do It Yourself – The argument: the initial work was so poor that I’ll just do it myself and save a bunch of time. The problem: you just reverse-delegated to yourself and did nothing to improve your talent for the future. Take the time to set expectations, educate, delegate and provide rapid feedback – candid and brutal if needed. The first effort may take more time than you would like, but it will pay off. If the latent talent is there, the next assignment will improve. Momentum will build. Your 15 minutes of future counsel will turn into two or three hours of useful work by someone else – the ten-fold payoff.

Throw Everything at the Issue – In this case, the manager sends a small army to do battle, wasting huge amounts of time and energy, instead of getting strategic with his team and achieving more with less. This is the dark side of leverage. Instead of going for a ten-fold increase in your ability to generate results, you have cut it by whatever your over-kill factor might be. Five people working in a room on one issue have gone from the Power of Five to the Power of One – an 80 percent reduction in efficiency!

Next: Nine Steps to Improved Mentoring and Team Results

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Shopping List for Inspiring Books on PR Creativity, Management and Innovation

Friday, December 17th, 2010

New Morning

Posted by Tom Gable

The SmartBlog on Workforce wrote that some of the most interesting conversations between business leaders tend to start with the question “what are you reading?” It created a forum that asked everyone to contribute ideas on “books that keep your forward-thinking wheels turning.”

It asked: What have you read that has made you a better leader?

The responses included classics from the field of management, war, leadership and even a few pieces of fiction. For PR, I went back through books we’ve found most helpful over the past 35 years in managing our own business and also better understanding the thinking and needs of the entrepreneurs we work with in different industries (biotech, high-tech, medical technology, renewable energy, wireless, etc.). Despite the wide variety of educational disciplines required to succeed in these different industries, several common traits emerged:

  • The creative mind is always exploring beyond the boundaries of his or her areas of expertise and comfort
  • There are no new ideas, just combinations of other ideas that can magically transform something as yet undefined and vague into a brilliant concept for the future
  • Be prepared to fail (Thomas Edison said “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”)
  • The best companies – from start ups to Fortune 100 – have both cultures that encourage creativity and established systems to keep all the elements moving forward toward measurable, desirable results
  • Good systems and leadership can turn C players into B players and B players into A players

As Michael Gerber wrote in E-Myth Revisited, the systems run the business and the people run the systems. The way we implement using the systems provides a clear means of differentiating. Gerber notes that your business model can provide consistent value to your clients, employees, the community and all others you touch — beyond what they expect. So create the system where average people can achieve extraordinary results.

From that preamble, here is a shopping list of books to get your creative mind exploring new and possibly unfamiliar territories or revisiting classic concepts. The combination should stir brilliant new thoughts and perhaps a bigger vision for 2011, with new tools to make the vision a reality.

  • The E-Myth Revisited, Michael E. Gerber (organization and systems for the entrepreneur, creativity and vision)
  • Borrowing Brilliance, the Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others, David Kord Murray
  • The 500 Year Delta, Jim Taylor and Watts Wacker
  • Innovation – The Five Disciplines for Creating What Customers Want – Curtis R. Carlson and William W. Wilmot
  • The Diffusion of Innovations, Everett Rogers
  • The Innovators Solution, Clayton Christensen
  • Jamming – The Art and Discipline of Business Creativity, John Kao
  • High Output Management, Andrew S. Grove, 1983 classic on the team ethic and the theory of assumed responsibility
  • Organizing Genius, Warren Bennis
  • Built to Last, James Collins and Jerry Porras
  • Reputation, Charles Fombrun
  • Flawless Consulting, Peter Block
  • Keys to Success, Napoleon Hill

Happy reading!

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