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Tag: leadership

How I get it done – finding balance and managing time as a working mom

I recently returned to The Reis Group after maternity leave. As a mother of three kids under the age of five and a Managing Supervisor at TRG, I juggle many roles in my personal and professional life.

As I’ve transitioned back to work, I’ve been reflecting on how we get it all done, as PR professionals and human beings. Regardless of what stage you’re at in your career, or whether you have kids or other dependents at home, managing your time and energy effectively is essential to success and overall happiness. While it usually seems impossible to attain that perfect balance between work and home, there are simple things we can do to make our lives more organized, more intentional and more satisfying.

Here are some of the best pieces of advice I’ve received from some well-balanced friends and role models over the course of my career that I’ve been reminding myself as I transition back to being a working mom:

Make your bed in the morning.

I’m proud to be married to an active-duty service member. While his military training has taught him many things, including how to fly a plane, one of the most impactful things it has taught him is to make his bed in the morning – every morning, no matter what. There is something powerful about starting off your day in this small, intentional, disciplined way.  You set the tone for the rest of the day and no matter what happens, at least you’ve made your bed!

Learn the difference between what is urgent and what is important.

To successfully manage your workload, you need to understand the difference between an urgent task and an important one. Especially in the fast-paced world of PR, every incoming email can seem like a potential fire drill. We are inundated with client demands, a chaotic news cycle and near constant social media notifications, which means you need to get an ironclad grip on what’s important and what’s truly urgent so that you can prioritize your tasks and deliver on client goals. The same rule applies for your personal life and your relationships. Know what is really urgent and what is only important.

Here is a Harvard Business Review article, about the “Eisenhower Matrix,” a useful tool you can use to plot your tasks and help you visualize urgent vs. important.

Make a plan and work your plan.

My mom, who raised five kids while starting her own interior design business, reminds me of this whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed and stressed out – and it applies to every aspect of your life. From weekly meal planning to managing a complex client project – make your plan and then work that plan, one step at a time. At work, online project management tools can be helpful in breaking down bigger projects into manageable steps and visualizing the full scope of a project.

Take breaks!

No one is a robot. Breaks are important. We need fuel, fresh air and mental breathing room.  This recent Harvard Business Review article, points out a key distinction: we have only a finite amount of time each day, but our energy can constantly be renewed. If we can manage our physical and mental energy better, we can get more done within the confines of our time. Even though it can seem impossible with a busy workload, we must make time to take a short walk. Do some stretching. Build breaks into your day or risk burning out. Still don’t believe me? This Harvard Business Review article spells out the importance of work breaks and how to make them count.

Keep your pencils sharp.

My grandfather, who worked at a New York City advertising agency during the “Madmen” era, used to give this advice. While we may not use pencils very much anymore, the implication is still sound. Present yourself well. Be polished. Spellcheck. In the era of endless distractions, stay focused and know what your goals are – both personally and professionally. Attention to detail really matters in PR and in life – demonstrate that you understand that and success will follow.

Being a Conscious Leader in Today’s PR Landscape

As a GenZ-er early in my PR career, I am in the process of being transitioned into a role as an account manager. It’s a challenging and exciting prospect to begin to find my own voice and develop my own approach to management.

With the support of my managers at The Reis Group, I decided to attend a conference called Conscious People Management for Team Success to help me learn a management style to make my colleagues feel supported and inspired. The two-day conference was eye-opening, with a plethora of tips and tricks. But my main takeaway was an important lesson that will guide my personal development: Feedback is the most powerful and important gift that you can give—and receive.

Nearly three years into my health care PR career, I’ve been learning the great value of clear and intentional feedback. My supervisors’ suggestions are helping me grow my skillset and increase my efficiency while continuing to produce high-quality work. Through this process, I’ve realized that my perfectionist tendencies sometimes cause me to spend longer than necessary on a project. I needed to spend less time with some tasks because it was impacting deadlines and the overall momentum of projects. To remedy this, they provided a few examples of smart strategies that can help: Give myself strict timeframes for each task. Create a plan for my day before jumping into assignments so that my daily priorities are clear.

A great takeaway from these conversations was realizing the value of good feedback. I didn’t feel that I’d been judged or criticized. Instead, they affirmed my experience by acknowledging that balancing thoughtful work and getting the job done quickly and efficiently can be difficult, especially when you want to deliver for the team and, ultimately, the client.

My managers focused on being solution-oriented, and building on my strengths. They also provided great suggestions, like sharing their own tools for time management, creating daily to-do lists and setting up weekly team check-ins.

