Category Archives: Uncategorized

Blog Post III: Managing a President’s Image

     Imagine that you are the spokesperson or the press secretary for the President of the United States.  You have to deal with a president’s personality and ideology in the midst of mitigating what’s going on with various types of communication.
     Long gone are the days when media was basically just newspaper, radio, and television. Now social media (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Periscope, etc.) and new media (i.e., The Young Turks, Test Tube News) have definitely created different outlets that presidents and their media advisers have to constantly monitor and be aware of. George Orwell’s “Big Brother is watching,” as characterized in his book 1984 has taken on a whole new meaning.  Everybody’s watching now and one slip up or inappropriate comment is picked up in a matter of seconds.
     So let’s pretend you are the media adviser to President Trump. What strategies would you suggest using to better manage his image to the public?
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Your Job: A Means to an End or a Path to Your Dream?

Struggling college students or even new college graduates often find themselves working on jobs they really don’t want just to make some extra cash.  Yet, others may work on jobs or paid internships that provide them with experience and opportunities for their chosen careers.

Although, I’ve been out of college more than 30 years, I don’t believe one generation is any different than another when you’re trying to make some money to pay for school, purchase some new clothes or pay for rent.

Is your current job a means to an end?  In other words the job earns you a paycheck which allows you to pay the mortgage or rent, put food on the table, buy clothes, etc. The job is the means to get money; the end is what you want or need to buy with the money.
If you’re lucky, you work at a job you love and money is secondary. However, for a lot of people, the job is just a source of money. Sometimes, that should be enough, especially when the alternative is no job and no money coming in.

Or do you currently have a job that goes beyond just being a means to an end, but a path to your dream?  If so, how did you get it?  What strategies can you offer others who seek greener pastures–a job that you like and that you are compensated well?  Is this the track you on purpose or with intention?  Or did you just fall in to your dream job?

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From the Boomers to the Millennials–The Importance of a Diverse Workplace

It’s refreshing to see diversity in the workplace acknowledged in a holistic way. Gone are the days when diversity was primarily limited along gender and racial lines, leaving little or no thought given to the variety of differences (ie, racial, gender, sexual preference, religion, socio-economic status, geographic, etc.)  between people in an organization.

At least five generations make up the current workplace.  They are the Mature/Silents (born 1927-1945),  Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Generation Y/Millenials (1981-2000), and Generation Z/Boomlets (Born after 2001).  As organizations embrace diversity, they realize the benefits it brings.  According to Josh Greenberg, president of AlphaMeasure, Inc., a more diverse workforce has the following benefits: increased adaptability, a broader service range, a variety of viewpoints and more effective execution.  AlphaMeasure, Inc. is a firm that provides organizations a web-based method for measuring employee satisfaction, determining employee engagement, and increasing employee retention.

However, diversity in the workplace can also have its challenges too.  Communication from perception to cultural and language barriers can create problems.  People from different generations, socio-eo different between generations.  Resistance to change can create problems, particularly when the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset prevents people from giving new ideas, thereby inhibiting progress.

Even though many strides have been made in workplace diversity, there are still barriers to still overcome.  The question is where does each of us fall in the spectrum of embracing workplace diversity to its fullest?

As up and coming public relations practitioners and managers, you will often be part of the strategic planning in communicating the programming and solutions for workplace diversity.  Realizing your personal values and perceptions, how will you fit into the workplace diversity tapestry and communicate its importance?

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Why Did I Go Into Public Relations?

I was thinking recently about what made me go into the public relations field 37 years ago, especially at a time when the public relations field was not really looked upon as a real profession. At the time, there were very few colleges and universities who had a majors in public relations. It was either newspaper journalism or broadcasting. Occasionally, magazine writing might be an option.
Actually, when I pursued my undergraduate studies at Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University), I only had two choices as an aspiring communicator, newspaper journalism or broadcast journalism. I chose newspaper journalism because I thought I was going to be this awesome investigative journalist. As a teenager during the Watergate era, I wanted to be the next Woodward and Bernstein from the Washington Post. NOTE: All those folks from the 1970s and 1980s know what I’m talking about.

Public relations was foreign to me…until my senior year when my college introduced its first public relations course. I took the course as an elective and I was immediately hooked. I also realized that many of the previous internships I had were in the communications departments of corporations and organizations. Unlike many of my peers, I had actually shied away from pursuing newspaper internships. Now, I knew what I wanted to do when I graduated; however, there were no graduate programs in existence at the time to satisfy my professional urge.

So, immediately upon graduating from Clark College (now Clark Atlanta University) in Atlanta, Ga., I pursued and earned my master’s degree in journalism from the University of Illinois. My adviser, a staunch newspaper man, was none too pleased by my insistence on working in corporate communications (aka public relations), rather than pursue a career as a reporter with a local or national newspaper. He, like so many at that time, had a negative perception about the field. Many considered public relations people as “flacks” and “people who made up stories” to make their clients look good.

However, that perspective never deterred me. What I saw 35 years ago when I started in this field on the public relations staff at the University of Pittsburgh was a profession that served as the strategic communication backbone of an organization or for an individual. I saw a field where I was able to use my journalism background to write press releases, feature stories, video scripts, media advisories, and speeches. I learned a great deal about media relations, community relations, fundraising, governmental relations, crises communications and strategic planning. What I also learned is that journalists often rely heavily on public relations people to get what they need for their stories.

Students now pursuing their degree in public relations are looked upon a lot more favorably. In fact,they are a hot commodity. Organizations and individuals (i.e., entertainers, athletes and politicians) realize the important value and skill set they bring to the table.

The public relations field has come a long way from 37 years ago when I got started and it’s extremely refreshing to see the positive change in perception. Watch out world! A new generation of public relations professionals are getting prepared to take on the world!! So why do you want to go into public relations?

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From the Boomers to the Millennials–The Importance of a Diverse Workplace

It’s refreshing to see diversity in the workplace acknowledged in a holistic way. Gone are the days when diversity was primarily limited along gender and racial lines, leaving little or no thought given to the variety of differences (ie, racial, gender, sexual preference, religion, socio-economic status, geographic, etc.)  between people in an organization.

At least five generations make up the current workplace.  They are the Mature/Silents (born 1927-1945),  Baby Boomers (1946-1964), Generation X (1965-1980), Generation Y/Millenials (1981-2000), and Generation Z/Boomlets (Born after 2001).  As organizations embrace diversity, they realize the benefits it brings.  According to Josh Greenberg, president of AlphaMeasure, Inc., a more diverse workforce has the following benefits: increased adaptability, a broader service range, a variety of viewpoints and more effective execution.  AlphaMeasure, Inc. is a firm that provides organizations a web-based method for measuring employee satisfaction, determining employee engagement, and increasing employee retention.

However, diversity in the workplace can also have its challenges too.  Communication from perception to cultural and language barriers can create problems.  People from different generations, socio-eo different between generations.  Resistance to change can create problems, particularly when the “we’ve always done it this way” mindset prevents people from giving new ideas, thereby inhibiting progress.

Even though many strides have been made in workplace diversity, there are still barriers to still overcome.  The question is where does each of us fall in the spectrum of embracing workplace diversity to its fullest?

As up and coming public relations practitioners and managers, you will often be part of the strategic planning in communicating the programming and solutions for workplace diversity.  Realizing your personal values and perceptions, how will you fit into the workplace diversity tapestry and communicate its importance?

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