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

(Download the Powerpoint presentation)

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.

The program:
1. Introduction
2. Feedback from you
3. Review what is going on in the marketplace…what has the attention of our leaders? and what are some areas we should watch?
4. Review opportunities for you to apply in your role -- “The P List”
5. A unique analogy

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

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

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

Opening Perspective
• 9-DOTS
• The story…the solutions
• Remember that your leadership is an audience to be addressed in a proactive and strategic manner

All levels of our career…

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”

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

ISSUES & OPPORTUNITIES

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?

Today’s 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”

The Perspective of the CEO

FAST COMPANY Top 10 – “Agendas”
• “Right now the biggest service we can sell is competence.” – Larry Kusin, Kinko’s
• “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

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

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%)

Corporate Reputation
• FORTUNE: America’s Most Admired Companies

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

Non-Financial Indicators
Pat Jackson
• Enhance Brand Awareness
• Foster Employee Engagement
• Enhance Management Connection
• Build Customer Loyalty
• Build Community Loyalty

ATTRIBUTES
The “P-List”

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 professional…build from the basics

Problem-solver
• Come to the meeting with solutions
- Everyone has problems, but few come with the solutions
• Strategic “action” planning

Predict
• Know the landscape internally and externally
- Research: knowing today’s issues and tomorrow’s concerns
• Rely on and share research on important issues

Perceptive
• Understand the CEO’s (and, therefore the organization’s) priorities and concerns
- Motivation
• Know your role and the company’s expectations of you
• Be quick to listen and slow to speak

Political / Peacemaker
• Help leadership understand that “being right” is not always enough to win
• Be cognizant of the forces working for and against you…internally and externally
• Understand how external forces exert power on the organization

Process-oriented / Planner
• Be results-oriented
• Be able to convey the process and outcomes of good public relations
• Staff “behavioral scientist”

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

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

Probing
• Cultivate a “challenging” relationship
• Dig
• “The forgotten or ignored executive”

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

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

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

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 devil’s advocate regarding company or organizational issues:
- Employees
- Media
- Regulators
- Activists

Persistent
• Do not wait for an invitation to the dance
• Advocate an “inside/out” approach to communication
- Internal audiences first…closest to the organization

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

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

• 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
• Batman operates by day as an upstanding citizen of Gotham City
- We must work within the company’s 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

THANK YOU