What People Think Can Kill Managers

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What People Think Can Kill Managers

By delivering a body blow to their operation when business,
non-profit, government agency or association managers,
with public relations reporting to them, overlook assembling
the PR resources and action planning needed to alter
individual perception leading to changed behaviors
among their most important outside audiences.

Those managers’ guilt worsens when they compound
matters by failing to persuade those key external audience
members to their way of thinking, and then overlook
moving them to take actions that allow their department,
group, division or subsidiary to succeed.

What such managers often have in common is a single-
minded preoccupation with simple tactics like press
releases, broadcast plugs, special events and brochures,
which denies them the best that public relations has to
offer.

On the other hand, approaching a public relations
challenge as outlined in the paragraphs above, means
you, as manager, are doing something positive about the
behaviors of the very outside audiences of yours that
MOST affect your operation. It is then that PR creates the
kind of external stakeholder behavior change that leads
directly to achieving your most important managerial
objectives.

But managers need a public relations game plan if they
are to get all their team members and organizational
colleagues working towards the same external
stakeholder behaviors.

While PR blueprints do vary, here’s one that can keep
a manager’s public relations effort, as they say, “on
message:” people act on their own perception of the
facts before them, which leads to predictable behaviors
about which something can be done. When we create,
change or reinforce that opinion by reaching,
persuading and moving-to-desired-action the very
people whose behaviors affect the organization the
most, the public relations mission is accomplished.

Since “results usually tell the tale,” this is what a
manager might expect when he or she approaches
PR this way: improved relations with government
agencies and legislative bodies; a rebound in
showroom visits; membership applications on the
rise; new thoughtleader and special event contacts;
capital givers or specifying sources looking your
way; new proposals for strategic alliances and joint
ventures; fresh community service and sponsorship
opportunities; prospects starting to work with you;
customers making repeat purchases; and even
stronger relationships with the educational, labor,
financial and healthcare communities.

The public relations people reporting to you are of
the utmost importance. But, who will you use? Your
regular public relations staff? People assigned to you
from above? Or could it be PR agency staff?
Regardless, they must be committed to you as the
senior project manager, and to the PR blueprint
starting with key audience perception monitoring.

Once the right specialists are aboard, satisfy yourself
that team members really believe that it’s crucially
important to know how your most important outside
audiences perceive your operations, products or
services. Be certain they buy the reality that
perceptions almost always lead to behaviors that can
help or hurt your unit.

Sit down with your PR troops and go over the blueprint
with them, in particular your plan for monitoring and
gathering perceptions by questioning members of your
most important outside audiences. Questions like these:
how much do you know about our organization? Have
you had prior contact with us and were you pleased
with the exchange? How much do you know about
our services or products and employees? Have you
experienced problems with our people or procedures?

The use of professional survey counsel for the
perception monitoring phases of your program is always
an option. But your PR people are also in the perception
and behavior business and can pursue the same objective:
identify untruths, false assumptions, unfounded rumors,
inaccuracies, misconceptions and any other negative
perception that might translate into hurtful behaviors.

To go further, you must set down your public relations
goal from which you can do something about the most
serious distortions you discovered during your key
audience perception monitoring. The new public
relations goal might call for straightening out that
dangerous misconception, or correcting that gross
inaccuracy, or stopping that potentially fatal rumor.

Of course, you need a solid strategy to achieve
success, one that clearly indicates to you and the PR
staff how to proceed. But do keep in mind that there
are just three strategic options available to you when
it comes to handling a perception and opinion
challenge. Change existing perception, create
perception where there may be none, or reinforce it.
The wrong strategy pick will taste like sea salt on
your Lingonberry pie. So, be certain the new strategy
fits well with your new public relations goal. It goes
without saying that you don’t want to select “change”
when the facts dictate a “reinforce” strategy.

Time to sit down at your computer to prepare and
share a powerful corrective message with members
of your target audience. But persuading an audience
to your way of thinking is no easy task. Which is
why your PR folks must come up with words that
are not only compelling, persuasive and believable,
but clear and factual. Only in this way will you be
able to correct a perception by shifting opinion
towards your point of view, leading to the behaviors
you are targeting.

Bring your communications specialists into the
planning cycle and, together, decide if your message’s
impact and persuasiveness measure up. Then select
the communications tactics most likely to carry your
message to the attention of your target audience.
You can pick from dozens of available tactics. From
speeches, facility tours, emails and brochures to
consumer briefings, media interviews, newsletters,
personal meetings and many others. But be sure that
the those you pick are known to reach folks just
like your audience members.

This is when you might want to unveil the message
before smaller gatherings rather than using higher-
profile tactics such as news releases. Reason is,
the credibility of the message itself can actually
depend on the perception of its delivery method.

Using progress reports might occur to someone at
this point, which should lead your PR team to
return to the field and start work on a second
perception monitoring session with members of
your external audience. In all probability, you’ll
want to use many of the same questions used in
the first benchmark session. Only this time, you
will be watching very carefully for signs that the
bad news perception is being altered in your direction.

While things can always slow down, you can then
accelerate matters with more communications
tactics and increased frequencies.

But now is the time to move beyond tactics like
special events, brochures, broadcast plugs and press
releases to achieve the very best public relations
has to offer.

Thus, the bottom line for managers wishing to avoid
death-by-bad-PR is this: the right public relations can
alter the individual perception among your key external
audiences leading to changed behaviors which, in turn,
lead directly to achieving your managerial objectives.

end

Bob Kelly counsels and writes for business, non-profit and
association managers about using the fundamental premise of public
relations to achieve their operating objectives. He has authored 245
articles on the subject which are listed at EzineArticles.com, click
Expert Author, click Robert A. Kelly. He has been DPR, Pepsi-Cola
Co.; AGM-PR, Texaco Inc.; VP-PR, Olin Corp.; VP-PR, Newport
News Shipbuilding & Drydock Co.; director of communications, U.S.
Department of the Interior, and deputy assistant press secretary, The
White House. He holds a bachelor of science degree from Columbia
University, major in public relations.
mailto:bobkelly@TNI.net Visit:www.PRCommentary.com



What People Think Can Kill Managers - To learn more about this author, visit Bob Kelly's Website.

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