Learning the value of receiving feedback is one thing, but the idea of being in a managerial role and giving feedback in potentially uncomfortable conversations felt pretty intimidating.

As I’m transitioning to an account manager role, I’m wondering how to approach these difficult and vital conversations. How do I develop the best possible tone and the most useful structure for these feedback sessions?  Management consultants preach various tactics, but I needed to figure out my own way.

The leader of the Conscious People Management for Team Success seminar stressed that these conversations should be focused and specific, positioned in a way that propels both individual and team growth. She suggested four steps:

  • Share actionable insights.
  • Highlight data for development.
  • Provide information that enables improvement.
  • Brainstorm ideas to help you grow.

Soon after the seminar, I had the chance to give feedback to a colleague. Before I met with her, I sat down and listed what she did well with an assignment because I knew she’d put in a lot of effort. Then I noted the three specific areas that needed work, and I thought about what she could do to improve. Then, I planned to give her encouragement by reiterating the good things she did and being upbeat about what she needed to do moving forward.

With the tips I’d learned, I felt prepared to have a productive conversation. We first discussed areas where she shined. I also asked about her own self-evaluation so I could better understand where she was coming from. I was quickly able to identify some confusion about the assignment and areas of disconnect. We were able to find a few specific examples of how she could improve her work.

We both left the conversation feeling positive and motivated. I had reminded myself to stick to my plan to lead with empathy and understanding. For me, the biggest triumph from that conversation was that she felt supported and inspired to take on similar tasks moving forward and wasn’t discouraged or defeated by the feedback.

My first experience with giving feedback was a learning opportunity for both of us. Rethinking the concept of feedback to see it as a “gift” is a powerful way to make our teams stronger. It fosters trust and inspiration among us, which allows us to better serve our clients. Most importantly, it serves as a reminder that no matter where you are in your career, there is always so much more to learn, and being open to it can help strengthen you as a person and a teammate.

Managing and Mentoring the Next Generation of Health Care Public Relations Professionals

COVID-19 has turned our workplaces upside-down, creating a remote/hybrid office environment that has changed when and where we come to work. At The Reis Group, we have also come to fully realize that we must also change how we work with each other. In our case, TRG has converted to a Tuesday-Wednesday in-office schedule, with everyone otherwise working from home, using Teams and Zoom to do our work and keep in touch as a team.

But in my role as a Senior Vice President and account lead, I’ve come to understand that this hybrid world creates entirely new challenges about how we manage and mentor the next generation of professionals in health care public relations. Lately, I’ve been pondering these questions a lot, particularly since I’ve been working remotely myself for many years and have experienced first-hand how this alters relationships in the workplace.

I’m asking myself how do we, as managers, create an atmosphere to allow our colleagues to thrive in this new remote/hybrid environment? How can we continue to mentor, lead and cultivate those crucial relationships and connections that create strong teams? How can we carve out opportunities to grow relationships with our team? How can we provide feedback and ensure it is delivered in an appropriate, effective way? How do we create an atmosphere of mutual trust, respect and direct communication so that we feel kept in the loop, but are not perceived as micromanaging?

So, I decided to interview my own colleagues, along with some of TRG’s clients, to get their ideas about how we can make sure that as we reinvent when and where we work, we never lose sight of the fact that the heart of our work is all about maintaining important relationships. In these conversations, three major themes emerged:

  1. Communication is more important than ever.
  2. Investing in relationship building is crucial.
  3. Setting intentional roles promotes engagement and growth.

Communication is key.

Becky Armendariz, Associate VP of Marketing & Public Relations at Banner Health in Phoenix, says she pays attention to this issue more closely than ever: “My team members know that they can call, text, IM, or email me any time they need to reach me. I will respond as quickly as possible — prioritizing them over other projects or requests in my queue — because I never want to be the reason that my team members can’t do their jobs. It’s extremely important to me that they have what they need to work autonomously and productively remotely to meet their deadlines.”

At TRG, our Account Directors hold weekly check-in meetings for each account they manage to ensure team members are apprised of what is going on with the client and what the short- and long-term priorities are. These meetings allow team members to ask questions, suggest ideas and provide an opportunity to carve out roles on the account.

Our founder and principal, Sharon Reis, is very purposeful about meeting regularly with Account Directors and the account team to allow a space for checking in on workloads, discussing office culture and industry trends, and brainstorming ways to better serve our clients.

