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The Growing Importance of Ethics in PR

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StrategyDriven Marketing and Sales Article |Ethics in PR|The Growing Importance of Ethics in PREthics have always been important in PR, but they have officially become more important than ever. The world is changing by a significant degree, and so is the public relations industry. Nearly every single PR organization follows a code of ethics. These can either be company policies that they will follow when working with clients or rules from a proper board. PR Council, PRSA, Institute of PR, ICCO, and Global Alliance are just a few of the boards that offer their own code of ethics.

However, the rising importance of ethics raises an important question about why it is becoming so important. And to answer that, it is best to look at what ethics really mean for PR firms in general.

What Is Ethics?

Simply put, Ethics are rules or principles put into place that every individual who is working in the firm will have to follow. These rules guide PR professionals in a way that allows them to act responsibly and treat their clients with fairness. These principles also happen to be very strict, as people who do not follow the rules set out by a board are blacklisted from the industry.

However, the perception surrounding PR firms and professionals alike is much less positive. Despite various ethics boards having their own rules in place, people have mixed feeling about them, to say the least. A 2018 global report on ethics and its evolution found that over 57% of participants in the US thought that PR, as a field, was unethical. This report tends to stand out compared to the 44% of individuals worldwide who believed the same.

Why Is Ethics In PR Important?

Despite what many have come to believe about PR in general, ethics is the glue holding everything together. A few reasons why Ethics in PR is important:

Helps Sustain the PR Profession

One of the most important reasons why ethics exist in the PR space is to promote healthy competition. If ethics were no longer part of the equation, healthy competition could very well go out the window. Firms will start a race to the bottom as they try to gain the upper hand regardless of the cost.
Without proper Ethics, companies will start relying on underhanded tactics to get ahead of each other. Aggressive procurement tactics and spreading misinformation are just two of the many dangerous ways companies will try to get ahead. As a result, PR firms, their clients, and their employees will suffer. The ethics boards strongly advise against unfair competition in the industry, as no one benefits from it in the long run.

Improves Relationships with Clients

Another important thing to understand about PR firms is that they rarely ever work independently. Whenever they work with another company, they become an extension of their beliefs and morals. And if they happen to act in a way different from their employer, that could be bad news for the entire industry.

With a proper code of ethics in place, PR firms will always be sure to represent their clients according to their public image. The PRSA code of conduct specifies various instances where professionals who act out of the interests of their employer will be violating their regulations.

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Maintains Positive Public Perception

Although most PR firms act as an extension to various companies, they also represent the greater industry. Therefore, their actions can carry consequences for other PR firms, where ethics comes into play.

The ICCO has even created its 10-point Helsinki Declaration, where it details the ethical standards that companies will have to meet to continue working under the board. This massive change came because of a major scandal, which included various PR firms. Buzzfeed chronicled the rise of such firms that were using unsavory methods to benefit their clients.

How is the PR Industry Changing?

Media consumption and the PR landscape, in general, are shifting so rapidly that it is hard for most companies to keep up. The shifting tide of PR is especially dangerous when considering how slow some boards of ethics can be when updating their rules.

The Rise of Convincing Sponsored Content

One of the major changes coming to social media and people’s consumption of it was the rise of paid content. According to the same global report of 2018, 64% of surveyed professionals believe that most people will not be able to tell the difference between content owned and paid for. What is more worrying is that 60% of the professionals believe that people will not care.

Therefore, if a PR agency has not aligned itself with a board of ethics, it will be under heavy fire from the public that cannot distinguish between fake and real news.

The Changing Multi-Media Landscape

70% of professionals believe that the PR industry as a whole will be changing drastically within just five years. 36% of these professionals believe that their firm is not ready for such a change, whereas the rest believe they are. The factors that are influencing this change are paid influencers, branded content, and fake news.

All of these three things can prove to be detrimental to a PR firm. Only with a proper ethics board on its side can PR agencies survive such a drastic change. Furthermore, the code of conduct board has the power to properly investigate the possibilities of PR firms engaging in such convincing under-handed tactics.

How Can PR Firms Prepare for the Future?

The future for PR firms is looking a little bleak, considering how quickly the industry is changing. Over time, fake content will be almost indistinguishable from curated content, putting PR firms in a difficult position. If PR firms focus on their code of ethics or align themselves with a specific board, they can better prepare themselves for such a future.

