Building Blocks for Establishing and Maintaining a Strong Relationship with Your CEOs and Senior Man

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Building Blocks for Establishing and Maintaining
a Strong Relationship with Your CEO(s) and Senior
Management

• FPRA State Conference 2002
• Roy Reid, APR
• Consensus Communications

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Purpose

• To look at the tools within our Public Relations
  skill mix and other attributes we can adopt and
  employ to build and cultivate relationships we
  need with the CEO, senior management, the Board,
  and others within the organizations we serve.

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The program

• Introduction
• Feedback from you
• Review what is going on in the marketplacewhat
  has the attention of our leaders? and what are
  some areas we should watch?
• Review opportunities for you to apply in your
  role -- The P List
• A unique analogy

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Good Books

• Clients for Life
• Andrew Sobel
• Becoming the CEO
• Good to Great
• Jim Collins
• The Tipping Point
• Malcolm Gladwell
• Beware the Naked Man Who Offers you His Shirt
• Harvey MacKay

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Why explore this issue?

• We owe it to the organizations that employee us
  to make a difference to the bottom line
• Given the issues facing organizations today, the
  PR practitioner must take initiative to advocate
  ethical and open communication
• External forces are more influential than ever
• Internally, audiences such as employees are at
  greater risk to be affected and disenfranchised
  by issues
• Take a proactive approach to managing our career
• Overwhelming change calls for effective
  communication and relationship management

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Who can benefit?

• All practitioners, from entry level to senior
  counselors, can benefit by better focusing on and
  finding new ways to enhance these critical
  relationships.
• From the start of our career, we should strive to
  become the trusted advisor at each level of
  growth
• By transcending our role as public relations
  professionals and reaching out, we can secure a
  seat at the decision-making table
• EVERYONE in an organization struggles and manages
  this effort

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Opening Perspective

• 9- DOTS
• The storythe solutions
• Remember that your leadership is an audience to
  be addressed in a proactive and strategic manner

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All levels of our career
X Factor
Trusted Advisor
Senior Team
Strategist
Generalist
Manager
Competent Specialist
Tactician
Entry Level
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The Trusted Advisor

• The expert for hire moves to a steady
  supplier of service and then becomes a trusted
  advisor.
• Andrew Sobel, Clients for Life
• Trusted advisors do not chose the role, they are
  chosen.
• Irving H. Buchen, The Power of Influence

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A cornerstone experience

• Public Relations Manager at Volusia Medical
  Center
• Part of a small management team
• Building and opening a new hospital
• Working as an interdependent team trust
• Required to handle issues for the CEO regularly

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ISSUES OPPORTUNITIES
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Your Thoughts

• What are some of the national issues or trends we
  see facing CEOs?
• What are the key issues facing your
  executives/organizations?
• What goals do you have in the critical
  relationships within your organization?
• What are you trying to achieve in helping meet
  objectives?
• What are the roadblocks in your way?

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Todays Business Climate

• High degree of distrust
• Corporate
• Non-profit
• Wall Street is reeling in scandal
• Locally, the Orlando Sentinel called for
  corporate leadership to step-up

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The Perspective of the CEO

• FAST COMPANY Top 10 Agendas
• Right now the biggest service we can sell is
  competence. Larry Kusin, Kinkos
• My top priority right now is to get the younger
  creative people at the network to feel
  comfortable speaking up. Susan Lyn ABC
  Entertainment
• Science is a life of problem solving, being a
  president is too. Shirley Tilghman, Princeton
• We are going to improve service and refocus on
  our core customer base. -- Ron Sargent, Staples
• Cutting jobs should be the last thing a company
  does, not the first thing. James Parker,
  Southwest Airlines

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The Perspective of the CEO

• CEO2CEO Summit
• Leadership Effectiveness Among Uncertainty
  panel looking at the CEO environment following
  September 11, 2001
• Peer-to-peer discussion
• Important Characteristics
• Authenticity
• Communication
• Accessibility
• Team player and leader
• Listening skills
• Holistic people management
• Flexibility

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The Perspective of the CEO

• PR Week 2001 CEO Survey
• 50 believe it is vital for CEO to be spokesman
  in a crisis (up from 2)
• 19 feel they have an adequate crisis plan
• 58 said public relations and corporate
  communications has becoming more important to
  them during the past five years
• Florida Trend 2001
• Attract and retain customers was the most widely
  held objective (40)

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The Perspective of the CEO

• Corporate Reputation
• FORTUNE Americas Most Admired Companies

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Management Trends to Keep in Mind