“Our monthly check-ins with Sharon establish a productive atmosphere for important conversations about the firm, the team and the industry. These interactions provide a needed space for connection and collaboration, which ultimately help me do my job better,” says TRG’s Senior Vice President, Kathleen Petty.

Investing in relationship building is crucial.

More than ever, it’s clear that team members want to feel heard and valued. They want to know their colleagues are understanding and empathetic about what is going on both during and outside of working hours. They want to know the team is there to support them. But it’s important to remember that building these connections takes time, effort and sensitivity.

“Three years ago, I started a new job, in a new field, leading a new team in a fully remote environment. I knew I had to work fast to gain their trust, to learn my own job, and to provide leadership and supervision,” says Rachael Kagan, Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Blue Shield of California Foundation. “Counterintuitively, that required a bit of slowing down. Since the personal moments were not going to happen organically, I had to build them into the agenda. Suddenly, ice breakers and check-ins became a huge part of every meeting. It wasn’t perfect, but over time it did start to make a difference and allow for connections to happen.”

At The Reis Group, we recently established a new mentoring program to pair new team members with a veteran team member known as their “Reis-source.” This program creates one-on-one engagement and allows team members to learn directly from someone who has recently walked in their shoes. We are also holding monthly “Ask Me Anything” sessions during lunch when we are in the office. The selected moderator for each session sets the agenda and develops questions to spark discussion around both work and personal topics.

Beth Casteel, Senior Counselor at TRG says, “When we first started working at home in the pandemic, I made it a point to try to recreate moments that happen organically in the office: A quick hello in the morning with a fellow early riser, randomly grabbing five minutes to chat with different team members over Teams – like you might start a hallway conversation in the office. Continuing this practice has helped me get to know new staff members and lets everyone know my virtual door is always open.”

Setting intentional roles promotes engagement and growth.

The virtual atmosphere can make natural conversation technically difficult. Delays and blips between unmuting and trying to speak results in folks missing each other’s points and unintentionally interrupting. Virtual communication requires more planning and intentionality.

Jessica Duncan, vice president of communications at the American Gastroenterological Association, says she’s gotten more purposeful about designing her team meetings to ensure that everyone contributes. “Each monthly team meeting has three sections – an ice breaker, a learning session, and a case study,” she says, “Responsibilities for each section rotate among the team members and everyone has a lot of latitude to develop the content for the discussions they lead. I’ve found that being purposeful about the time we spend together as a team and ensuring that everyone has a voice and a role helps to build bonds when we’re not physically in the same space daily.”

At TRG, we have overhauled our professional development program to do this as well. To allow for reverse mentoring and for junior team members to stretch their skills, we work with each team member to pick a topic that excites them to present to the team. Whether it’s the latest in health policy and its potential impact on our clients, SEO tips, or the latest in artificial intelligence, each team member prepares a session and shares their learnings with the group. This format allows the double benefit of practicing presentation skills and sharing new learnings to keep the team on the forefront of both health care and public relations.

“As a young PR professional, I’ve quickly learned that to be successful in the industry, you need to master two things: knowing how to engage your audience and presenting your message in a clear and confident way. Our professional development program has enabled me to hone those skills and has directly benefitted my interactions during client meetings,” says Tiana Ware, Senior Account Executive at TRG.

What does the next generation of health care public relations professionals want from its managers and mentors?

It’s vitally important that our senior leadership remains deeply engaged in how best to support the team, but it’s equally important to listen closely to what the next generation of health care public relations professionals want from their managers and mentors.

Sean Logan, a senior marketing and public relations specialist at Banner Health, says “I’m looking for someone who listens well and genuinely cares about how they can help me to grow and improve beyond the everyday work questions I may ask. My leader has done an exceptional job emulating these qualities, which has helped make working remotely an afterthought rather than something that is a cause for headaches.”

Krysten Massa, Senior Communications Associate at Blue Shield of California Foundation has worked with several managers throughout her time at the foundation with one of them starting during the pandemic when the office was entirely remote. “It is really important for me to have a personal connection with my manager. When we were remote, these connections did not happen organically,” she says. “My manager took the time to facilitate conversations that allowed us to not only discuss current work activities, but career growth and life in general. Her investment in making sure that we had a good relationship and in getting to know me as a person first and an employee second has really helped me thrive.”

When determining how to best manage and mentor the next generation of health care PR professionals, we are listening and learning together. In one recent Harvard Business Review article, someone likened remote managing to learning to drive on the wrong side of the road. You must get to the same destination, but you now have different signals, cues and controls. I think this is an important analogy. What worked five or more years ago won’t necessarily resonate today. It’s important that we all invest the time to adapt the way we engage with each other so that everyone feels supported and is set up for success.

