Effective Ways To Manage Up in the Workplace

In today’s cutthroat environment, having the basic skills will not lead you to the road of success in the workplace. One skill that differentiates the good workers from the great is having the ability to “manage up”.

In the April issue of PR Tactics and The Strategist Online, Ken Jacobs of Jacobs Communications Consulting, LLC writes a great article on Managing up: Helping your boss is the best way to help yourself. In this article, Jacob provides some key points on what is takes to be on the accelerated career track.

Jacob provides tips such as:

• Understand the assignment – Listen and ask your manager questions about your assignment. It will ensure that you and your supervisor are in sync.
• Lead with their need – Re-evaluate your goals along with your manager’s goals everyday. By making sure your managers’ priorities coincide with your own, you contribute to their success and in essence contribute to your success.
• Stay a step ahead – Before you accept or recommend a deadline, think about how long it will take to complete an assignment and what you already have on your plate. Build in extra time so if something comes up beyond your control, you will still be able to meet the deadline.
• No surprises – Sharing bad news such as a deadline that can’t be met, a budget cutback or unanticipated results is part of your job so sharing it at the last moment with your manager is unacceptable. Keep the communication lines open so you can create a bond of trust with your manager.
• Plan for the unplanned – Keep on top of your daily work assignments because your manager will bring you new assignments, deadlines and problems to solve and you will get appreciation when you can say, “I’m on it.”

For more information on Ken Jacob’s article, go to Managing up: Helping your boss is the best way to help yourself.

Deposition Foul Language Hits Media Due to Sanctions

My Father, Richard F. Furia, Esquire, is one of the best sources of blog ideas. He’s always sending me great material. This morning, he sent me a few articles regarding U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno’s 44-page opinion in the GMAC Bank v. HTFC Corp. case. (Opinion: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/Robreno.pdf)

In this case, Judge Robreno levied sanctions of more than $29,000 on a lawyer and his client after finding that a deposition was a "spectacular failure" because of the Aaron Wider, the CEO of HTFC’s, hostile and abusive conduct during a 12 hour deposition. The CEO dropped the F-bomb73 times, interrupted counsel, gave unnecessarily protracted answers, interposed his own objections and wrongfully refused to answer questions. His attorney, Joseph R. Ziccardi of Chicago, did nothing to stop his client's conduct, and in fact, snickered at his client's behavior.

There’s a great article in The Legal Intelligencer by Shannon Duffy titled Lawyer and Client Sanctioned Over Client's Outbursts that goes into the details of the opinion.

Attorneys need to counsel their clients (and themselves) from the very start of a case that anything can become fodder for media coverage. It is imperative to remember everyday public relations includes the way you dress, the way you speak, and even the way you react when even one other person in public is watching.

Gina F. Rubel, Esq.
Author: Everyday Public Relations for Lawyers
http://www.furiarubel.com/

Dealing with a PR Crisis - WSJ Outlines First 90 Days

Last week, Toddi Gunter, Special to The Wall Street Journal, wrote “Dealing With a PR Crisis Takes Planning and Truth” and hit the nail on the head!

In Gunter’s article, she outlines what a company should do in the first 90 days of a crisis.

-Remember, rumors are a crisis, too.
-Gather your crisis team.
-Identify the type of crisis.
-Determine who needs to know.
-Create a consistent message.
-Manage and monitor media flow.
-Reflect and move on.

However, too often corporations (and law firms alike) don’t take the proactive steps necessary to prepare a crisis communications plan. And as an attorney and publicist, I advocate that including corporate counsel in the crisis communications planning process is also an imperative part of that mix!

That said, if you’re considering crisis communications planning, I encourage you to register for Rich Klein’s upcoming seminar on April 16th: Crash Course on Crisis Communications for Law Firms.

Not having a crisis communications plan is like running a business without liability insurance. It’s better to invest in the coverage and never have to use it than not have it at all.

The Importance of Print Publications

Keith O’Brien of PRWeek recently wrote an article titled; Print journalism teaches us the importance of precision. In the article, O’Brien discusses the pros and real importance of print publications and what they still bring to the table in comparison to the Web. O’Brien spells it out as clear as day saying, “You can’t read Web sites in the subway (though you can read RSS feeds, and wireless connectivity is on the way); print publications are easier on the eyes; everyone wants something tangible to hold in his or her hands; and a spread provides a better opportunity to display a story’s expanse than a six page breaks online.”

He also outlines three tried and true reasons why we should all care about print which are listed below.

- The judgments of journalists and readers keep things in context. The print issue takes the news of the world into a substantive, concise solution. No print title can ever encompass all the news that’s fit to print, but it can constrain it.

- In each story, we have to reach the core elements in a shorter space. This benefits all, providing both writers and readers the challenge of constructing arguments in shorter spaces and times. The world still revolves around the elevator pitch, which is what a print story ensembles. I have never encountered a piece written above word count – including Op-Eds – that couldn’t do with a fat trimming.

- Deadlines help us all. I know very well that the “unofficial deadlines” of a Web property are frenetic and unforgiving. I know very well that a publication that wants relevancy online needs to publish as close to instantaneous as possible. But those online deadlines that never begin nor end don’t teach us much. Print deadlines are real. They control the situation. There’s no room to follow up – or amend – later that day. Print deadlines give us a structure by which to operate.

I found this article to be very interesting and hope as O’Brien does that print stays viable forever.