Managers: PR More Than Tix and Plugs?

Written by Robert A. Kelly


Please feel free to publish this article and resource box in your ezine, newsletter, offline publication or website. A copy would be appreciated at bobkelly@TNI.net. Word count is 1020 including guidelines and resource box. Robert A. Kelly © 2004.

Managers: PR More than Tix and Plugs?

You bet! And in three ways vital to you as a business, non-profit or association manager.

To succeed, your public relations effort needs to do something really positive aboutrepparttar behaviors of those outside audiences that most affect your operation.

It needs to deliver external stakeholder behavior change –repparttar 104379 kind that leads directly to achieving your managerial objectives.

And it needs to do so by persuading those important outside folks to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that help your department, division or subsidiary succeed.

All three, hopefully long before anybody worries about theater tickets or radio plugs!

But how do you get torepparttar 104380 point where all three of those dynamics actually contribute to your success as a manager?

I believerepparttar 104381 fundamental premise of public relations is a good place to start, herewith: people act on their own perception ofrepparttar 104382 facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors about which something can be done. When we create, change or reinforce that opinion by reaching, persuading and moving-to-desired-action repparttar 104383 very people whose behaviors affectrepparttar 104384 organization repparttar 104385 most,repparttar 104386 public relations mission is accomplished.

Get organized around that premise and you could get behavior changes like more membership applications; customers making repeat purchases; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint ventures; community leaders beginning to seek you out; welcome bounces in show room visits; prospects starting to sniff around; capital givers or specifying sources beginning to think about you, and even politicians and lawmakers who view you as a key member ofrepparttar 104387 business, non-profit or association communities.

May sound painfully obvious, but you needrepparttar 104388 entire PR team assigned to your unit on board for this ride. They need to accept that fundamental premise of public relations.

A not so obvious first step? Make certainrepparttar 104389 whole team agrees – really agrees -- why it’s so important to know how your outside audiences perceive your operations, products or services. Be deep-down-sure they accept repparttar 104390 reality that perceptions almost always lead to destructive behaviors that can damage your unit.

Carefully go over just how you plan to monitor and gather perceptions by questioning members of your most important outside audiences. Questions like these: how much do you know about our organization? Have you had prior contact with us and were you pleased withrepparttar 104391 interchange? How much do you know about our services or products and employees? Have you experienced problems with our people or procedures?

Your PR people can be of real use for this opinion monitoring project since they already labor inrepparttar 104392 perception and behavior vineyard. Yes, you can always bring in a professional survey firm, but that can be hard onrepparttar 104393 wallet. Whether it’s your people or a survey firm who asksrepparttar 104394 questions,repparttar 104395 objective stands: identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors, inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other potentially hurtful perception and prepare to deal with it.

Running Out of Time?

Written by Kathy Paauw


"Since time isrepparttar one immaterial object which we cannot influence neither speed up nor slow down, add to nor diminish-- it is an imponderably valuable gift." -Maya Angelou

Do you constantly feel like you are on overload? Do you tell yourself that you'll spend more time doing something that's important but not urgent “when things slow down a little” or “after we finish this next big project”?

Being technically proficient in your business or profession will only get you so far … especially if you feel like you're on a runaway treadmill. To gain some control and sanity, you may need to organize your time differently.

Most business owners, executives, and professionals spend their time in four ways:

Free Time – time to rest, relax, and rejuvenate

Creative Time – time to generate new ideas

Delivery Time – time to deliverrepparttar 104378 product/service that is core to your work

Support Time – time to handlerepparttar 104379 “behindrepparttar 104380 scenes” or administrative functions necessary to support you in gettingrepparttar 104381 results you desire.

These four areas of time are very connected, so what you do with one dimension of time affectsrepparttar 104382 others. Have you ever noticed how taking Free Time to rest and rejuvenate enables you to come back to your work with a fresh perspective…one that enables you to be much more creative?