5 Tips for Growing into Your New Role at Work

After graduating college and starting my first full-time salaried position last May, I was excited to learn the ins and outs of health care public relations. My managers and peers have truly taken me under their wing, and everyone has been an amazing mentor and resource. On top of that, we frequently hold office-wide professional development sessions to continue building our PR skillsets.

After a year and a promotion to Account Executive, I am still always learning new strategies and tactics, now focusing on account-management skills. Our managers are preparing the account team to better understand how to practice client relations and balance multiple timelines. Learning foundational public relations knowledge is key, and practicing management techniques is just as crucial to our personal development.

Here are five tips for growing into your new role at work:

Don’t be afraid to ask all your questions. You’ve probably received this advice before, but it’s worth repeating: this is the best way for you to determine exactly what your manager wants. So, it takes away any guesswork on your end. Instead of spending your time trying to decode their request, it’s much quicker and easier to ask for clarification.

This is not necessarily where your questions should end, though. If time allows, try asking about how this work fits into the larger plan for this client or project. Even if your tasks are smaller scale for now, you can create something that is more tailored and relevant to the bigger picture if you have more context.

Follow up on your work. If you haven’t received any feedback on a completed assignment, consider following up on it. Your manager may not have had time to send you feedback in the moment, but your follow up gives them the opportunity to let you know what you might need to improve next time.

Following up not only shows your interest in growing your skill set, but it also demonstrates that you’re on top of your work. It can also position you as the point person for this topic if and when this type of work continues.

Track your to-dos and update your team. Keep track of your to-dos in an organized manner so you aren’t relying on reminders from your team to know what assignments are coming due. At TRG, we use Breeze, an online task-management system that we can organize by client. I also find that keeping a daily to-do list helps me prioritize and use my time efficiently every day.

If a deadline is coming up and your task is taking longer than expected, send a quick message to your account manager or team members who are relying on that work. Whether it’s a hard or soft deadline, this keeps your team from wondering and allows them to plan accordingly.

Take on new tasks, but be up front about other deadlines. When you are given a new task that wasn’t in your original plan, try to fit it into your schedule. It’s important to be a team player, and this new project could be a great learning opportunity or could bring a new perspective to a project. But if it really doesn’t work with your other assignments, don’t be afraid to speak up. Ask how flexible the deadline is, or how long they expect it may take. Producing one on-time and top-notch assignment is better than two rushed projects.

Share new ideas without worrying if they are good enough. As a new team member, it can feel daunting to present new ideas to your team. But if you have one, let your account lead know. They want you to engage in your work and make it your own – that’s why you are a part of the team.

Try to have some additional logistical information on your new idea if possible, but sometimes just joining the brainstorm can spark the inspirations for an innovative new project.

Growing into a new role at work can be challenging, especially if you’re accustomed to turning in your assignments and moving on to the next task. Developing your account-management and client-relations skills early on in your career will set you and your team up for success.

Health care PR: What’s the landscape for 2023?

As the new year unfolds and the pandemic is no longer dominating our lives, we are excited to see what unexpected developments the future brings. Working in health care public relations, we are often charged with communicating complex health care messages in a rapidly changing—and sometimes volatile—environment. We must constantly adapt to these unpredictable dynamics to assist our clients who are trying to increase awareness for their issues and platforms, build credibility for their organizations and promote science that improves care.

Among many important issues that we will be monitoring, four stand out as top-of-mind as we initiate new strategies for earned media, thought leadership and science promotion on the national level and in communities across the country.

The continued effects of COVID-19. Our nation’s health care providers are tired, stressed and feeling burnt out, which directly affects patient safety and the quality of care. The mental health impact of COVID-19 has touched nearly everyone, especially our teenagers and young adults. While Medicare permanently lifted geographic restrictions for mental telehealth services during the pandemic, people with private insurance still face barriers accessing very much-needed mental health care across state lines.

High cost of prescription drugs. In a potentially important shift, Senator Bernie Sanders, as the new chair of the powerful Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, has said one of his key areas will be lowering the cost of prescription drugs. Amazon and other major corporations are moving into the prescription drug field, which also could be a game-changer. At the same time, access to innovative new treatments to stave off conditions like Alzheimer’s or provide daily management of diabetes are very promising, but extraordinarily expensive.

