Conventional wisdom dictates that a typical PR pro is happy in
their position for 2-3 years before becoming restless and in
search of a new job. Given that the PR job market has pretty much
been frozen since 2000, it's safe to say that once it begins to
thaw, there will be a lot of folks ready to make jumps into new
positions offering greater responsibilities, challenges, and
opportunities.
Ever optimistic about a job recovery, we've outlined ten key steps
to starting a new PR job on the right foot. While this guide
might not aid all PR pros this month, we hope that it will help
many as they transition to new positions in the year ahead.
1. MEET EVERYONE.
If there's one thing PR pros could arguably not overdo, it's being
ubiquitous. Get to know everyone across the organization as
quickly as possible, demonstrating respect and interest in every
individual’s area of expertise. You never know who you'll have to
work with in the future, so work hard to proactively establish a
rapport early.
Also, remember people's names--try to use their name at the end of
your initial conversation with them, both as a self-check for you
and affirmation for them of how you find them to be valuable and
important associates. If you don't remember, regretfully apologize
and acknowledge that you're bad at learning new names, asking them
to helpfully remind you.
Finally, as soon as your conversation ends with them, write their
name down along with a quick, distinguishing physical description
that will guide you in easily recognizing them. When you have down
time in your office later, reflect on your notes to ensure that
you'll be able to identify them among a sea of faces during a
meeting or along the hallway.
2. WORK EXTRA HOURS.
During the first two or three weeks, spend some extra time at the
office. First impressions are being formed about you now, so this
is a critical time to demonstrate a strong commitment to the
organization. Also, create an outline, so to speak, of the hours
you're working to show your passion and intensity: send your
e-mails and voicemails, either replies or new messages, close to
the beginning of the day, near the end of the day, and during
lunch.
3. DEMONSTRATE CONSTANT CONTACT.
Check voicemail and e-mail at night and on weekends during your
first few weeks. This again re-affirms your passion and intensity.
During the first few weeks, what you don't have in company
knowledge and background can be readily made up for in drive.
4. DEMONSTRATE YOUR GRACE.
If you have employees reporting to you, bend over backwards to be
especially gracious the first few months on the job. First, you'll
need their help to get up to speed. More importantly, you're
establishing a rapport with them now. Most likely, they didn't
have much say about you coming on board. Or even worse, you might
have taken the job that one of them hoped to inherit. In either
case, now is the time to demonstrate just how gracious a person
you are, chasing them out of the office at 5 pm, glossing over
poor choices in judgment, and so on.
However, be sure to balance your friendliness with subtle
assertions that you have the broader and deeper expertise in
communications. You don't want to fall in the trap of making them
feel like you're a peer rather than a mentor.
As you become more accomplished in your role, you can begin to
clamp down on employees not keeping pace with the corporate drum
beat. The best approach, again, is to serve as a mentor. Mentors,
unlike "bosses," are looking out for the welfare and development
of their students, working to guide them to becoming a more
developed professional. "Bosses" smack of ostentatiousness and
simply want something done a certain way while having no concerns
about the human actually performing the work.
5. REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE.
Send out plenty of e-mails and voicemails. Now's the time to
establish yourself as a contact in your area of responsibility and
anchor your expertise.
This can and should be done at two different levels. First,
there's the generic message to an entire functional group, e.g.
the entire marketing team, where you introduce yourself and your
desire to work closely together.
Next, there's the follow up with the key players, where you assert
your desire to soon meet one-on-one in order to better understand
their needs and objectives while also communicating your desire to
develop communications programs tailored to help them meet THEIR
objectives.
6. LEARN THE BACKGROUND.
If you're filling a position held by a predecessor, be sure to
gain an early understanding of the previous employee’s workload
and responsibilities.
Delegate the uninteresting elements of their work NOW to your
subordinates as a form of promotion, increasing their set of
responsibilities and range of job exposure. Be sure to keep for
yourself the tasks that create high visibility for you to
executive management and leadership in other functional areas of
the company.
7. BE YOURSELF.
Don’t try to repeat the act of your predecessor. Be sure to
establish a strong margin between who they were and who you are.
Gain recognition for yourself as you, not the weaker second act of
whomever the previous employee was.
8. CONTROL YOUR EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS EARLY.
Grab your organization's top-tier media list and send out an
e-mail to all contacts as soon as possible introducing yourself,
your role, your background, and a few of the activities that
attracted you to this position. Be sure to highlight your interest
in working with the media to develop the stories they’re
interested in. Further, underscore your ability to keep them
abreast of news and on the company’s ‘inside track.’
Next, delegate the media you don’t want to have a relationship
with to subordinates. Have them send out a similar note to those
contacts. Once again, this can be implicitly presented as a form
of promotion for your direct reports, which ultimately leads to...
9. BUILD A SENSE OF TRUST WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES.
Getting back to your mentorship role, let your employees know,
both through word and deed, that you’re passionate about seeing
them succeed. Communicate the fact that you put your faith in what
they do and trust their judgment. Engender the principles you
communicate—let them know that there’s a genuine passion and
interest on your part to see them blossom.
This is a stressful time for your employees, as well as for you.
You'll earn major points and cooperation if your direct reports
sense your genuine concern for them and respect for their
capabilities and personal desires.
At the same time, they want someone to help take them to the 'next
level' of being a PR pro. That's why providing a sense of growing
responsibilities and learning by example can be so valuable to
them. Consider letting them tag along to some of the higher-up
meetings you attend, as appropriate. They'll feel the sense of
trust you put in them while also building up a strong #2 to fill
in for you as you need and according to your terms.
10. CONTROL WHAT YOU WANT TO CONTROL.
Out of all of the responsibilities on your plate, be sure to
quickly understand what you want to control out of your entire
team and what you want to delegate. Send out an e-mail at the end
of the first week to your internal clients reminding them of who
you are and what your position is, identifying the
responsibilities you’ll be managing first-hand, and how folks can
route their needs to other team members.
CONCLUSION
Starting a new job is never a piece of cake. But by keeping these
ten steps in mind, you'll have better footing at establishing the
right tone and relationships in your position for the years ahead. |
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