What strategy is (and what it isn’t):

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StrategyDriven Strategic Planning Article |Strategic Planning|What strategy is (and what it isn’t):Strategy, Oh what a lofty word. High-minded. Mysterious even conjuring wizards behind the curtain. Military generals hidden in a secret bunker calling the shots. The simple word “strategy” can be added to just about anything to make it sound more important or thought-out, strategic relationship building is still just going to a cocktail party or out to lunch with a potential client.

Despite it’s overuse, strategy is still vitally important. Just the act of thinking about something, breaking it down and making a plan, is a thing of beauty in and of itself. Strategy is The Plan, the 360 view. It’s how all the pieces fit together, and what will hopefully result from our actions or reactions.

It turns out a lot of people have a lot to say about strategy. Every conflict ever known has figured in some kind of attack or reaction. Survival depends on it. And so does ours.

Sir Lawrence Freedman of Oxford University is one of the world’s preeminent international scholars on politics and war. His 2013 book, Strategy: A History, which took 40 years to write, is the best book ever written outlining the entire history of the development of strategy.

Freedman writes, “So the realm of strategy is one of bargaining and persuasion as well as threats and pressure, psychological as well as physical effects, and words as well as deeds. This is why strategy is the central political art. It is about getting more out of a situation than the starting balance of power would suggest. It is the art of creating power (emphasis added).”

When a client or manager or CEO asks, What are we doing here folks? we are the ones who’d better have an answer, and preferable a well-crafted document.

One of the most well recognized books on strategy is from the British military historian B.H. Liddell Hart. In his book, Strategy, he defined the concept in the very literal sense as “the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy,” distinguishing strategy from, on one side, “tactics” — the modes of “actual fighting” on the battlefield — and on the other, “grand strategy,” in which civilian leaders set high-level policy and coordinate the nation’s resources toward a collective goal.

There is a temptation to confuse a vision or policy with a strategy, but they are not the same thing. Policies address the “what.” They’re prescriptions for the way things might operate in an ideal world. Strategy is about the “how.” How do you move toward a desired end, despite limited means and huge obstacles? A policy may have an implementation strategy behind it.

Strategy is often associated with high-level decision makers — generals, presidents, corporate titans — but the basic challenge of, in Theodore Roosevelt’s words, doing “what you can, with what you have, where you are” applies just as much when working from the bottom up.

Saul Alinsky, a hero of the labor movement and a patron saint of union organizers, made the claim that strategy is agnostic about who is currently in power. In his book, Rules for Radicals, he wondered how to use these same concepts of high strategy to wrest power from the oligarchs and tycoons and give it to the people. Alinsky believed the right strategy would allow anyone to wield power.

There are different interpretations of strategy. Beverly Gage is a history professor at Yale University, where she just resigned in a furor from the Brady-Johnson Program in Grand Strategy because of donor pressure over the curriculum. She writes, “The original concept of strategy comes from the world of military affairs. It derives from a Greek word meaning ‘generalship’ or ‘the office or command of a general’: it was an enterprise for the man in charge.”

Any strategic challenge in our daily life, both personal and professional, requires contending with limits and obstacles: scarce resources, structural constraints, devoted enemies and fickle allies, chance, and luck. The plan is a thoughtful prediction.

My belief is simple, strategy is all about creating something greater than it’s parts. Something bigger than yourself with the limited resources of Time, Money and People.

Don’t just leave the strategy to others. If you see a better path forward, outline the strategy and lay it out there. Sure it’s risky, but it’s better than nothing. You just might find yourself a wizard behind the curtain.

About the Author

Matthew L. Moseley is the president and founder of the Ignition Strategy Group and the author of Ignition: Superior Communication Strategies to Create Stronger Connections by Routledge publishing. He is a world record adventure swimmer and lives in Boulder, Colorado.

The Most Important Leadership Strategy: Slowing Down

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StrategyDriven Management and Leadership Article |Leadership Strategy|The Most Important Leadership Strategy: Slowing DownLeadership has become more dynamic and fast-paced as organizations go global and technological integration increases. With these demands, leaders may feel the pressure to speed up, potentially sacrificing important leadership strategies along the way. Increasingly, immediate gratification is the way of the world, yet leaders would be remiss to forget the most important leadership strategy: slowing down.

