Hard-nosed, cut-throat consultants. Thick-skinned, full of false charm and selfish arrogance. Is that what you think of when you imagine a PR professional?
Do you picture PR agency directors barking orders and waiting for hot coffee from shaking interns? I hope not because, personally, I think it’s rather cool to be kind in this industry.
Perhaps it’s my Millennial attitudes surfacing. I’m all for doing good by people. I want to work for people who care about me and I want my colleagues – as well as my clients – to know I genuinely care about them.
After all, I have only seen it produce positive results. If you know that you are valued and feel like you can make a difference to someone’s day, then you simply perform better.
It’s about making that extra effort to pitch until there’s a ‘yes’, to research a country’s media until you understand it’s entire landscape, or to get up extra early to speak to someone in another time zone. Those are the actions of hardworking teams who want to achieve excellent outcomes – and it can be nurtured by kindness. By listening to everyone’s ideas, by creating a space where you don’t feel as though your job is on the line because the traffic was bad and you were five minutes late.
Despite our sector’s somewhat harsh reputation, kindness is a feeling that’s woven into our culture here at BlueSky Education.
And I’m realising more and more just how important kindness is. It even produces the most effective press releases! The ones that go viral have headlines like ‘Competitive workplaces hold women back’ and ‘Mothers get paid 3% less at work per child’ because they evoke a keen sense of injustice. Why? Because ultimately, we all value kindness and these headlines strike us since they speak of a world that often isn’t.
So let’s be kind to each other.
Recognising that one trait will produce high-performing teams and record-breaking press releases – I think that’s the best way to succeed in public relations.
If you require PR support for your university or business school, contact BlueSky PR today.
Author: Stephanie Mullins
