The value of kindness
The value of kindness
14 April 2019
Fundamental to PR is the ability to build and sustain relationships. I’ve been reflecting on the value we should place on three old-fashioned values - kindness, respect and courtesy. This was triggered by two twitter discussions, one on the use of thank you notes and the other about acts of kindness.
Maya Angelou said: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
When I look at all the friendships I have developed with work colleagues, fellow PR professionals and with clients, one element which is constant is those people’s kindness, respect and courtesy.
Kindness
For me kindness is about seeing someone else in need and helping them. Sometimes this is as simple as offering support when someone is managing difficult personal circumstances. It takes very little to reach out and offer help but in our busy world it’s shocking how few people do.
Kindness is often seen as a soft skill but there are times when exercising it can be very hard. Examples might be; seeing a member of staff who is frustrated by their lack of career progress and taking time with them to identify professional areas for development, explaining to a highly stressed PR person that some of their stress is being caused by choosing a role that doesn’t suit their skills or temperament or it can be finding a good exit strategy for someone who doesn’t fit within a new organisational structure.
None of these are easy but acting with kindness will be remembered.
Respect
Given the polarised nature of debate currently respect seems an apt quality to revisit. Much has been said about the danger of echo chambers on social media. Now more than ever there feels a need to listen to those with opinions which are different from our own, to try to see the world from another’s perspective and to debate issues but with respect.
Many PR professionals especially in the public sector identify lack of respect as a key issue. However respect in business has to be earned. An element of that is being seen as a professional. The CIPR is driving professionalism in PR through CPD, qualifications and pathways to being Chartered. I
Respect is gained by bringing added value to senior management discussions based on knowledge, insight and experience. However, respect is a two-way thing. That means listening to the views of professionals from other areas such as finance, HR or ICT. It means being tolerant when people who are not professional communicators offer misguided thoughts on PR and helping them learn by sharing knowledge.
Respect is also about valuing the views of others who are different from ourselves. Those differences may be social background, age, ethnicity, disability, gender or personal style, experiences or PR sector. This is really important for PR leadership. PR professionals come from all walks of life and that should be one of our strengths but it will only be if we challenge industry norms and recruit from outside the pool of people like us.
Courtesy
Dale Carnegie wrote “How to win friends and influence people” back in 1936 and it is one of the best selling business books of all time. It has been updated to deal with anachronisms but the underlying theme of treating people with courtesy remains a core of getting on in business.
And that brings me back to that point about thank you notes whether by email or card.
So often I have seen PR colleagues buoyed by a personal thank you for a great piece of work or demoralised by the lack of it when they have worked late to rescue a repetitional issue.
I’ve seen the impact of curt emails to PR people who have simply made enquiries to answer a media request or emails sent late at night or on weekends which are not urgent but make people feel they have to be always on call.
Treating everyone whether the cleaner, support staff, colleagues or partnership leads with courtesy costs nothing but can reap unexpected rewards.
If you like a consultancy that values kindness, respect and courtesy do get in touch for a chat about how I can help your organisation.
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