Tact and diplomacy: occupational hazards for new practitioners
September 23, 2007 by Gary Schlee
There has been quite a bit of talk (keyboarding?) in the sphere for the past week or two about how young PR folks can best decide when and how to contribute. One of the beauties of blogdom is that the result has been lots of good advice for PR students (see the end of this post). Enough good advice that I don’t need to add to it here.
However, there have been one or two comments about colleges and universities offering courses in things like ‘what to say and what not to say as you launch your career’, ‘telephone etiquette’, ‘understanding office politics’, and similar courses in tact. I certainly see where practitioners are coming from when making these suggestions, but I wonder how practical — or even do-able — these courses would be. Most bosses would likely agree that the way they and their organizations do business differs from others. Trying to scratch even part of the vast surface of scenarios in countless organizational cultures would be daunting.
Bosses probably didn’t take any courses of this kind. They learned through trial and error, and likely have horror stories about foot-in-mouth moments early on in their careers. I know I do. Had there been such a course offered when they were students, would they have taken it? Hmmm. Would students today?
I’d be interested in hearing from any PR teachers, grads or students who have had a course of this type in their curricula. Done right, it sounds like it could provide relevant boot-camp material for entry-level practitioners.
Back to those foot-in-mouth moments: prior to the web, we didn’t commit those best-forgotten moments to a forum where Google would forever track them down to throw back in our faces. Even when the gaffes appeared in our publications or new releases, they didn’t have a limitless shelf-life. That’s why it becomes more important for today’s students and new practitioners to carefully measure their discourse.
So, take advantage of the recent conversations. It’s not a course. No grades. But great food for thought.
A recent post on Student PR helped to kick-start some of the conversation. Chris Clarke’s observations about the health of digital marketing company, crayon, created a flurry of reactions — not only from crayon, but from a host of other communicators. Those and subsequent posts make for interesting reading:
Student PR posted on September 10 about Joseph Jaffe’s crayon. Other practitioners waded in with their advice and observations, including Mitch Joel of Six Pixels of Separation, David Jones of PR Works and Inside PR, Sarah Wurrey of CustomScoop, and blogger Kami Huyse on the Marcom site. Student PR followed up with a lessons learned post.
Phil Gomes of Edelman talked about Managing Up on his Blogservations site. And, although he didn’t elaborate on what he means exactly by the term ‘Managing Up’, it became clearer in an interview he did with the Forward Podcast. The podcast interviewer, Paull Young, has been keeping an ongoing log of the conversation on the Young PR blog.
Be sure to read the array of comments that have sprouted from each post.
6 Responses to “Tact and diplomacy: occupational hazards for new practitioners”
Hey Gary,
Humber has a course called “Public Relations in the Workplace”. It’s more of an interview/internship prep. course but they do touch on some office etiquette stuff….
Quite frankly, it was a bit of a bore. I think the best way to learn “office stuff” is by doing. Two weeks in an office environment is equal to a whole year of etiquette courses……..although the stakes are much higher.
My class instruction and requirements have always required students to create and maintain own blogs. Etiquette and digital identity naturally was the first class. I think I might have scared a few students!
This discussion is nothing new; for me the mistakes began in msm. I paid attention in the business communication classes and was a top student, but nothing could prepare me for learning on my own without the safety net of school. Students are arrogant. I think you have to go through this forward and bold phase to find your own voice and comfort level.
It is my responsibility as an Instructor to inform and demonstrate proper behavior in all media. The blogosphere is a learning curve for all of us.
Scott: We have a similar course — Career Management — and I know the discussions dealing with “office etiquette stuff” are every bit as exhilarating for our students as they probably were for your class. I agree that nothing can substitute for experiencing it while on the job, with the help of a good mentor.
Lauren: Students tend to see much of this info as common sense. It really doesn’t matter whether or not they actually understand it or exercise it; it’s the perception that rules,and that means too much of it is seen, as Scott says, as a “bit of a bore.”
“With the help of a good mentor.” That’s the key. So often in the workplace the junior employee isn’t assigned a mentor. Someone to show them them way. Often, they’re left to their own devices and fall down. Next thing they know, they’re hauled into the supervisor’s office about some breach of etiquette they were ignorant of.
[...] Tact and diplomacy: occupational hazards for new practitioners [...]
So true, Christine. Just last week I was talking to a senior local practitioner who has been a mentor for one of our grads for a year or so. Both the mentor and the mentored continue to benefit from the relationship. New hires without a mentor should make a point of seeking one out.