Rocks Are Hard

Keeping it all in Perspective - the Benefit of outside eyes and ears

When we're deep into our work, it's sometimes hard to see the big picture -- how our work plays in the context of a bigger story, community, phenomena, trend.  On the one hand -- heads down, nose to millstone (what is a millstone?), everyone into deepend gets the job done.  On the other hand, that job may need some redirecting from people not quite so close to rubbing their nose to a nub.

Working with an agency is a developed skill.  Being a good agency is a developed talent.  On the agency side we want to be all the way in -- taking the work off the client's shoulders, making things happen they couldn't do themselves, helping them move the ball down the field.  Yet we also need to be hovering "over" the work -- getting a larger picture of the work to see how it fits, how much it matters, where the path to success may curve away from the plan.

Stop what your're doing and ask a few questions.

- What will this mean outside people who already care?

- Are you doing the right thing to make NEW people care?

- Are detractors keeping you from your purpose because they are loud, not because they are influential in the big picture?

Make sure you answer these questions with a clear head -- that usually means getting someone else removed from the actual day-to-day work involved, because most of us have a hard time discerning a larger picture when we're so into it.

Keep things in perspective and help others weather a storm or navigate a path to success will make you more useful, more valuable, more trusted -- and more successful.

Telling a Story: What Matters Most

Storytelling -- it's all the rage.

"I love to tell stories," says one junior level candidate, "that's why I want to be in PR."

"I'm a story teller at heart," wrote another in his "cold" email to me.

"What I love about PR is the stories you get to tell," says another one.

Clearly this must be on the curriculum somewhere.

 Unfortunately, when I ask, "what's the most important thing about storytelling for PR people?" I get the blank stare - the deer in the headlights - the "oh shit, now what do I say" glaze.  And here's when we get to how much I distrust the BS or BA in PR -- because it's the rare student who learns the whole thing about this profession in the classroom.

So I'll tell you. The most important thing about storytelling is finding the story that will get RETOLD by someone else who will be heard by someone else, who will retell the story ... and so on.

To that end, boiling down the story (usually someone else's if you work at an agency) to a compelling nugget in right sized bites that are interesting enough to take hold in the reader or hearer or viewer and take time up for them to share with colleagues, family, friends and associates.

And until you can do that, you're not a storyteller we can hire....but we'll teach you.

Good reading on this is Made To Stick by Chip Heath.

Everybody in the Pool!

There are so many things I love about running an agency -- this agency in particular.  Probably the biggest joy though through the day is seeing people we work with -- in the agency, at our clients, with our partners -- move forward towards their goals because we helped them.

While it might not feel this way at traditional firms, I think this is a universal truth: there is no incentive to NOT want your employees to succeed and achieve and advance. Truly. Advancement , when done well, means more throughput, more capacity, more good stuff, more opportunity for others. What's not to love about that?!

At the same time, just because we're incented for everyone to advance to where they want to be, does not mean that everyone gets there on the schedule they imagined.  Advancement is hard - and it doesn't usually happen within the confines of the work day. Business conditions may limit growth, but hello when flat is the new up, everyone puts on a different pair of glasses.

Remember when everyone with a pulse got a job or a promotion? Or when Sally came in with another offer, and you had to match it? Well...not that advancement left people high and dry when the dot com bubble burst and when the economy tanked in late 2008.  Social promotion -- what we get conditioned to throughout grade, middle, high school and college - does nobody any good.

What you need to be sure of is that you are in a place where real, earned advancement is valued. Because when it's earned you have lots of options. And when you have lots of options your career blossoms, even when you stay at the same company.

Everybody into the pool! Learn to swim, Don't let your colleagues drown, coach everyone to their edge and everyone wins.

Acknowledge Feedback and Direction

I always say the purpose of communication is to end it.  Meaning, write the memo, the plan, the email, make the case, pitch the idea in such a way that the reader/listener is not required to ask any questions to get a relevant, full picture.

This does not mean re-write War & Peace. But be succinct, appropriately illustrative or instructive and give the context the reader needs to gleen the information you want them to.

At the same time, it's important for the reader or listener -- particularly in a 1:1 dialogue or exchange to ACKNOWLEDGE receipt of said message. Otherwise it requires the sender to have to re-say, re-send, and/or wonder "did s/he get it?" "does s/he understand?" etc. etc. etc.

It's pretty simple. Say what you mean, well. Acknowledge that you got the message AND/OR get clarification so everyone's on the same page.

It's good protocol. More importantly, it's good etiquette.

The end.

Everything Is Feedback

Controversy always surrounds performance reviews -- to do them at all? how to do them? 360? top-down? self evaluation comparison? What does the form look like? and it goes on and on and on.

One thing I think is universal is that no review should be a surprise - your employees should have a good sense of how they're doing, what needs to be worked on, where they are excelling and how they can keep improving in that area (does a coach ever say - great job, no need to work out today over and over again?), and how their overall presence is perceived.

They should know this because we should all be having a constant stream of feedback, positive and constructive, throughout our day-to-day work lives.

The challenge is that everyday feedback is not necessarily heard - the positive or the negative.  I'm struggling with why this is true, but I know that it IS true. (Hell, one of the reasons we started Double Forte with a 10-year experience minimum was to remove ourselves from the constant barrage of social-promotion-conditioned inexperienced people who thought that they should all advance regardless of performance just because the calendar turned over.)

I don't believe we should stop providing feedback ALL THE TIME -- and hello, no feedback should mean that you're doing good.  But I do think we need to take the time to make sure the feedback is felt as seriously as it's intended. I'm not happy about it, but I know we need to shift something so that everything is HEARD in the way it is intended.

Feedback must not be given to tear down, but to help someone improve.  Really. If you don't want your staff to improve, go sit in a closet with a phone and a computer.  At the same time, we all need to LISTEN and ABSORB what we're told.

Everything is feedback. Everything counts. And if you're listening, nothing should be a surprise.