When leaders choose to implement the deliberate act of slowing down, it can help promote various positive outcomes. Slowing down can help minimize mistakes, increase focus, and assist in the regulation of emotional reactions to various situations. There is no limit to the way these benefits can serve the modern leader.

Leaders who know how to take their foot off the accelerator and slow down — even when the impulse is to speed up — attain tremendous strategic advantages that, in the long run, help them to come out ahead.

Among the many advantages leaders can realize when slowing down, the following four are some of the most prominent:

1. Decreased mistakes. It should come as no surprise that going too fast can produce mistakes. Leaders who become caught up in fast-paced environments can forget their manners, overlook critical steps, or forget tasks altogether. When leaders speed up, they may inadvertently treat team members poorly as they become hyper focused on reaching goals. However, leaders must always remember that their organizations thrive because of their people, and that their people create the culture and environment of the workplace.

If leaders don’t take a moment to slow down, breathe, and check on their team, they won’t know their team’s status. Whether that’s their progress on goals or their internal struggles, team members’ wellbeing is necessary to achieve goals without setbacks. Part of being an effective leader is understanding the need to ensure the team reaches its goals without sacrificing quality or team members’ welfare.

2. Increased listening. Leaders who allow themselves to slow down improve their ability to listen to learn in their conversations. When the need for speed pushes all involved to move too quickly, conversations become compressed and the ability to actively listen diminishes. For leaders, this is especially detrimental. They must remain entirely present in all their conversations in order to keep a pulse on their team.

Should leaders regularly face instances where they’re unable to fully listen, they end up losing instead of gaining time, often having to reconvene team members to go back over important points or concerns. Instead, slowing down enables them to actively listen. This involves calming their breathing, maintaining eye contact, refraining from interrupting, and attempting to fully address the issues at hand.

3. Alleviated stress. The drive that comes from a need for speed is often accompanied by stress and anxiety. That drive also makes it difficult to gracefully respond to interruptions, which can produce negative reactions among team members. Slowing down decreases the risk of showing or provoking negative emotions. For leaders, this is imperative as their influence on their team sets the tone for team behavior and organizational culture.

By slowing down, leaders can effectively prioritize, stay on top of tasks, and remain organized, and therefore will find it much easier to avoid the stress and anxiety that can permeate throughout the organization. While the need to act quickly will present itself from time to time, leaders must slow down enough to respond from a controlled emotional state. Even under pressure, leaders can achieve a sense of calmness and model for team members how to manage themselves by maintaining a steady composure.

4. Strengthened organizational culture. Going too fast leads to making mistakes, diminishes listening skills, and creates stress and anxiety. Yet leaders who know how to slow down, remain present, and think clearly are helping to build a positive culture. Leaders are the drivers of culture, and they must model the behavior they wish to see in the workplace.

Slowing down leaves room for emotional intelligence, ethical behavior, empathy, and compassion. These are all foundational qualities to being a positive leader and leading a successful team. It allows teams to reach their goals, results in employee wellbeing and low turnover, and increases innovation and creativity. At a time when masses of workers are choosing to leave their jobs, leaders can create positive and productive cultures by slowing down.

Any current or aspiring leader hoping to learn and grow can start with the most important leadership strategy: slowing down. By slowing down, leaders cultivate all of the best leadership qualities that will better motivate employees, generate effective decision making, and galvanize a positive culture.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Mary SmithStrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Brian SmithMary Smith has degrees in English and psychology from the University of Redlands, and in organizational leadership from Colorado State University Global. She is co-author with her father, Brian Smith, of the new book, Individual Advantages: Be the “I” in Team (BookBaby, March 2, 2021). Learn more at iabusinessadvisors.com.

What You Need To Stand Out In A Job Interview

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Stand out in a job interview|What You Need To Stand Out In A Job InterviewThe interview is the most important part of the hiring process. Not only does it give you an opportunity to present yourself to your potential employer, but it also allows them to see if they are likely to hire you too. You may have done everything right when applying for the job, but if you don’t do well in your interview, there’s no way that they will be interested in giving you a shot.

This is why you want to give it your best self and have the best chance of getting the job. But what does that look like and what does it take? Let’s take a look at some important points to help you here.

The Importance of Preparation & Presentation in a Job Interview

Job interviews are one of the most important aspects of the hiring process. They provide a chance to show the employer who you are, what you’re about, and make a connection. So, you’ll want to make sure that you can nail it by preparing properly. The most important thing is preparation in advance so that you don’t miss any key details when in your interview.

