Category Archives: Team Building

Losing a valued colleague: A Peril of Blogging

David JonesDavid Jones is leaving Thornley Fallis. He has been recruited away from us by another firm that wants to upgrade their expertise in social media.

That’s a bummer for Thornley Fallis. David is a good friend and a very smart guy. We will miss him.

Dave, Terry Fallis and I have spent the past year exploring the possibilities of social media. We have learned by doing. We have learned a lot from one another. We have learned by meeting and talking to others who are on the leading edge of developing social media. 

And as we have exchanged views and learned from other practitioners of social media, our own profiles have been raised. We have come to ”know” and ”be known” to people we have never met in person. This really came home to me when I first approached a fellow blogger at a conference. As I was about to introduce myself, he said, “I know you. I’ve seen your picture on your blog and I read you all the time.” (Nice compliment; totally unexpected)

So, I should not be surprised that another firm has swooped in and made David an offer he could not refuse (It’s all positive; no severed horse heads involved.) In exploring and engaging in social media, David has raised his profile and engaged in conversations with respected bloggers and podcasters like Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, Joseph Jaffe, Colin McKay and Robert French. He has acquired a positive reputation beyond our traditional geographic area of operation and, in our small world, an element of celebrity.

Our experience defines the new normal for PR practitioners who engage in social media. Every time a consulting firm like Thornley Fallis encourages its employees to share their experiences and smarts through a blog, we increase the likelihood that we will lose those people to other opportunities. David’s not the first blogger to be scooped up by a bigger firm. He follows a path that in the past six months has been well trod by other high profile bloggers like Jeremy Pepper and Steve Rubel.

So, will Thornley Fallis stop encouraging our consulting team to blog and explore social media? Heck no!

We’ll accept that this increased risk is just part of the entry fee to engage in social media. And we’ll understand that it’s better to spend a year learning and exploring with a guy like David Jones than it is to spend a decade of the safe same old, same old practise of techniques we long ago mastered.

For PR consultancies, it’s grow or die. And we must learn to grow. We will learn to deal with this aspect of blogging.

And after all, one of the great things of consulting is that we get to hire or join our friends. And Dave’s a good friend. So, you never know what the future may bring…

Dave, I and all the gang at Thornley Fallis wish you every success at your new gig!

 

Linkworthy

Blog Tools

  • Darren Rowse has compiled a list of blog tools (he added another 12 on May 1 for a total of 67). A useful reference resource.

Moneyball Theory of PR

  • Marcel Goldstein makes the case for recruiting outside of narrowly defined PR credentials. Read his post, not for the analysis of impact on compensation trends, but for the pure joy of a person who recognizes human potential. 

 

I’m back

… and where have I been, you ask?

Two weeks ago, I was sitting in my office. The world was in order. Business was good. All was fine. When….

One of our consultants walked into my office, closed the door and said, “I have bad news. I’ve accepted a job with a competitor.”

These aren’t words that an employer ever wants to hear. But they are words that we all will hear sooner or later. And when we do, we have to be ready to put in the extra effort to meet the expectations of clients and honour commitments made to them.

That’s what I’ve been doing for the past couple of weeks. And, as I approach the Easter long weekend, I’m feeling a real sense of accomplishment that we met all of our commitments and kept our clients smiling and satisfied.

And by the way, if you are an experienced public relations consultant working in the Ottawa region, I know of a great public relations firm that is hiring. If you are interested in applying to join our team, email your résumé to me at joseph.thornley[at]gmail.com.

Henderson Bas: Uh oh!

Think before you hit the send button.

When angry, breathe deep, save a draft. Go look in the mirror. Then come back, read the email and ask yourself if you recognize the person who wrote this.

Responsiveness: Your success may depend on it

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, says that responsiveness is essential to business success.

In Hyatt’s experience,

So many people I meet are unresponsive. They don’t return their phone calls promptly. They don’t answer their emails quickly. They don’t complete their assignments on time. They promise to do something and never follow through. They have to be reminded, prodded, and nagged. This behavior creates work for everyone else and eats into their own productivity. Sadly, they seem oblivious to it.

…Reality is that we live in an “instant world.” People want instant results. They don’t want to wait. And if they have to wait on you, their frustration and resentment grows. They begin to see you as an obstacle to getting their work done. If that happens, it will begin to impact your reputation. Pretty soon people start saying, “I can never get a timely response from him,” or “When I send her an email, I feel like it goes into a black hole,” or worse, your colleagues just roll their eyes and sigh at the mention of your name.

…The truth is, you are building your reputation—your brand—one response at a time. People are shaping their view of you by how you respond to them. If you are slow, they assume you are incompetent and over your head. If you respond quickly, they assume you are competent and on top of your work. Their perception, whether you realize it or not, will determine how fast your career advances and how high you go. You can’t afford to be unresponsive. It is a career-killer.

Thanks to my colleague Jason Prini for pointing to this article.

No-Bad-News Fridays!

Julie Freemen reports that many respondents to a survey in the Nov/Dec issue of CW said that bad news in their companies is delivered by e-mail.

