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Archive for the ‘Leadership’ Category

Every week someone asks me why the Schieffer School of Journalism changed the name of  its’ program in advertising and public relations to strategic communication.  If you put this question to my academic colleagues you no doubt will get different answers.

But I always have been amazed at how we continually fail to convince the public to see our profession as we do.  This is especially true when we use the term “PR,” or so I think.  I have found that people inevitably want to see PR practitioners as the servants who will send out your press release, print your brochure, plan your party, and “spin” positive stories. 

And even though we are the very professionals that claim to be able to define and communicate institutional brand identites, we have been a total failure at successfully branding our own profession. 

As a consequence, I quickly found early in my career that when I used PR in my title most CEO’s would see me as they defined the term, not as Idid. I wanted to be seen as the professional communicator who understood all the tools in the communication tool box. My role was to view the world as a collection of market or audience segments, and to know the right combination of tools for each segment, and for each situation.

So when my colleagues would get into arguments about what was more powerful, advertising or public relations, and would even treat them as separate disciplines, I was certain we were again shooting ourselves in the foot!

But I learned through trial and error that when I stopped using PR and used the term strategic communication to describe my profession, things changed. Senior managers could accept me as the one professional on the team who could help them plan comprehensive communication programs, solve real problems, deal effectively with issues, and handle crises.

Later in my career I would also find that using both strategic communication and “marketing” to describe what what I do would work even better. 

True, using the word “marketing”  is also problematic at first. But unlike my experience with PR, in today’s highly competitive world,  executives are eventually able to see that both strategic communication and marketing are sophisticated, comprehensive, executive-level functions.

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My daughter and I were talking this week about the congressional hearings on the Gulf oil spill.  We discussed the consequences of how some leaders in a crisis get associated with a negative theme which is then repeated incessantly in the news media. The result is often a lingering impression of overall ineffectiveness. 

We concluded that such impressions are unfair to any leader while trying to deal with the urgency of a serious crisis moment, and are likely to be counterproductive to finding real solutions in this terribly complex world.

How can this happen?  Simply put, the opposition states an extreme and exagerated position over and over again, a well-known debating tactic that can be used to establish the impression of legitimacy for almost any idea.  And then the news media reports it repeatedly as “breaking news,” influenced by its tendency to simplify, polarize, and dramatize. 

Examples abound: “Obama just can’t get on top of this oil crisis!”  Or, Afghanistan is Obama’s war!”  Or, “Heathcare is being taken over by the federal government!”  All are repeated themes by both the political opposition and news media, and the result is to obscure the public’s ability to appreciate and understand the complexity any president or leader faces when trying to fix a terrible crisis. 

I think we all know that every serious problem is solved only by trial and error. We try one solution, and if it doesn’t work we try another.  We learn as we go. But in this new and highly competive media world our public discourse unfolds as if we don’t know any of this.  

And so my daughter concludes: “The media makes it so.”

So, what are the lessons communicators  must learn here?  (1) In this competitive 24/7 news media world any serious crisis is likely to have at least a short-term negative reputation impact. (2) Ongoing issues and crisis training for executives will help your whole organization look more competent as it deals with issues and crises over time. (3) Effective reputation building communication is a long-term process targeted to your most critical audiences and favors direct and interactive media. It must begin well before a given crisis happens and continue long after the news media moves on.

One final comment:  As a society we must come again to appreciate what it takes to solve complex problems and to give those that find themselves in leadership positions a realistic chance to perform, no matter their political party. There will be ample time later to evaluate.  And legislators must again come to understand that once elected they are expected to work together to solve problems.  Since nothing  short of this is acceptable, we must also have a news media that can help make this happen.

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As I looked out over my class of undergraduates in London this year I found myself thinking: “How many, if any, will go from here determined to make a real difference with their lives?

It’s common knowledge that many current college students come from families where their parents made success easy for them.  These so-called “helicopter parents” meant well as they helped their children excel with class assignments, sports competitions, social relationships, and even with getting into college.

But now, these kids are about to face the most complex and confusing economy, changing job market, and threatening social and international issues one can imagine.  So in this international setting I could not help but thinking: “Who among them will be both motivated and capable of stepping up to these challenges?”

I went on to tell them: “You will need to find and live your special personal strengths. You will need to persist and stay focused day and night. Yes, you can play hard and have a strong family life, but to make a difference in this complex world you will have to be able to carry a dream of achievement with you day and night.”

