by Caroline Leach | Jan 19, 2015 | Leadership, Learning
Is it a good idea to earn a bunch of letters after your name? ABC, APR and CPRC, to name a few.
As with many decisions, it depends.
First, what are these letters?
They’re the accreditation programs offered by various professional associations for corporate communications and public relations.
IABC offered the Accredited Business Communicator designation through 2013 and is moving to ISO certification.
The Universal Accreditation Board, of which PRSA is a participating member, offers the Accreditation in Public Relations designation.
The Florida Public Relations Association offers the Certified Public Relations Counselor designation for senior-level professionals.
Second, should you want them?
Earlier in my career, I pursued accreditations to help establish credibility and confidence in my capabilities as a communicator. They were part of the evolution in my journey of demonstrating my professional knowledge. A logical next step after my PR certificate and my M.A.
Right after I hit the required five years of work experience, I earned an ABC. Shortly after than came an APR.
As my work expanded into Human Resources, I added an SPHR, or Senior Professional in Human Resources.
But here’s the thing. I was motivated to prove something to myself, not to others. I wanted to show myself that I had mastered a body of knowledge. That I had reached a certain level of expertise. And that I had what it took to contribute at the next level.
It was intrinsic motivation. I was internally motivated to add to my knowledge bank – for the sheer joy of learning something new and applying my new-found knowledge to my work.
And to continue learning through the recertification process every few years. Lifelong learning is what enables you to thrive in a rapidly changing world. It gives you more confidence in your abilities to handle whatever comes your way.
Leonard A. Schlesinger and others make a compelling case for this in a Harvard Business Review piece about the information explosion and continually retraining and relearning for the future.
When I hear people talk about accreditation, the underlying rationale is often extrinsic motivation. There’s an expectation of an external reward. Could be getting hired, getting a raise or getting promoted.
From my perspective, there are more effective ways to make the case for those external rewards. Things like sharing your best work, showing the results you achieved for your organization and giving insight into how you think and solve problems.
This may be why accreditation seems to have fallen out of favor in recent years. Fewer people are pursuing accreditation, perhaps because they don’t see the rewards or a return on their investments. Associations are stepping up their marketing efforts in response. And so the cycle goes.
Like with most things in life, you’ll go further with intrinsic motivation. Do things because they’re important to you personally and you derive satisfaction from them.
This has implications for leadership as well. Creating the conditions for people to be internally motivated will lead to greater performance, after the extrinsic needs such as salary have been met.
Someone will go the greater distance because of a burning motivation within. Our job as leaders is to provide a sense of meaning and purpose that speaks to our team members and fuels an inner passion to excel.
This means investing time in getting to know each person as an individual. What are their passions? What are their aspirations? What’s most important to them?
Once you know this, you can structure your team for maximum impact and tailor your leadership approach for each person.
Third, what do you do with them?
Do I list my accreditations in my LinkedIn profile? Of course. Why wouldn’t I showcase my dedication to lifelong learning?
Do I include them in my email signature or on my business card? Absolutely not. I want the focus to be on my name. On my personal brand.
Should you get accredited? Probably not. Unless you love learning and want to prove something to yourself.
Work on your social media presence, your speaking ability and your strategic agility. Bring new ideas and fresh thinking to your job every day – all topics of upcoming posts.
by Caroline Leach | Jan 15, 2015 | Leadership, Learning
When you’re going for the good stuff in life, give yourself an advantage by competing only against yourself.
Figuratively this means don’t compare yourself to others. That’s a fool’s errand. Compare yourself only to how you’re getting better every day. How you’re learning and growing. What you’re contributing to the world.
Literally this means to look for situations where you really are competing only against yourself.
Here’s an example.
After four years in aerospace corp comms, I was ready for the next step. The entertainment world caught my eye. But I had no idea how to make that move.
In an unrelated development, I called an IABC acquaintance to get the new phone number of mutual contact.
Jeff Torkelson happened to be the SVP of corporate communications at DIRECTV, an offshoot of an aerospace company that launched an all-digital, national TV service. As the original disrupter to cable, it was growing fast.
As we talked it dawned on me that he was asking more about my work than a casual social conversation would usually entail. Then he said he’d been looking, unsuccessfully, for a new communications manager. Would I be interested in exploring it?
Uh, yeah.
One thing led to another, and a few weeks later I joined DIRECTV. (And here’s where I tell you the opinions expressed in this blog are mine.)
