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.

I define strategy as mental energy verbally injected in an organization through communication that helps the leader and the organization achieve its goals.

The first discipline of a strategic advisor is to have excellent verbal skills. Being able to give advice in real time on the spot requires excellent verbal skills. One of the questions I ask is: How are your verbal skills? Can you talk purposefully? Can you give advice in real time? Can you tell stories effectively? Can you do the things that help people absorb information?

All of this is really tied to what leaders do and how they do it in a very productive way that really goes beyond communication.

Q: If I were to summarize what I’m hearing from you, it sounds like from a public relations perspective you’re suggesting to think, not necessarily within the public relations realm, but more from the lens of the top leader of the organization.

JL: Right, I’m saying, essentially, that communication skills and the things you know how to do are an incredibly important platform. Really, you need to step above that platform and do other things that go beyond public relations to be able to bring that into the equation of being a trusted strategic advisor.

* * *

Jim’s new book, Why Should the Boss Listen to You: The Seven Disciplines of the Trusted Strategic Advisor, will be released mid-February. Copies may be preordered at Amazon.com. Jim may be reached at www.e911.com.

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.

The advent of desktop publishing had put into the hands of the lay public the means to communicate beyond normal channels. Media became more democratized, and consumers relied less on traditional news outlets. People paid attention as zines drove news stories on occasion when the mainstream news media either couldn’t or was blind to other important stories in the world.

Blogs serve the same function today, yet even more dramatically. Zines never had the impact to shift the entire direction of the news media the way blogs do today (though, the independent press indubitably laid the foundation for blogs), probably in large effect because consuming blog content is free and more accessible, which is why PR pros should be beyond just monitoring blog content and actually generating it themselves.

There are three main reasons why:

1. Blogs publish information in real time. It’s obvious to say, but the need to release and respond to information in a timely manner is ever more critical. Organizations that fail to respond quickly to allegations and attacks will in effect be giving tacit approval to their critics’ complaints. Blogs offer a mechanism to respond quickly and affirmatively.
2. Blogs place information on public record,without inundating other media channels. Sometimes in public relations it’s important to put out news that isn’t meant to read at a mass scale. Blogs are one place to put this information, and with a personal touch, rather than sending out a blast news release. Blogs, similar to direct email, are a tactic to target certain publics.
3. Blogs are cost effective, and if used correctly, can equate with the search engine ranking power of mass media outlets. Giving publics the access to your information that is easily found by search engines puts you on a more equal online footing as anybody else.

In short, blogs allow you to be less reliant on others who filter your voice.

You have to have sympathy for the PR folks

Something as simple as a misstatement that comes across as lacking empathy for crisis victims can kill PR value for years on end, as well as the careers of senior leaders. It is the public relations person’s job to counsel senior leadership on this point.

Jim Lukaszewski goes so far as to say that public relations is a staff function that needs to earn a seat at the table of senior leaders. This comes by providing succinct yet valuable, strategic advice that serves the CEO and, by extension, the organization and its publics.

The CEO does not have to accept PR advice. Legal, fiscal or other considerations may weigh more heavily—often they do not, as numerous high-profile cases have demonstrated when the legal high road is taken at the expense of both public relations and, sadly, legal outcomes. Smart public relations folks will know when PR value is lower than, say, keeping the CEO out of handcuffs. But at the end of the day, putting oneself at the vantage point of a CEO is where PR is can be more valuable than, for instance, appeasing a group of nattering nabobs of negativism that appear to make careers out of attacking corporations.

Conversely, when public relations principles are disregarded by organizational leaders as a matter of either culture or policy, everybody suffers. Chronic mishandling of basic public relations—internal and external–will inevitably lead to CEO dismissal, whether or not the leader is encouraged “to find other opportunities elsewhere.” More and more leaders are reaching this fate, some admittedly unfairly, and many others because of public relations ineptitude.

Implications for public relations are numerous in Sutton’s book, particularly for internal communications, understanding organizational culture and overall organizational success and functioning.