Changes in social media and surges in AI. The importance of short, powerful videos and the increasing importance of social media influencers will continue to dominate social channels. AI will facilitate content creation and change searches in many unknown ways. It will be interesting to see how these changes affect various social platforms. It feels like everyone is looking around for another option. Will Twitter continue to serve as the hub for journalists? Will more industries ban the use of TikTok? Will masses of users really leave Facebook?

Obesity as a chronic condition. The long-awaited anti-obesity drugs are being hailed as miracle pills. It will be important to track who can actually afford and have access to these medications and what effects they have on finally de-stigmatizing obesity and treating it as a legitimate medical condition. Even Congress will be weighing in when policymakers debate the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act with its proposed expansion of Medicare coverage.

So, stay tuned! It’s certain to be an eventful time in a rapidly evolving health care landscape, and we plan to be right in the middle of it!

 

 

Executive Thought Leadership: An Important Investment for 2023

You are reading through your morning news when a story piques your interest about how to tell whether respiratory symptoms signal COVID-19 or the flu or RSV. You begin to read the article in more detail and notice that a physician from another health system is quoted as the main expert in the article.

You are scrolling through LinkedIn and see a post about an executive at a competitor organization who has won Modern Healthcare’s 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare.

You are checking your email and notice several promotional emails from major industry meetings, including HLTH, ViVE and Becker’s Annual Meeting. When you click and scroll through the confirmed speakers you notice several notable names of other health care executives from other organizations who are confirmed as speakers.

All these situations are thought-leadership opportunities which can be capitalized on to build the reputation of your organization and its key executives. And, if any of these situations sound familiar, you may want to start thinking about making a bigger investment in building your organization’s thought-leadership platform.

So what exactly is thought leadership? It’s the process of publicly establishing an organization or an individual as a recognized authority within a particular industry or on a particular topic. It occurs when an organization or individual’s opinions and advice become widely accepted and valued as a trusted source for perspective on an important subject.

Building a successful thought-leadership platform does not occur overnight. You must be in it for the long game and understand that establishing credibility and clout can take years of cultivating relationships, carving out areas of expertise and identifying the right opportunities to showcase members of your leadership team. While you likely will not see dividends from your effort very quickly, you must stay the course because your investment will eventually pay off by helping to:

  • Create visibility for your executives and, in turn, your organization,
  • Position your executive as a leader in the health care industry,
  • Establish your executive and organization as the go-to source for reporters,
  • Build lasting trust with key stakeholders, and
  • Open doors to new opportunities for engagement with other top minds/organizations in the health care industry.

I’ll give you two examples. One TRG client is an Alzheimer’s research institute that has become world-renowned. This scientific organization had been doing groundbreaking work for more than a decade, but it was not on the national radar screen of the leading health care reporters because they had not yet made a strategic investment in becoming recognized thought leaders. Through their engagement with TRG and our work to build the reputations of both the organization and its key leaders, the client is now a go-to source for every major national reporter from The New York Times to The Associated Press to NPR whenever breaking news occurs about Alzheimer’s. Another client is a children’s health system that is paving the way for a new approach to whole person care. Changes in their executive leadership meant rebuilding and re-establishing the health system as a leading source. After several years working to establish their new executives as go-to sources, they are now frequently sought after for speaking opportunities at major industry meetings and widely quoted in the media and recognized with top industry awards.

So, what can you do to raise your executive team’s thought-leadership profile? Here are four tips to consider as you get started.

  1. Carve out a specific area of issue expertise.

This is a crucial first step to building any thought-leadership platform. You must establish which particular topic/area of expertise you want to be known for and have the most information to contribute to. It’s important to determine where your executive/organization can provide a unique perspective that adds value and depth to the public conversation and doesn’t just repeat the current discussion. You must be able to provide fresh ideas and thinking so that people want to hear what you have to say.

  1. Start small and set realistic expectations.

It’s unrealistic to think your executive will be the keynote, mainstage speaker at a major industry event right off the bat. You need to recognize this and identify opportunities to help build your executive’s credibility, so they become a more sought-after speaker. Look for opportunities such as a panelist or even a moderator at smaller industry-focused meetings so you can begin to establish that credibility and use it as a steppingstone for more prominent opportunities.

  1. Keep a running list of opportunities.

This may sound like an oversimplified piece of advice, but missing deadlines can hinder your ability to build a thought-leadership platform. Many speaking engagements and award opportunities have ongoing deadlines throughout the year. For example, a meeting scheduled for September might have a submission deadline in March. Make sure your tracker is up to date and that you are constantly looking for out-of-the-box opportunities that may put your executive in front of an important key audience. Sometimes, the quality of people in the room is worth more than the quantity.

