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Strategic Cufflink PR

Memo
To:

John Smith

From:

Klaudia Stachura

Date:

April 22, 2015

Re:

Best Practices in Effective PR Leadership

Congratulations on your promotion to Director of Public Relations.


This memorandum will serve as a guide to help you enhance your leadership skills in Strategic
Cufflink Public Relations. Public relations is an always-changing field in communication and it
is important to adapt management skills to fuel success and growth within our company.
Executive Summary
Public relations top-level management must practice certain skills in order to lead their workers
toward accomplishing goals that the organization sets.
It is the role of management to keep the employees engaged at every point. By being an
effective communicator of the organizations goals, employees are able to strive for success in
every project with the right vision in mind. Engaging employees and maintaining positive
relationships will create a positive work environment where employees feel proud and valued
in their roles.
Good leadership results in a successful business where all employees strive to accomplish a
common goal. There are four best practices for being in a successful top-level leadership
position.
Introduction
I have spent many years in the job position that you have just acquired. I thought it would be
mutually beneficial to share with you some of the things I have learned, so that you can adapt
these practices to your responsibilities for Strategic Cufflink PR. Whitworth (2011) explains
that managements key role is creating the ideal environment for all levels of employees to be
able to exchange any data they need to succeed at their job. This is now your responsibility as a
top-level leader. I will first explain any practices and skills that will help you succeed. After, I
will explain what value they add to Strategic Cufflink. By doing so, I hope you will realize how
much motivation and dedication is required in your new position.
Best Practices for Effective, PR Leadership

To start off, I will share with you a secret that I learned from Kelley (1992): A leader is not
someone in a higher position, but rather a partner who does different things than their followers,
all adding value to the overall goal. This is important in order to better interact better with
workers. There are many practices that help shape our organization. Cohen (2011) explains
staying up-to-date on patterns and trends in the public relations industry. This should always be
your main priority, as it will help you with every practice I outline in this memo. Out of all the
practices, there are four I believe are specific to top-level management positions. They are as
follows:

Being an effective communicator.

Managing time extremely well.

Overseeing and motivating teams.

Having the ability to deal with conflict.


Effective communication.

Being a communicator has been a part of your career for years now. However, being able to be
an effective communicator in a management position requires a few more skills. Woodall
(2006) said that communication and organizational priorities go hand-in-hand. Communication
must be a main priority in management.
Quirke (2009) states that communication is not the role of one leader, but every manager in the
organization. You should speak frequently to other managers, of higher or lower rank than
yours, in order to keep each other informed of things going on at Strategic Cufflink. This can
prove to be an asset when you need help on projects or want to learn new skills from different
leader types who are all working toward the common goal.
Whether to your workers, within management, or to publics, you must be able to communicate
in the most efficient way. Whitworth (2011) states that you have to be able to share information
effectively. When dealing with your workers, you must be able to not only communicate but
also explain. DAprix (2009) states that employees would prefer a democratic way to exchange
information. Social media is a great way to accomplish this. Workers are able to talk openly
and discuss any questions without feeling overwhelmed by one-on-one confrontation with their
boss. Managers are also not as powerful in this type of medium. Workers hold their managers
accountable for passing along any important information about the organization (Whitworth,
2011). This can strengthen or threaten the trust they have in you. Woodall (2006) says it is
important to always be honest, whether the news be good or bad within the organization.
Informing your employees before they find out anything negative through other means is the
best way to keep your employees loyal.
There are many ways in communicating with your employees. I found two to be the most
effective. Whitworth (2011) explains Management by Wandering Around (MBWA). This
requires the manager to walk around the office frequently and show his face. Whitworth (2011)
said this helped his workers be more efficient and focus more on their work. By being present
in the workplace, rather than hiding in your office, the workers get to know you better. Gill
(2011) said storytelling is a one-on-one way of communicating because it creates a personal
connection with the sender and receiver. This will help you build relationships with your
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workers. Cohen (2011) said that people who engage with their bosses do not fear them.
Engaged employees will be more eager to accomplish goals and projects if they feel a part of a
bigger success.
When you are more personable and open with your employees, you practice building
relationships that you can use with clients. Smudde (2015) outlined the Seven Cs of Effective
Communication: completeness, conciseness, consideration, concreteness, clarity, courtesy and
correctness. By engaging with your employees, you can gain insight on which of these you can
work on when dealing with clients. For example, if you are not courteous with your workers,
their reaction will reveal that to you.
Time management.
Time management is something you will need to perfect in this top-level leadership position.
Having more responsibilities can make this a challenge. Garris (2006) said that the average
person is interrupted every 8 minutes which totals 4 hours or half of a working day.
Prioritizing tasks and using time sheets are two effective ways to manage your time. Time
sheets help raise your own awareness of your own work habits, which can help gain insight into
how long certain things will take (Smudde, 2015). By studying your time sheet it is possible for
you to predict how long things will take to accomplish in the future and help you plan for other
tasks accordingly.
You must be available to your employees whenever they need you. Yet, you must balance this
with being able to complete your own tasks and responsibilities. This can prove to be a
problem. In my experience, it helps to have a time set up where employees know to only reach
you if it is an emergency. Finding a place where you can work on your own tasks also proves to
be effective (Garris, 2006).
Another thing that you can practice is making decisions. Decision-making must be a quick but
successful process. Garris (2006) explains that indecisiveness is one of the worst qualities of
any leader. It can impede on other processes and cause delays in the success of the organization.
Goals do not get accomplished if workers are constantly waiting on their leader to make a
decision.
Being available to your client is another way to manage time. According to Smudde (2015),
clients can vary in their information sharing with you from responding with one-word answers
to flooding you with all kinds of concerns. It is important to know your client and manage your
time according to their needs as well as your own. From research to the deadline of any
assignment or task, it is important to not disappoint the client because this can lead to a negative
reputation for not only yourself as a PR professional but of the whole organization.
Team management.
Another responsibility in your position will be leading and overseeing different teams within
Strategic Cufflink. LaFasto and Larson (2001) said that management practices have a big
influence on shaping the environment in an organization that supports teamwork. Most
important in any organization, is the collaboration that exists not only between members of the
same team, but teams within different departments. Your role as a top-level manager is to first
and foremost make sure the goal of the organization is always clear.