In the last two years I have been able to witness this kind of successful integration of professional and social life among the very smart and talented people in the Washington think-tank and association world. These are driven people, to be sure, but most also have strong families and know how to have fun!

So, I went on to suggest: “Find an enterprise or industry related to your strengths.  Make it your cause. Take on an innovative attitude. Embrace truly smart and creative people and put yourself around them. And learn to love the politics related to building support for your passion.”

Even so, as I said goodbye to head back to the USA, I was really worried that all of us, parents and professors, may be leaving them unprepared for real personal achievement, and for what it will truly take to make a significant difference in this complex and perplexing world.

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Recently, I participated in an executive retreat where everyone immediately began raising questions and making comments about how the organization was perceived in the world. 

Comments ranged from identifying top reputation-defining programs to assessing the social trends most likely to impact the future. Participants even referenced the many communication challenges they will be facing in order to meet their goals.

But no one ever seemed to realize that what they were talking about was marketing 101. Everyone clearly accepted that dealing with these issues was their job, and yet no one ever turned to the marketing executive to ask what she would do.  

Reflecting on all this I thought: “The best way I could bring a big chill over this room would be to mention the “M” word right here and now! So I never did.

Rather, I noted to myself that sometimes you don’t even mention that word.  You let people talk about “their passion,” and then over time you help them see that what they were really talking about all along is called “strategic marketing!”

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Last weekend I was invited to attend a meeting at Duke University. It was an especially enriching opportunity to meet some truly exciting scholars and academics who reminded me rather dramatically what my work in advancement is all about. In this time of extreme political polarization there are indeed some truly smart people around us who really do know how to make the world a better place.

Those attending met Dan Ariely, Professor of Behavioral Economics, who not only made behavioral research exciting, but made it relevant to everyday human problem-solving.  We met Michael Merson, Director of the Duke Global Health Institute, who demonstrated how creative interdisciplinary projects can mobilize virtually all academic disciplines to focus on solving major global problems. Cathy Davidson, Professor of English and Interdisplinary Studies, explained how the new media world is bringing left and right brain together to change how a whole generation is thinking about everything.  And we met many more people at Duke who are just as exciting and relevant to today’s pressing issues.

With the roles of governments changing and big budget cuts a reality the work of supporting these scholars, and the many like them everywhere, is becoming more and more essential every year. 

Indeed, this kind of interdisciplinary global education is actually public diplomacy of the first order, and the mobilization of our best talent to address our biggest problems will be critical to saving the planet.

When politicians insist on always going to the extemes of ideology which plunge us into constant conflict, the global challenge of educational and nonprofit institutions will be to bring people together to find real solutions.

I certainly came away from Duke last weekend more energized than ever about my work.

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After spending 40 years in higher education working to help institutions become better understood, I find myself thinking back on the “lessons I learned.”  Most of them were lessons learned the hard way, sometimes wasting years laboring under misconceptions about how things really work, or stifled by my own lack of confidence to find a way to just keep pushing ahead.

So years later, it now has become a passion of mine to find talented marketers, skilled communicators, and high potential institutions, and to help them save as much time and pain as I can. While it’s not advanced rocket science, success in institutional marketing requires a nuanced combination of art and science nudged ahead with a good dose of seasoned experience and savvy.  Join me in the months ahead and I will share what I think I have learned.

Lesson #1

Much of the reluctance to embrace marketing in nonprofit institutions, NGOs, associations, government agencies and universities is based on the misconception that to do so will commercialize the enterprise and turn it into a retail sales organization. And, of course, most professionals in these institutions find this inappropriate to their purposes.

But, much to the contrary, marketing is a way of thinking that enables an organization to align its competitive advantage strengths with changing social needs and trends.  It is a management practice of considering products, programs, their price, their distribution and their communication, simultaneously. It is the assertion that it is impossible to successfully promote a product or program that does not connect to a real need in society, or is not priced appropriately, or is not delivered conveniently. Successful institutional marketing, then, is merely making a genuine connection between the right product or program and a real need in the marketplace.

Most program executives, university administrators, or faculty members who come to see marketing as a way of thinking, rather than as a way of commercializing, are able to understand how this tool can become a powerful way of making the institution better understood, and thus more successful.  My suggestions is to always begin explaining institutional marketing to institutional executives with these words: Marketing is a way of thinking…”

Each week we will identify and discuss more hard learned lessons, and respond to your reactions and ideas. Welcome to our conversation.

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