  1. Never underestimate the power of social media.

Building your executive’s social media presence is another important way to build their credibility and clout, helping them to make connections with key audiences. Working with them to share an interesting perspective related to a news article on LinkedIn can help expose your executive and your organization to new stakeholders. Additionally, working with your executive to retweet relevant news articles can help build reporter connections as many reporters are held accountable for the virality of their articles.

An investment in thought leadership can reap huge benefits for both your executives and your organization but remember to be patient with the process. Your hard work will eventually pay off!

Good Project Management is an Art – Not a Science

Deadlines, discipline, and organization – these are the tenets of good project management that most can agree on. But as a vice president at a health care PR firm in Washington DC, I’ve learned that good project management goes beyond these principles. It’s more than keeping diligent timelines. There is also an art to it. Project management is essentially about people; and I’ve found there are six key principles to doing it successfully: getting your team started as soon as possible, setting your team up for success, looking for barriers and roadblocks before they happen, maintaining open communication with your team, leaning into your team’s strengths, and always keeping the budget in mind along the way. Doing these six things helps us produce efficient, high-quality work that keeps our clients happy.

1. Time is Your Greatest Asset
As anyone who works in health care communications knows, time is not always on your side. We work in a fast-paced environment that doesn’t often allow for careful planning, so it’s vital to use whatever time we do have to our advantage. Don’t get caught thinking that if something is due in a few months, you can “get to it later.” The time you have right now is your greatest asset so the more lead time you give your team, the better. Even if you feel like you can’t fully start the project, set up a timeline for deliverables; think through background research that your team could be doing to help set up a solid foundation for the hard work ahead. Whatever time you do have is a gift, so don’t wait!

2. Set Up Your Team for Success
This may be the most crucial part of good project management. First, ensure everyone has the background information they need to understand the overarching goal of the project. This will help guide people and ensure the end-goal is met. It’s also important to provide people with clear instructions and the materials they need right from the start. It helps instill confidence, allowing people to do their best work. It also cuts down on wasted time that would have been spent correcting mistakes and fiddling with nagging minor issues. Get ahead of all of that by giving your team everything they need upfront to be successful.

3. Look for Barriers Ahead of Time
Before assigning work to your team members, put yourself in their shoes as if you were going to do the work yourself. What questions will they have that you can be ready to answer? What can you address up front in the materials and information you give them? Additionally, think through the issues the team could run into as they begin the work. What advice can you give them right now to head off any roadblocks? For instance, if you’re asking the team to conduct a media audit of a client’s issue, spend a few minutes thinking through the process. Could the search terms you’re giving them produce too many articles to count? Or no coverage at all? If that’s the case, what will they need to know to adapt their process?

Once you identify a few of these potential problems, address them during your initial meeting so the team can develop the tools they need to solve them.

4. Communicate Often
Don’t wait until deadlines are looming to check in on your team’s progress. Having consistent, clear, and open communication can make sure everyone’s on the right track from the start. If you remove yourself from the process, your timeline may be derailed. This could lead to you and the team scrambling to deal with trouble as your deadline is fast approaching. Plan to check in one or two days after the team has begun work. It’s best to have in-person (or video) check-ins as opposed to relying on email. This builds team identity and encourages more personal communication and problem-solving together.

5. Lean into the Team’s Strengths
We all have qualities that set us apart from others as well as a variety of “strengths” that help us to excel in certain capacities. At The Reis Group, we identified each team member’s individual strengths during our recent team retreat through Clifton StrengthsFinder. It’s an assessment to help you discover what you do best and to learn how to develop your talents and maximize your potential. According to this assessment, my top five strengths are: empathy, individualization, connectedness, restorative, and positivity. The odds of someone getting the same list of strengths in that order is 1 in 33 million. Everyone will have varying strengths that complement each other. It’s important to learn what people excel at, and what they enjoy doing so that you can tap into those strengths and maximize each person’s opportunity for success. Doing so will help keep the team motivated and ensure they feel valued.