Delivering bad news shouldn’t be the simple act of blurting out a tough message. The deliverer should also watch for the impact of the message on the recipient and be prepared to talk it through after the recipient has had a chance to consider the message and its implications.

The worst possible time to deliver bad news in a work environment is a Friday. This gives the recipient little or no time to consider the news and to have a follow-up discussion to work through its implications (and often the solutions) before the weekend. So, he or she is likely to end up going home and mulling over the bad news through the full weekend. Not a very nice way to spend the weekend. And not a very likely prescription to make someone feel good about their place of work!

At my company, Thornley Fallis, we do not deliver bad news on a Friday. If we must deliver bad news, we try to deliver it early in the week so that we can schedule follow up conversations to work through the implications and positive steps that can be taken to turn bad news into a positive experience – an experience that can be learned from and can form the basis of constructive action.

Julie wants to hear from other communicators about how bad news is delivered in your organizations. Post your comments at the IABC Communication Commons Employee Forum.

We’re recruiting

My company, Thornley Fallis Communications, is in the midst of a very strong year. We need to recruit an Account Director to keep things moving forward. If you live in the Ottawa area or are interested in moving to Canada’s capital, take a look at the position description on our Website. This is an opportunity to join the leadership team of a PR consulting firm that hires only the best and delivers extraordinary results for our clients.

Why Business Schools Cannot Develop Managers

David Maister posts on the important difference between management skills and business knowledge.

‘Business’ as a subject (and a degree program) is all about things of the logical, rational, analytical mind: Mike Porter’s five forces, the numerous P’s of marketing, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, etc, etc. It’s about knowledge.

Managing, on the other hand, is a skill, and has nothing to do with rationality, logic, IQ or intelligence. It’s a simple issue of whether or not you can influence individuals or organizations to accomplish something. It’s about influencing people, singly or in groups (or in hordes.) No amount of intelligence will help if you are not able to interact with people and get the response you desire….

And of course, this is not accomplished by taking a college course in psychology, sociology, anthropology or any other ‘ology’ where we sit around and intellectualize about ‘human resources’ but never have to actually deal with a real live human being. (It reminds me of the Linda Ronstadt / Dolly Parton / Emmylou Harris song which contains the line – you don’t know what a man is until you have to please one!)

To help people develop as managers doesn’t mean discussing management (or even worse – leadership), but rather requires putting people through a set of processes where they have to experience it, try it out , and develop their emotional self-control and interactive styles.

These observations are important to keep in mind when assessing people for management positions and when charting a professional development program for new managers.

Effective business communications

The speakers and attendees at the Human Resources Professionals Association of Ontario convention held recently in Toronto offered a wealth of practical advice for communications in the workplace according to Globe and Mail columnist Virginia Galt.

Management consultant Peter Taylor of Peter Taylor and Associates Inc. in Oshawa speaks of the need for face-to-face meetings to communicate about contentious issues:

If an issue is contentious, it’s better to handle it in person. “A face-to-face meeting is probably most important when you are afraid to have it; the more contentious, the more you need to be there,” Mr. Taylor says.

Ms. Alderson says people will often hide behind e-mail when they have unpleasant news to deliver and, like Mr. Taylor, she recommends that the most complex matters be handled in person.

Ms. Alderson says e-mail is effective and convenient for conveying messages and information, but less effective as a communications tool. Face-to-face communication is best, when possible, and telephone contact is the next best option for genuine dialogue. E-mail adds “another degree of separation,” she says. “Communication is a two-way street. Most of what we are doing today is not communicating; we’re simply sending messages.”

Mr. Taylor, who counsels clients on the importance of operating with “emotional intelligence” — including being aware of how one’s actions affect others — says it is much easier “to pick up people’s reactions if you have some sort of live interaction, be it face-to-face or voice contact.”

James Gray, principal of Toronto-based Media Strategy Inc., has some good advice for those of us who are prone to turn to the phone while on the fly:

Ms. Alderson says it is important, as well, to make sure that you are in a time and place where you can give the person on the other end of the telephone your full attention.

Conducting a phone conversation while you are on the treadmill breathing heavily into the telephone, or tapping on your keyboard at your desk, sends a message that you are “distracted, disorganized or disinterested,” she says.

Mr. Taylor says it is important to listen to telltale signs that the other person is rushed or distracted as well. Ask if it is a good time, and whether they prefer to conduct business by e-mail, by telephone or in person. If they say it is not a good time, don’t ignore them and launch into a long discussion anyway, Ms. Alderson adds.

Conversely, it is not always prudent to pick up the phone when you are in the thick of something else. “Be selective” and let voice mail pick up at times, Ms. Alderson says. Avoid, too, the common trap of responding to every e-mail as soon as it lands in the inbox.

Good, practical advice that’s worth remembering and putting into practice.

David Maister blogs and podcasts

David Maister has launched a blog and a podcast.

This is good news for the professional services community. Maister has authored or co-authored several classic books that are essential reading for anyone who is serious about becoming a successful consultant or leading teams of consultants.

Hopefully, he will use his podcasts and blog to develop his ideas and enter into an ongoing conversation with his readers.