Research your potential employer and learn about the company’s culture, values, and history. If possible, try to find someone who has worked there recently or currently works there to get insider information before you go in for the interview.

How To Land The Interview In The First Place

The interview is the most important step in getting a job. But you have to make sure that you get there first. One way to land an interview is by following up with the employer after submitting a resume or application online. You also need to make sure that your resume is great by using a ksa response writer to get it all right. Also, be sure that you’ve not given straight forward answers and that you’re going to not only be suitable for the job, but also stand out as a key candidate!

What’s Important When Preparing For The Interview?

So when you’re actually thinking about getting to the interview, you’ll want to be sure that you’re prepared along the way. First impressions are important in an interview. So, make sure that you are wearing appropriate clothes like a suit or something similar. You also want to bring copies of your resumé with you. Be sure that you’re not late and that you’re polite and kind to the receptionist or whoever greets you when you’re there. It also helps to make sure that you’re in the right mindset for success when the interview begins.

How To Make a Good First Impression in an Interview

When you first meet the interviewer, you really want to be sure that you make a good first impression. But what does that actually look like? You get just a few seconds to come off in a certain way – so some of the things you might want to focus on, that employers want, can include you being enthusiastic and confident. Also be sure to smile and give a firm handshake. You will also want to make sure that they are interested in them and that you ask questions about their work. And if you are using humor, make sure that you do so appropriately.

Staying Calm in the Face of Difficult Questions

The stress of interviews and the fear of getting asked a difficult question can make you uncomfortable and less confident. It’s important to be prepared for all types of questions and to stay calm when answering them. Some of the key questions that you might get asked and that it helps to prepare for are;

  1. What’s your greatest weakness?
  2. Why do you want to work here?
  3. What is your greatest accomplishment?
  4. What are your salary expectations?
  5. Why should we hire you?

What To Do After The Interview

Finally, you might want to make sure that you know what to do after the interview. To find out what happened after the interview, you should ask the interviewer if they need any more information from you. If they say no, you can follow up with them in a day or two to check on the status of your application.

The safest practice is to wait for at least 24 hours before contacting them. This allows for them to go through your application without being contacted by phone or email. Sometimes they are hesitant about giving feedback due to fear of hurting the applicant’s feelings. Giving them some space will give them enough time to produce an answer that they feel comfortable with. So have faith and believe in yourself.

How To Supercharge Your Property Business

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StrategyDriven Managing Your Business Article |Property Business|How To Supercharge Your Property BusinessWith the current state of the real estate market, it’s been difficult to find good opportunities for people to make money. There are many ways on how to make money with real estate, but some of them are more effective than others. If you have a property business, whether you’re getting started or not, you may be wondering what you can do to make things really take off for you.

To start, you need to have a clear understanding of your goals. What is the impact you want to make with your property business? Do you want to increase the revenue of the business, give back more to your employees, or engage more customers? Once you have a clear idea on what you want, then it is time for the next step. But to help you get there, you’re going to want to take these key points into consideration.

Making Money With Real Estate

There are many ways that you can make money with real estate. Investing in one property is not the only way to benefit from your purchases. There are other ways like flipping properties, investing in multiple properties, etc. Or, if you’re running a real estate agency, then you can use your expertise to sell homes or commercial properties and earn money that way.

The key to making money with real estate is having the right strategy and following through on it. Real estate is an extremely lucrative venture, but also very risky. There’s a lot at stake when it comes to your investments and you should know what kind of risks you’re taking when deciding on how much money you want to put into your business future. So come up with a plan and start to execute it.

Market Your Property Business for Further Growth

There are a lot of property marketing techniques that you can use to help grow your business. The most important thing is to know how to market your property business in a way that gets you the most clients and the best return on your investment. You can also turn to an expert real estate marketing company to help you if you’re not an expert at this. But overall, you need to be sure that you have a professional looking website and that you know your market. That way, you can drill down and work out the best ways to target them – whether that’s through advertising, direct sales, or using social media.

How Technology is Transforming the Property Market

With the advancement of technology, property has also been one of the markets that have been influenced here. The evolution of the property market is now driving sales technology. With this innovation, salespeople are now able to reach out potential customers with automatic phone calls and emails which help them convert more leads into sales. You can take a look at the different software packages that are going to make your job much easier and more efficient too.