6. Don’t Forget About the Budget
In public relations (or any client-service industry), we have a tendency to want to say “yes” to anything our clients want. However, having a budget is crucial for ensuring staff’s time is valued. From the start, set expectations by telling each team member how many hours they should spend on the work. As you’re managing projects, check on their work hours to make sure no one is getting carried away. Not only is it a sign that the budget may be in trouble, it’s also a signal to you as a manager that your team is running into issues that need to be addressed; or that they might not have the correct direction from you to get the job done in a timely manner. Checking in and having open communication with your team will help identify any issues before the project and budget spiral out of control.

Managing tight timelines and client expectations are crucial aspects of project management, but we often lose sight of the nuances of “team management” as well. They go hand-in-hand. So, while it’s important to hone your skills in meeting deadlines and allocating work, it’s just as important to learn how to foster a supportive environment for the entire team. When we all have the tools to do good work, we all win.

Building Successful Connections in a Remote Working World

When I joined The Reis Group in September 2021, I was starting a fully remote job for the first time. As an introvert, the thought of meeting new coworkers and clients, networking with reporters, and trying to get the feel of a new workplace already felt overwhelming. Knowing that I would be doing all these things over video calls meant that I knew I would need to have a strong plan in place to succeed.

Now, more than six months into my role at this Washington D.C.-based public relations agency, I’ve found a variety of strategies that have helped build relationships in the remote working world, especially as someone who is naturally more reserved. The key lies in finding a balance between being prepared and professional, stretching past your comfort zone to connect with others, and letting your personality shine through.

Building connections with reporters

Successful earned media strategy and outreach relies on two things: a strong story angle and a strong reporter connection. Building and maintaining relationships with reporters depends on establishing their trust that you are a helpful resource. Most importantly, ensure that reporters associate your name with someone who is quick to respond, who will always follow up and follow through, and who is easy to work with. But if you’re going to be working with reporters strictly on a remote basis, you may need to consider additional ways to make your connection stronger.

Don’t be afraid to personalize communications with reporters who you find yourself working with most often. For example, stay up to date with their recent stories, and reference them in pitches. Taking a few extra minutes to show reporters that you’re paying attention and appreciate their work can go a long way towards them keeping you in mind as a valued source.

Building connections with clients

In my experience, trying to get to know clients over video calls still feels strange, even more than two years into the pandemic. I’ve found that one key to starting off right is to have a quick introduction prepared and ready in advance of meetings. That way, when it comes time to introduce yourself, you can jump in with a smile and communicate the most important things that the client needs to know – including how excited you are to be working with them. Practicing ahead of time never hurts either.

Finding time for meet-and-greets outside of regular meetings can also help build connections with clients. Getting to know the individuals that you’ll be working with most closely is important to establishing and maintaining a productive working relationship. Prepare a list of questions in advance to ask the client about their work and how you can best help them achieve their public relations goals.

Building connections with colleagues

Finally, it’s important to work well with the people on your internal team. The teammates that we work with day in and day out are the ones who have each other’s backs and make sure the work gets done at the end of the day. Let your personality shine through the webcam so your colleagues can get to know the real you – and then you can’t go wrong.

Water-cooler type conversations are hard to have over video, so make a point of asking colleagues how they’re doing whenever you have the chance. And stay engaged as meetings start or when they end a few minutes early. Find five virtual minutes to connect with colleagues outside of regular meeting times, and you’ll soon feel like you’ve been working together for a long while.

I was recently able to meet some of my colleagues in person for the first time since starting with The Reis Group, and was so happy to find that we were easily able to pick up in person where we’d left off over video screens. The effort that my colleagues and I had made to get to know each other virtually was definitely worth it.

It may seem intimidating to start a new job remotely, but remember that you’re not alone. If you’re prepared and have a smile ready for everyone you meet, you are well on your way to making a good impression and succeeding as a colleague and a public relations professional.

I’ve got too much on my plate! Lessons on Effective Time Management

At some point, we all find ourselves pulled in what feels like a million different directions at work. For me, working at a fast-paced, award-winning health care communications agency means a variety of clients to serve, supervisors to please, and constant deadlines to meet.

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed, and often, just when you think you can breathe, you get tapped for another assignment. How can you manage your time, when it feels like you don’t even have the time to figure it out?

Since starting here at The Reis Group a year ago, I’ve learned a lot from my colleagues. Not only have I absorbed media skills, but I’ve bolstered my time-management abilities as well. I would argue that this skill may be the most vital to our success. We all have competing priorities from a demanding set of clients, and without effective time management, we would not be the top-notch PR agency that we are.