Creative Time enables you to work ON your business. It's tough to have an objective vantage point when you're “inrepparttar 104383 trenches” allrepparttar 104384 time. Taking a step back to seerepparttar 104385 “big picture” is essential if you want to generate fresh ideas and find new solutions to challenges.

Delivery Time enables you to work IN your business. You may already spend much of your time here. The key is to remember that it doesn't matter how much Delivery Time you spend if what you're delivering isn't what matters most to you or your company…and if what you deliver and how you deliver it is not valued byrepparttar 104386 recipient of your products or services. Direction and priorities are generally determined during Free Time and Creative Time.

Part of your success requires spending some Support Time tending to details – responding to email and phone calls, reading, writing, reviewing, evaluating, filing, etc. Of course, some of this can be delegated to others. If you ignorerepparttar 104387 details that support your core deliverable, it will affect your ability to be productive or deliverrepparttar 104388 best quality product or service. In addition, you will not feel like you can take Free Time ifrepparttar 104389 unhandled details are constantly nagging at you.

Without Free Time , stress and overload set in. Then it's difficult to be in a frame of mind to take Creative Time . This pushes you to work harder IN your business ( Delivery Time ), which results in taking a reactive rather than a proactive approach to managing challenges. This rarely results inrepparttar 104390 best quality results, and often adds to burnout.

Changing Habits

Choosing to live a more thoughtful, self-directed life inrepparttar 104391 midst of a society that seems to thrive on a frenzied pace requires determination, planning, and self-discipline. According to behavior change experts, you have to believe inrepparttar 104392 values behindrepparttar 104393 change, or it will not stick.

For example, if you promise your family that you will work less hours, but you're not mentally committed to such a change, your odds of maintaining your commitment drop. It's difficult to sustain such a promise ifrepparttar 104394 reward for working longer hours is greater thanrepparttar 104395 reward for getting home earlier.

G. Alan Marlatt, professor of psychology and director ofrepparttar 104396 Addictive Behaviors Research Center atrepparttar 104397 University of Washington, studies people who are successful in long-term change. Marlatt says that it gets easier afterrepparttar 104398 first 90 days. At that point,repparttar 104399 chances of a relapse drop from 85 percent to 20-30 percent. He also points out that adding a new behavior is easier than trying to give something up.

Marlatt's tips:

• Self monitor. If you're relying on internal motivation (as opposed to having a coach or an addiction counselor), keep a daily chart of progress forrepparttar 104400 first 90 days. Note what needs to be fine-tuned. If you feel you might slip, make note — either in a journal or a note card or a bold message on your morning mirror — to get back on track.

• Social support. Find someone or a group of people trying to make similar changes. Meet with them or e-mail them or join a chat room. If you're not into strangers, get a comrade, coach or family member to be your support.

• Keep your rewards high. New clothes for that lost weight? A weekend away for that pared down to-do list? That keeps motivation high. Success leads to success.

• Watch your self-criticism. If people go off course,repparttar 104401 tendency is to say, "Oh, this proves I have no willpower." That's self-defeating and it undermines motivation.

• Remind yourself of goals. What is it you're trying to change? Some people carry reminder cards that list what they want to accomplish. One man trying to quit smoking simply carried a photo of his young son.

• Have a plan for when obstacles arise. How will you get back on track? It's important not to overreact but to regroup. "I missed two days of exercise, but I won't miss a third."

The biggest trigger for reverting to old behaviors is a negative emotional state, such as feeling angry or depressed, especially if you turned to your old habit for comfort. Think of what you could do instead. Call a friend. Take a walk. Sing a song. Do something that feels good right away…something that will breakrepparttar 104402 habit you've previously fallen into when in a negative emotional state.

It's easier to create a new habit than it is to stop doing an old one. So, instead of saying, “Don't work past 6 PM,” it may work better to have a specific plan forrepparttar 104403 evening: “Be home for 6:30 dinner with my family.”

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