Cohen (2011) said it is important to outline your values. When your workers know what you
value, they respect more decisions that you make. This can lead to an increase in productivity
among teams. LaFasto and Larson (2001) advise to reiterate the goals of the organization with
passion. It is easier for teams to work toward a goal if they are being reminded of it frequently.
If you are passionate about something, it is also more likely for your workers to be more
passionate about it and want to work toward accomplishing that goal.
Garris (2006) said that communication is 7% words; 38% volume, pitch, and rhythm; and
55% facial expressions and posture. It is extremely important to know what to say but also
how to communicate it in the right way. DAprix (2009) said the single influence that made
the most difference in the degree of employee engagement was the behavior of the persons
immediate manager. Therefore, you must engage your employees in everyday conversation.
If problems should arise, it is important to listen to your employees.
Conflict management.
Within your teams, you may come across different types of conflict. Whitworth (2011) said that
managers are the glue in any organization. This is especially true in not only making sure your
teams are happy, but in making sure they are working together to reach the organizations goal.
Even outside of teams, as a top-level manager, you will come across various conflicts. You
have to be prepared to answer to these as quickly as possible. Garris (2006) said there is a need
to know how to respond to problems at the work place or within publics.
Jensen (1995) claimed that when companies came about change, communication was one of
the top 5 priorities. This is important internally but also among your publics. Garris (2006) said
to voice any concerns, opinions, or ideas early and often. This can prevent issues or problems
with publics. Talking about problems before they happen gives you an idea of a plan in case
they arise. It also helps minimize conflict by reaching it before it spreads.
A great way to manage conflict is to be able to negotiate. Yemm (2005) states that negotiation
takes practice. You can use this new role to improve and grow to become an expert negotiator.
The key is to listen to each side of the story and be able to make a compromise that is beneficial
to both parties.
Conclusion
It is in your best interest to familiarize yourself with these practices and put them to use as soon
as possible. They will better the organization in more ways than one. These practices help to
shape good ethics and can improve our image. Quirke (2009) said that good communication is
vital to providing exceptional service or products to the customer because it is what adds value
to an organization. Therefore, any of your communication must always be clear, have a
purpose, and add value to the organization.
This communication will be used in all of the practices I have mentioned above. Through
communicating effectively, you will be able to build relationships and add professionalism to
the organization. By managing time effectively, more tasks and projects will be completed in a
timely manner, building a positive reputation of Strategic Cufflink in the public relations field.
Being able to manage conflict well can minimize the risk of any negative image of the

company. Employees and publics seeing these types of positive skills will become loyal to
Strategic Cufflink as a whole.
Your success is Strategic Cufflinks success. Remember to always represent the brand and
show your passion for the amazing intellectuals we have working toward our common goal of
adding value to the public relations world.

References
"Careers in Public Relations: A Guide to Opportunities in a Dynamic Industry." Council of
Public Relations Firms (2005): 1-19. Web.
Cohen, Alan. "The 10 Essential Talents of Leadership: Going beyond PR Plans and New
Business Pitches." Tactics Apr. 2011: 15. Web.
D'Aprix, R. (2009). The credible company: Communicating with toda'ys skeptical workforce.
(1 ed., pp. 17-48). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Garris, Leah B. "The 5 Skills You Need to Get Ahead." Professional Development May 2006:
57-63. Web.
Gill, R. (2011). Corporate storytelling as an effective internal public relations
strategy. International Business and Management, 3(1), 17-25.
Jensen, B. (1995, August). Are we necessary? the case for dismantling corporate
communication. IABC Communication World, p. 14-18.
Kelley, R.E. (1992). The power of followership: How to create leaders people want to follow,
and followers who lead themselves. New York: Doubleday/Currency.
LaFasto, F.M.J., & Larson, C.E. (2001). When teams work best: 6,000 team members and
leaders tell what it takes to succeed. Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage Publications.
Quirke, B. (2008). Making the connections: Using internal communication to turn strategy into
action. (2nd ed., pp. 1-30). Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing Company.
Smudde, P. (2015). Managing Public Relations: Methods and tools. New York: Oxford
University Press.
Whitworth, B. (2011). Internal communication. In T. L. Gillis (Ed.), The iabc handbook of
organizational communication: A guide to internal communication, public relations, marketing, and
leadership (2nd ed.). Jossey-Bass.
Woodall, K. (2006). The Future of Business Communication. In T. L. Gillis (Ed.), The iabc
handbook of organizational communication: A guide to internal communication, public relations,
marketing, and leadership (2nd ed.). (pp. 514-529). Jossey-Bass.
Yemm, Graham. "Ask for More- You May Get More!" Management Services Winter 2005: 3637. Web.

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