Each of my colleagues has a unique way to manage their time. Who better to learn from than them? Here are the best lessons I’ve learned so far:

Ask for deadlines and prioritize your time. My teammates know that I like to ask for deadlines on all my tasks. Firm due dates help me to develop personal timelines for all my assignments. My various supervisors don’t know that I have X assignment due on Wednesday, so I have to compare due dates and determine how to prioritize my week.

Be flexible and realistic. Deadlines are important, but I must acknowledge when a timeframe may prevent me from delivering my best work. I have certainly been guilty of letting my drive to finish a task affect the quality of my work. Luckily, I have a supportive team who can catch my mistakes, but I need to be sure that I am checking my own work and providing high-quality deliverables that fit our high standards—even if that means taking an extra day.

Expect the unexpected and build in catch-up time. At the beginning of each week, I assess all the assignments I need to complete and take a look at the meetings I have. I build in time to complete and review my deliverables and block off time for assignments I’ve left on the back burner. This blocked time allows me to get ahead where I can and provides useful openings in my schedule to work on any unexpected tasks that arise.

Let others know when an urgent client need arises—and be empathetic when the same happens with your colleagues. Agency work is unpredictable, and it is inevitable that we will receive urgent requests from clients. It’s vital that we communicate with our team members when time-sensitive demands arise. We’re working with a variety of clients who each deserve our full attention, so we must be willing to pitch in to help our colleagues when they suddenly face an unexpected deadline.

If you ever feel you have too much on your plate, try some of these tips to make your work more manageable. Successful time management is an essential piece of The Reis Group’s ability to deliver high-quality service to leading foundations, medical societies, associations, health systems, federal agencies, coalitions and universities . The lessons I’ve learned from my colleagues have helped me grow as a communications professional and as a productive team member.

Deploying an Unexpectedly Powerful Tool in Public Relations: Empathy

Public relations and communications professionals have many skills in our toolboxes that we develop and refine over our careers. One of the most important—and one of the least discussed—is the power of empathy. It could be called a skill sharpener because it can make every other tool we deploy more effective.

Seeing the world from the point of view of others, even those we passionately disagree with, is essential to every aspect of communications: writing, editing, working with media, crisis communications, and even collaborating with our colleagues and supporting our clients.

Writing and editing require us to put ourselves in the position of the reader. As we write, it is essential to think about how words will look, sound, and feel to someone else. Is the writing clear and readable, even for someone who isn’t familiar with the subject? Does it set the right tone and pace for what you want to accomplish? Good writing comes not just from picking the right words and structure, but from stepping back and reacting to the words as a reader coming to it the first time. It requires checking your own reactions as you read, write, and review from a place of empathy.

Media pitching can be much more effective if you have an in-depth understanding of the journalist’s viewpoint, including insight into how news organizations work. Thinking about your audience for pitching can be like a funhouse mirror because you must consider the reporter’s point of view as well as the viewpoint of their audience and the perspective of the editors that the journalist certainly has in mind in deciding what to cover—or not. When planning a pitch, keep in mind what it’s like for a reporter to be on the receiving end of dozens or even hundreds of pitches a day. Empathy and some research into the reporter’s beat can help you highlight what’s in your organization’s or your client’s interest that is valuable to the reporter and their readers.

Crisis communications should start with putting yourself in the shoes of the intended audience. A wise communicator once told me that in a crisis you should remember words attributed to Teddy Roosevelt, “No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care.” The first step in communicating in a crisis is understanding and acknowledging the pain or difficulty that other people are experiencing due to the crisis. (Recall, for example, the BP oil company CEO who memorably complained, “I want my life back,” in the aftermath of the massive 2010 oil spill that killed 11 workers and destroyed the livelihoods of countless Louisianans’ who relied on tourism and fishing for a living.) Without that first attempt at empathy, no one cares what you have to say.

Empathy also makes you a better colleague, consultant, and client. It is easier to understand the views of people you work with if you’ve been on multiple sides of these relationships. Even if you haven’t experienced it all, it is important to ask sensitive questions and listen carefully to the answers. Remembering what it was like to be new to a job or just learning a field, or trying to understand the pressures your colleagues or bosses are under, can go a long way in building relationships. Recognizing others’ desires to be recognized and understanding the full scope of all the demands that your clients face make everyone happier and more effective.

Developing empathy takes self-awareness and an effort to deliberately seek and understand other viewpoints. Watching and reading news that presents opinions opposing your own can be disconcerting, uncomfortable, and even painful. Persuasion theory, and our experience in the current pandemic, tells us that bombarding people with facts doesn’t change minds. Asking questions, listening, and sharing are the more effective first steps.