Vacations are great. We all need to recharge from time to time, to unplug and unwind and get away from the daily stress that consumes too much of our time.
A week on the beach gives you a whole new perspective. Nothing much to worry about except pass me the sunscreen and is it time to go back in the water yet? In my case, I was in Kauai, the least stressed island in the least stressed state in the nation. Even though unemployment is up and business is down, the locals know that there is no need to sweat the small stuff. The ocean speaks to them and it says, "Don't worry, be happy."
Nevertheless, I did learn some important lessons on vacation. For one thing, a lot can change in a week. I returned to the swine flu crisis, a reminder that it is critical to plan in advance for a potentially game-changing crisis like a pandemic flu. If your clients are not ready to communicate internally and externally about how to protect or minimize the impact of a dramatic event on their stakeholders, now is the time to discuss it.
I also learned the value of backup. Knowing that the world and my business would not fall apart without me for a week because I left my clients in the capable hands of my trusty associates was huge. Although I did check messages and email occasionally, I could feel comfortable doing it much less frequently and even unplugging entirely some days. No Twitter, no Facebook, no problem.
Most importantly, it may seem obvious but a vacation reminds you that service counts. If the people and staff where you stay, eat, recreate and shop go out of their way to make sure everything about your vacation is a pleasant experience, that's the message you will communicate when you return. My wife and I stayed at the
Hanalei Colony Resort. Check it out. It is secluded, first class, laid back and unpretentious. No phones, no TV, just a perfect resort in a perfect location.
A good vacation teaches us that the best thing we can do for our own business is to deliver that same level of primo service to our clients every day. We need to make sure our own brand delivers what we promise. No exceptions and no excuses.
Life is definitely a beach. Surf's up, enjoy.
The topic of the
PRSA Colorado April lunch program was the changing media landscape. All the panelists agreed that the media landscape sure is changing fast. They just didn't have a clue about the long-term impact of this trend on the public relations business, journalism, or just the general level of intelligent conversation in this country. Join the club.
As newspapers continue to shrink, "citizen journalists" continue grabbing more of the news business. The problem is that by definition, they are not professional journalists. They report on things they have an interest in and an opinion about, but not with a journalist's eye, ethics or editor. Their readers tend to be people with the same interests and opinions, so the news they provide tends to be biased, not objective. Their articles often generate feedback from other people with strong opinions one way or another.
The question for PR people is, will this trend make our jobs easier or more challenging? On the positive side, we can now become the reporters. We can write the story, take the photos, provide the graphics, and place it in online community-based publications that are replacing dying newspapers in many cities. We can make our clients sound great and we never have to worry about our pitches being sent back to us faster than a Gary Sheffield homer off a 95 mile an hour fast ball.
On the negative side, being the reporter, the photographer, the editor and the producer means doing the jobs of four people. And like advertising, we can say whatever we want about a client, whether it is credible or factual or not. We can post it on Web sites and Facebook, we can convince people to follow our clients on Twitter, and we can even become "citizen journalists" ourselves whenever we want.
This may be the future but it doesn't sound like journalism to me, and it doesn't really sound like PR. It sounds like publicity. It sounds like promotion. It sounds like P.T. Barnum.
If the public relations profession is serious about using the evolving new media landscape to benefit our clients and our communities by communicating honestly, transparently and respectfully, we need to be careful to apply the same sort of ethical guidelines and rules that are fundamental to our profession. We need be our own editors. We need to do what we can to shape the landscape toward a path we can walk down with pride, not trepidation.
Passover, the celebration of the Jews' freedom from slavery in Egypt, is a time to reflect. It is a time to appreciate what we have (freedom) and to remember what it was like when we had nothing.
During the Seder, we retell the Passover story and pass it on from one generation to another, because by doing so, each of us can feel like we were there when the Red Sea parted and the Exodus from Egypt happened. Part of the story is particularly memorable for Jewish fathers and sons. It involves the four sons, who each look at Passover differently.
The wise son is the responsible one. He wants to learn from his father all there is to know and he understands his responsibility as a link in the chain. There is the simple son, who doesn't quite get why this is important, and the son who does not even have the ability to ask a question because he is so removed from his heritage. Then there is the contrary son. He argues with his father about everything, and he proclaims that this entire ritual has no meaning for him. Some traditions call him the wicked son.
We don't have to look too hard to find the four sons represented in the business world. Wise leaders understand they have a responsibility to the people they lead. They listen to their employees, groom them for success, and take pride in being part of their community. Some leaders are just happy to get by. They are tactical, not strategic, and they are focused on survival. And as we have seen too often recently, there are the contrary leaders. They can be self-absorbed and even cruel. They think the rules don't apply to them and that there will be no consequences for their actions.
What kind of leader are you? One who feels a responsibility to your employees and a connection to your community, or one who feels that it's a cutthroat world and it is not your responsibility to worry about whether someone else falls on hard times?
In challenging times, we need to decide what sort of leader and person we want to be. Because that decision will have an impact well beyond our own personal Seder table. It will influence how people think about us now and how they will remember us in the future. It will determine what sort of world we leave to the next generation.
