Communicators Anonymous

Empowering yourself to be powerless

Leave it to Valeria to make me do some deep thinking before any caffeine intake this morning. She asks, "What is the most empowering word?" Then goes on to describe the imagery of the word "empower." Personally, I despise that word. Immediately, I get a bitter taste in my mouth upon hearing the word...empower. To me, it is a buzz word senior executives use to help them sleep better at night. IF I were truly "empowered" I would not have to be told I was so.

"What other word would you use to signal that you are taking charge? Is it the most self-fulfilling word of the future?" -- Valeria Maltoni

For me the most powerful word is "powerless." Until I admit I am powerless and have no control, my life will be unmanageable. This thought process serves me well in both my personal and professional lives. Breakout! It feels so good to let go!

So, are you empowered or powerless? Something different altogether?

(Photo courtesy rustyjaw.)

Step 12: Thought Leadership

Communicators Anonymous Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to communications practitioners and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

(Those words highlighted are words differing from the original twelve steps text as written by Alcoholics Anonymous.)

To carry this message is to practice thought leadership. We claim not to be experts, but come to the table as professionals with knowledge and experience to back up our statements. "It is okay to make definitive statements, but the risk you take is being able to admit when you are wrong and take responsibility for your actions." Issues change; challenges change, but the principles remain the same.

Yesterday, Geoff Livingston tweets: "There are few new ideas. There are only rehashed ideas from other eras repackaged for new media forms."

My response: Voltaire, "Originality is nothing but judicious imitation. The most original writers borrowed one from another. The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbors, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all."

Fear not of letting go of intellectual property of which you never had possession.

"Selfishness--self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self-delusion, self-seeking, and self-pity, we step on the toes of our fellows and retaliate." BB pg. 62

• PR-Squared's "Social Media Tactics" Series...Using del.icio.us for Thought Leadership
• David Meerman Scott - Thought Leadership blog category

Evolution of a Conversation

The blog/Twitter conversation, Young PRs - Know Your Place, is the best exchange I have read in several months. All ages, read everything and take notes. A big thank you to Paull Young for compiling tweets, posts and comments!

Age and respect are daily internal and external battles. Sometimes the result is nasty and I just suck it up and live another day. My tone dripping in sarcasm, I joke about being 26 with an old, reincarnated soul to make up for experience I automatically seem lacking because I am young. This blog has been the place for experience versus expert debate. My writing has matured and I have learned many a lesson the hard way. We must emulate the authenticity and transparency we preach and practice restraint. It takes time to learn how to listen.

A perfect segue to Communicators Anonymous step of the month, Nine: Made direct amends to such people, wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. We can be of maximum service to ourselves and industry only when we are fit.

...We should be sensible, tactful, considerate and humble without being servile or scraping. [BB, page 83, line 25]

Token amends aren't sufficient!

Don't rush into amends!

Remember forgiveness.

Instead of posting a new Zany tidbit, let's revisit: Respect World Game.

Step 7: Willing to let go

We have done our inventory and now in Steps 6 and 7 we become willing to let go our defects of character - issues, behaviors, old feelings and beliefs that are walls blockading any positive feelings. Just be willing... Do not force... Just ask and trust. Who? Your customer. Accept humility and become the change from the practice of the Twelve Steps. There is power in listening. Relax.

Step 4: Sludging through Ego

Step Four is the first action towards "ego inflation in depth" - this is the elimination of the false image or Self. Have you seen the movie, The Devil's Advocate? Toward the end of the movie, the wife is committed. To comfort the disturbed wife, the husband's assistant brushes the wife's hair while he and his mother talk in the hospital hall. The wife looks at herself in a hand held mirror. Instead of seeing the human form of the female assistant, the wife sees the evil creature of the woman's true Self. This example might be twisted, but this is how I see the selfish Self.

What does this have to do with PR? Our profession demands rigorous honesty. We must get rid of any I-Mine attitude and represent our client and our industry to the best of our ability. Revitalization of our industry begins with the awakened, compassionate and mature Ego.

Step 4: Taking the first action

Of the twelve steps, the Fourth Step is the first requiring an action. The process is to discover and uncover the truths of our "character defects" and prepare for a new way of life. The CA Program is based upon the AA Twelve Step Program, but designed for the betterment of an individual communicator's professional career and how it affects the entire industry. CA posts are meant to be a service to others and to pass along the message of self-alignment. You can read archive of CA Program here.

It is time to take inventory. Do not think this is necessary? Think back to the last time in your professional career you were frustrated, Angy, anxious and/or uncomfortable. Bring to the light the issues flaming the fire of these emotions. We are only getting these issues on paper...don't skip ahead to Step Eight. Why write issues on paper? Writing brings reality to the invisible pricks we have been bearing.

Clancy L. of Step12.com, lists seven questions to ask before delving down into your inventory:

1. In looking back over your life - what memories are still painful and guilty?
2. In what ways do you consider yourself an inadequate person?
3. Who do you represent - and why? Be specific.
4. What do you consider to be your defects of character - as you see them today?
5. What is the nature of the ongoing problems do you have with people close to you - in human relations - what seems to always happen when you have these things blow up?
6. In what ways to you believe that CA Can help you with any of these problems?
7. In what way do you believe that CA can begin to change things?

