The Good, The Bad, The Spin

Read part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.

Jim Lukaszewski: Doing things in real time is really important because the boss has three fundamental goals as leader. The first thing they have to do is to find new places to go. They’re the person that goes over the horizon to see where it is we have to be heading based on where we are today. Their job is then to come back and tell us about it. So the major role that any leader has is to be the chief strategist. Strategy is all about tomorrow–where we’re headed. This person is head strategist in the organization.

The second thing these people have to do is once they’ve decided on new destinations, is to prime the people to get the job done. When you look at where the organizations fail on leadership, it is either they pick crummy destinations or they fail to influence the people to get the vision accomplished.

The third thing these people have to do is go into the organization—and this is communication—and teach and coach and reiterate and remind them of what the mission is, where we’re headed, why we’re going there, why people should be motivated and energized to get these things done.

The remaining roles of these leaders is to monitor, to tweak things, to identify where they have to change direction to modify what their findings were and that sort of thing. A lot of this is communication.

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Blogs inundate the Internet and it’s questionable to assume the technology is ultimately the best way to get one’s message across. It’s wise to be guarded about trends, especially in public relations. Conversely, it’s wise to follow communications trends to be aware of where, and how, people will get their information.

Consider blogs the independent media of the day. When I was in journalism school, I took part in what was then being called the ‘zine revolution, wherein independent publishers printed booklets, journals, newspapers, magazines on shoestring budgets. The impact was similar to how blogs break stories today. (more…)

You have to have sympathy for the PR folks who worked for Enron, Exxon, FEMA and the countless other organizations that endured public relations crises and came out for the worse. In times of crisis, it is not the PR person who needs to be on point and handling the public and media with savvy. The top dog can make or break the organization’s reputation, often at great cost not only to shareholders and other constituents but the public directly affected by the company. (more…)