The lesson? Your network is important. Invest in meeting new people in person and in social media. Keep in touch. Help people out. Introduce them to each other. Pass along job leads.
The other lesson? The power of not trying too hard. Check out A Meditation on the Art of Not Trying.
While I wasn’t managing people (yet), I was responsible for employee communications and executive presentations, both internal and external.
But after a week on the job, I realized I’d made a big mistake.
While the people were friendly and the TV service was exciting, the environment was like a start up. People running around with their hair on fire. Long days that stretched into long nights. Some people never seemed to go home.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t been warned. “It’s really busy here,” Jeff said during our interview. “Do you think you can handle it?”
His words came back to haunt me during those first few crazy days. But I wasn’t about to quit after a week. I decided to stick it out for a year. Then I could move on to a better fit.
But something magical happened. I discovered I could thrive in that crazy environment. That it actually energized me. That I felt alive with the possibilities about what the future could become.
I got the green light to hire my first team member. And then my second.
And I figured out how to make it all work. The real secret was a lot of early mornings when I found quiet time for heavy thinking work – whether it was comms planning or speech writing.
When I started at the company in 1999, we had 5 million customers in the U.S., 1,200 employees and two locations.
Fast forward to 2015. We have 39 million customers in the U.S. and Latin America, close to 30,000 employees and well over 150 locations.
The lesson? Join a company that’s growing, with leaders who inspire you and values that move you.
And become comfortable not only with navigating change but with leading it.
During my tenure so far we’ve had four corporate owners and six CEOs. My comms team has grown to 44 people in nine states. (And the picture above was taken at DIRECTV in 2011 for a USC Annenberg alumni promotion.)
The consistent theme in working and growing at DIRECTV is that we entertain the future. We’re in the business of transforming TV.
In my last post I shared my zeal to establish myself early on with a number of industry awards. I also said how we’re measured as communicators has changed over time.
While some of it has to do with becoming a senior-level communicator, most of it has to do with our rapidly changing world.
Awards focus on what you did in the past.
But in the present it’s about how well you’re contributing to the company strategy. How you shape your corporate reputation to attract more and better customers, employees and shareholders. And how you give back to the communities where you do business.
And more than ever, it’s focusing on the future. How do you make products and services that people will love? How do you create a workplace where you can attract great people? And how do you consistently generate growth to attract investors?
And that gets back to why I launched this blog. Which will be the subjects of many future posts.
by Caroline Leach | Jan 1, 2015 | Leadership
“Every human advancement or reversal can be understood through communication.”
These words greeted and inspired me two nights a week two decades ago as I worked on my M.A. in communications management.
They were the opening of Ambassador Walter H. Annenberg’s mission statement at the USC Annenberg School for Journalism and Communication.
And his words could not be more true today.
Without communication, has anything actually happened?
It reminds me of the brain-bending question, “if a tree falls in the forest, but no one hears it, does it make a sound?”
The corollary?
If a company or a person does something great but no one knows about it, does it really matter?
Could be a game-changing product, a life-changing customer experience or an awe-inspiring place to work. If others don’t know about it, that company or person won’t reach its full potential.
That’s the power of communication. And that’s what I’m excited to explore in this blog.
Because once we’re done with our formal education, we begin the lifelong journey of learning something new every day. (Or sometimes every moment, depending on how fast your life, industry or company moves.)
And there are three themes I’ll explore in this blog.
Leading the function. What does it mean to lead a corporate communications function today – and tomorrow? What kinds of people should you hire and how should you help them develop? How should you structure and lead your team? How should you change and grow your team and the function over time?
Leading the field. How will you contribute to the body of knowledge in corporate communications? What experiments can you conduct in your organization to improve the best practices in communications? How can you innovate with your unique challenges and opportunities?
Leading the future. What are the ways you can create a compelling future – for your organization, your team and yourself – through the creative and innovative practice of communications? How can you not just survive constant change but genuinely thrive and create a better world?
Many successful bloggers have inspired me in this journey. Who all say, in one way or another, “just start.”
And isn’t that true of any important endeavor? Just start.
A speaker at TEDx Manhattan Beach also inspired me this fall. Travel writer David Hochman shared his adventure in the Omo Valley as a metaphor for his life’s mantra, “why not me?”
He described the physical manifestation of his mindset as a “thumb slam” – slamming against the “send” key in act of boldness.
So here’s my opening thumb slam!
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