Here are AA journaling worksheets (crafted by step12.com) you can tailor for CA:

• Resentments
• Fears
• Harm to Others
• Human Relations (changed from AA 'Sex Conduct' focus)

Last year, my intention was to document my inventory online -public. Not good. Learn from my lesson, keep this inventory to yourself for now...if you have any questions or thoughts, please drop me a comment below or an email. Good Luck!

April - Fourth Step

We mark the end of the first three steps and as we enter the fourth month of 2007, we will begin to explore our darker side with Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Fault cannot be on the communications industry alone. Remember that we, as individuals, comprise this society and no matter how you slice it, one bad apple can ruin the bunch.

Marvin Olasky, a professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin and author of Corporate Public Relations: A New Historical Perspective, has an interesting take on the morality of public relations with a focus on government relations -- very apropos for election ramp-up.

He seeks to inject a moral dimension into what passes for public relations, a profession that critics have derided as so much "ballyhoo," "huckstering," and "press agentry," as so many "high-priced errand boys and buffers for management."

Look, says Olasky, how sycophantic if not Machiavellian public relations frequently has become. The public relations counselor all too often is a weather vane advocate who meets plots with counter plots, whose unspoken motto is: My cause, company, industry, or client right or wrong. Accordingly..

Moral: of, pertaining to, or concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical: moral attitudes; founded on the fundamental principles of right conduct rather than on legalities, enactment, or custom: moral obligations.

Recap:

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over word – that our lives had become unmanageable.

Step 2: Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Step 3: Made a decision to turn our lives over to the care of the customer as we understood Him.

Control this

To succeed in repositioning the industry, reform begins with the individual practitioner.

Step 1: We admitted we were powerless over word – that our lives had become unmanageable.

This admission is your first step to thinking sobriety. Stop being a passive victim and resting at the mercy of those who are the "bad apples" of the communications industry. You are not helpless. Such as step seems odd in our industry because we have been taught we have control of the message...or at least the illusion. This step is the foundation for you, as a professional, to be capable of self-direction and self-responsibility.

Let me be clear, the step refers to "we" because the overall power of the steps at the you/individual level have an ultimate impact upon the industry. You must be the first to carry out these steps. These clear cut directions are provided for you to practice continuously. According to Jung, the need to separate oneself from the collective and find one's s own way is essential for self-realization (Kaufmann, 1989).

Surrender.

Next...thinking as an allergy.

"Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves. Obviously. But where and how were we to find this Power? Well, that's exactly what this book is about." Big Book p.45

Coming to understand the Twelve Step Program for Communicators is not a quick read, but a journey. The conversation of blogging goals and commitment spurs me to set in writing (and discipline myself) the Communicators Anonymous 2007 mission.

• Professional Development and Networking (specific goal in progress)
• Comment weekly at least six times on six different blogs
• CA postings:
  • Monday: Designated monthly CA step in Twelve Step Program for Communicators (March will cover steps 1-3)
  • Wednesday: Industry tidbits and ethical dilemmas
  • Friday: Zany
• Move CA into Technorati top 100,000 blogs by August 2007
• One podcast per quarter

Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure. Never forget your Personal Legend. Never forget your dreams. Your silent heart will guide you. Be silent now. It is the possibility of a dream that makes life interesting. You can choose between being a victim of destiny or an adventurer who is fighting for something important. -- Paulo Coelho, Novelist.

The Significance of Twelve

Twelve is one of the perfect numbers, three is divine perfection, seven is spiritual perfection, ten is ordinal perfection and twelve is governmental perfection.

In scripture we find twelve associated with rule. The sun which rules the day, and the moon and stars which govern the night move through the twelve signs of the zodiac. The zodiac resides in the great circle of the heavens, which is itself 360 degrees (= 30 x 12).

The Heavenly City of Revelations has twelve gates with the names of the twelve tribes on them. Twelve angels stand at the gates, the walls have twelve foundations garnished with twelve precious stones, and in them the names of the twelve apostles. The city is twelve thousand furlongs square, and the twelve gates are twelve pearls. The number twelve is used here symbolically of Gods perfect government.

The list could go on and on...

Al Golin recognizes the one-year anniversary of the Daily Dog with Twelve Lessons for PR. The take-away is to get back-to-basics. We will see what the take-away is from the PRSA International Conference...Tavis Smiley begins the conference by holding up a mirror.

Are you a leader?
Smiley quoted Socrates, “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
Says Smiley: “How Socratic are you willing to be? How serious about examining the life you are leading and the legacy you are leaving?”
Smiley related a conversation he had with the prominent African-American educator Cornel West, a professor of religion at Princeton. Smiley says he often quotes what West shared with him about leadership: “You can’t lead people if you don’t love people; you can’t save people if you don’t serve them.”
Says Smiley: “If you call yourself a leader and nobody is following, you’re just out getting some exercise. Leadership is essentially about finding a way to serve people.”

Thus, the basis in coming to understand...