Media Relations Tips by YAShuaib

5.       HAVE HUMAN RELATIONS

*           Neatness in appearance compliments good attributes

*           Be knowledgeable on all branches of the organisation

*           Be humble and receptive to others’ views and constructive criticisms

*           Delegate responsibilities as a team player

*           Consider yourself blessed and avoid superiority complex

*           Be creative and avoid conflict of interest

*           Don’t allow emotion and selfishness to becloud your sense of reasoning.

The personality of a media relations officer must be attractive, regardless of the attributes of his bosses and organisation. Since he is central to the public and the organisation in terms of relationship and image making, he should possess the best of character within and outside the working environment. The traditional belief is that the public relations officer must always be immaculately dressed and have a sugarcoated tongue to talk people to accept his points of view. This is true. But he also needs to have control over his temperament in the face of tension and provocation. 

Every human being has his strength and weakness. Nobody is born a perfectionist and, therefore, one needs to have regular self-appraisal to meet public expectations. Probably, one area of my strength is the ability to write under pressure and meet deadlines on agreed tasks. I cherish officers who absorb shocks and insults and carry on unperturbed. That natural shock-absorber, though rare amongst officers, is a gift necessary in confronting and surmounting difficulties and should be cultivated and built upon by media relations officers.

It is sad to observe however that some successful image managers are very hot-tempered, especially amongst their colleagues in the office. While they pretend to be receptive to the media, they are aggressive and arrogant to their staff and other subordinates. In fact, some press secretaries, also are very close to the bosses, are disrespectful to the other top management staff. They believe their closeness with the chief executives is a weapon to treat all other officers with contempt.

Self-Control:

Some media managers easily become nervous when they are confronted with big public events or are sometimes disappointed over the outcome of an event. They get confused even when relating with the media.

Weaknesses in individual make-up or lack of composure are either natural or cultivated over a period of time. For instance, there are those who are naturally introverted and not good at mixing with a public. They may be shy and hardly utter a word when they are under immense work pressure.

The problem can be overcome if the sufferers could associate more with those who can tell them the truth about their situation than being surrounded by praise-singers and sycophants. Unfortunately, some of those with this personality weakness are unaware of it. Some have the tendency to be arrogant and pompous while discharging their duties. They require counselling to change.

Attributes:

A media officer should be humble, reliable, responsible and resourceful. He should cultivate the best habits to make a good impression. A good performer with bad habit is like a sickening model. He should be courageous enough to face challenges and take responsibilities for his actions.

A practitioner must be knowledgeable about his organisation’s mechanisms, progress and achievements. He should be the most informed person on the overall activities of the different departments that make up the organisation. This behavioural attribute makes him adequately prepared to tackle media enquiry professionally, and serve as a reliable and authoritative source of information. Apart from his creative skills, he should have the ability to communicate efficiently.

Attentiveness:

He should have his ears on the ground and source for useful information for his organisation. Not only does he need to provide information to the public through the media, but he must ensure he monitors the media for feedback. With the two-way information flow at his disposal, he can be a result-oriented personality that can analyse issues and proffer solutions to problems.

He should be receptive to good ideas and constructive criticisms to enable him to take rational decisions in protecting the image of his boss and the organisation. He should be sensitive too in the use of words and gesticulations because the manner of conveying a message should be appropriate and respectful to others. He should be friendly and have a flair for writing.

The officer should have ability to initiate new programmes and work with minimal supervision in taking timely decisions. There is nothing wrong if one can sacrifice ones leisure, finances and take personal risk for the cause of worthy projects, but such gesture must be done with utmost caution because it may not be appreciated or officially acknowledged. I remember producing two editions of magazine for an organisation and even hosting its basic information, reports and profile on my website (www.yashuaib.com) at no cost. In some cases, when you make a request for subsequent editions or similar valuable publications, the management may either consider it as luxury or of no priority to it. Risk taking should be done with caution, even if one notices the desire of fifth columnists to undermine the ability of the officer to succeed in his assignments.