• Balanced scorecard
• Benchmarking
• Continuous Improvement
• Core Competencies
• Customer Relationship Management
• Learning Organization
• Mass Customization
• Mission and Vision Statement
• Reengineering
• Total Quality Management
• Entrepreneur Magazine, May 2002
• 10 Movements Withstanding the Test of Time

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Non-Financial IndicatorsPat Jackson

• Enhance Brand Awareness
• Foster Employee Engagement
• Enhance Management Connection
• Build Customer Loyalty
• Build Community Loyalty

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ATTRIBUTES

• The P-List

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Performance

• At the end of the day, what really matters is
  your performance
• Performance is consistent delivery of quality
  service
• You must work to be the most competent
  professionalbuild from the basics

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Problem-solver

• Come to the meeting with solutions
• Everyone has problems, but few come with the
  solutions
• Strategic action planning

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Predict

• Know the landscape internally and externally
• Research knowing todays issues and tomorrows
  concerns
• Rely on and share research on important issues

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Perceptive

• Understand the CEOs (and, therefore the
  organizations) priorities and concerns
• Motivation
• Know your role and the companys expectations of
  you
• Be quick to listen and slow to speak

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Political / Peacemaker

• Help leadership understand that being right is
  not always enough to win
• Be cognizant of the forces working for and
  against youinternally and externally
• Understand how external forces exert power on the
  organization

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Process-oriented / Planner

• Be results-oriented
• Be able to convey the process and outcomes of
  good public relations
• Staff behavioral scientist

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Community Relations
Spheres of Influence
Education
Local / State Government
Local Offices
Employees
CLIENT
Business Sections
Neighborhoods
Referrals
Faith Service
Business Associations
Major Community Partnerships
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Public Relations Planning Model
Client Conducted Interviews Compiled Data
Discovery Research
Internal (Staff Interviews)
External (Client Interviews)
Process
Sort, process, analyze data Create report for
marketing planning recommendation
Evaluate
Strategic Planning
Process
Implementation
Messaging / Creative Workplan / Branding /
Marketing Program Development / etc.
Refine Plan
Adoption
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Partner / Participant

• Add value and be able to speak the language of
  ROI and other finance dialects
• Take prudent risks on behalf of the organization
• Take the ball when it is handed off to you
• Get involved whenever possible

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Patient

• Relationships take time to fully develop
• Internally
• Externally
• Plan the work and work the plan
• Stick to it

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Probing

• Cultivate a challenging relationship
• Dig
• The forgotten or ignored executive

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Positive Pragmatic

• Aggressively pursue positive relationships with
  problematic audiences for the company
• Take these on with enthusiasm
• Be realistic in the engagement (see patient)
• Come with realistic expectations and never
  oversell ideas

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Prepared

• Be able to get to the point
• Prioritize
• Understand and be able to articulate the impact
  of external forces
• Community
• Media
• Government
• Regulatory
• Special interest / activists

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People-focused

• Help management understand why people do what
  they do
• Push them to the right people
• May not be a natural act for them
• Know how things really get done
• Inside
• Outside
• Be the recognized change agent

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Passionate

• Advocate ethics
• Now more than ever a voice is needed to stand up
  with the other corporate expectations (financial,
  legal, etc.)
• Take external viewpoints for playing devils
  advocate regarding company or organizational
  issues
• Employees
• Media
• Regulators
• Activists

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Persistent

• Do not wait for an invitation to the dance
• Advocate an inside/out approach to
  communication
• Internal audiences firstclosest to the
  organization

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Professional

• Be quick fluid and flexible
• Build relationships in all areas of the company
  leadership
• Be the calm in the storm

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BATMAN

• A unique analogy for moving into the role of
  trusted advisor

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BATMAN

• Batman is a superhero, called into action when
  someone is threatening Gotham City
• We are often brought in for the first time in the
  midst of a crisis
• Batman has no special powers, and must rely on
  his determination to fine tune his skills
• We must never forget to work on our professional
  and career development
• Batman stalks the city looking for opportunities
  to serve justice
• We must work proactively to really add value

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BATMAN

• Batman operates by day as an upstanding citizen
  of Gotham City
• We must work within the companys expectations
  and culture
• Batman has a purpose, vision, and mission that
  completely defines his actions
• We must be focused to deliver the best service to
  the organization
• Batman has become a trusted ally to people in
  Gotham and he surrounds himself with others that
  help him
• Surround yourself with the RIGHT people to build
  your success

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THANK YOU