Sunday, February 17, 2008


Love has been the topic of this week. With Valentines Day coming and going, we've been reminded of the relationships that take place in all our lives. Whether they are romantic or professional, we are invested in the individuals that are active in our life.

This concept has been constant in my thoughts this week, but it was the way these relationships entered my professional life that has inspired me to write this post. All to often we would risk our necks for the individuals closets to us in our lives, when they are hurt we want to make them feel better, when they are happy we want to rejoice and celebrate with them. When something goes wrong we want to defend and protect them. I realized that a lot of these same actions carry over into PR. It is the PR professional’s job to construct these relationships with their clients, as well as their audience and the media. PR is purely relationship based and it was guest post author Marilyn Hawkins, from Hawkins & Company PR that allowed me to develop this concept and learn best how to utilize and benefit my future career, and current professional relationships.

Marilyn provided seven tips on "How to make Internal & External Clients Love You".
Most of which were familiar and common sense in how you would treat any individual in your life, but it was her use of an analogy by Michelangelo "Criticize by creating" that stuck out to me. Engage in questions, listen for answers, and talk about problems that might be interfering with solving a problem or creating an opportunity. Being able to address conflict and get to the point has always been a struggle for me, but this simple answer struck me as an ends to a mean. Instead of getting defensive or backing down and giving up, work the problem from another angle, or figure out how to get a fresh perspective. Work it out! That is our job!

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