There was a time when Public Relations was synonymous to chiffon and pearls, and that was the same time when people thought that the profession is about parties and fun. But there is good news for intelligent girls out there – the reputation of the business of managing reputation is finally changing and people understand that it is a brainy job that cannot be successfully handled by just any person.
You need to be trained in many skills to survive and be successful in today’s day and age. If you are not adequately equipped with common sense and relevant talent then there is a scope for you to make goof-ups that can be irreparable.
Being a young girl in Public Relations for a good amount of time has taught me a couple of go-to mantras that accelerate success. Some of the rules that I swear by, are as follows:
I don’t want to sound sexist but it is widely believed that when it comes to multitasking- women are naturals at doing so. Public Relations is a profession where this quality comes handy. Being in the communications business means handling a lot of stakeholders at one time and also writing an important piece of article at the same time. And if you are able to do that successfully you end up saving a lot of time and become more productive.
It is very important for team members to encourage each other in order to maintain harmony in the team and work well. A large part of employee force In Public Relations is very young. Hence it becomes very important to provide them regular motivation and appreciation. Having a kind attitude makes a person work harder and inspires them to perform better.
Public Relations is a lot about maintaining relationships – whether it is self-management, or managing the media or clients. Being a woman in communications has an edge because we are more interactive in nature as compared to men. If we use this quality sensibly we can make deeper relationships with various stakeholders and those relationships provide immense benefits that are beyond measure.
For any team to do well it is important to have a good ‘Chemistry’ between team-mates. When I look back I realize that the campaigns I won several awards for, was with the team I most gelled with, and the reasons to develop and maintain that relationship was transparency and empathy. Being a woman it becomes easy for us to be sensitive and understand ‘how’ a particular team member reacts to a certain situation or a problem.
This is one of the most important points – whether it is a man or a woman. People usually form a ‘generally positive’ or a ‘generally negative’ perception about you in the first few minutes of a meeting based on how you present yourself and dressing is a big part of it. Now I don’t mean to say that you should dress like you are going to an award night everyday but it will greatly help if your dressing is neat, smart and crisp.
All the points stated above are my personal views. Not that I am gender biased but I feel as a woman you are naturally gifted with a couple of qualities which can come handy in a profession like Public Relations. Never saying no, being proactive and working smart & hard is the key to succeed!
– Radhika Nandwani
Radhika is the Corporate Communications Advisor at Dell’s Performance Analytics Group. She started her career in 2011, with one of the leading PR firms of India – MSLGROUP, specialising in technology brands. The campaigns executed by her while at MSL, have won several PR industry awards including SABRE and PR Week Asia. In her last role, she was the founding team member and the marketing communications manager at SCoRe. Radhika is an English graduate and holds a Master’s degree in Mass Communication. She loves reading and is passionate about gender equality, food and Bollywood. She can be reached at @RadhikaNandwani on Twitter and here on LinkedIn
