The importance of role models – who are yours?
I’ve been extremely lucky to come across incredibly smart people who I’ve watched and listened to in hopes to be a bit like them one day. They helped shape who I am, helped me develop, helped me work through adversity, enabled me to keep learning, and nudged along my success. I was inspired to write this post from an article by Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher about Jon Iwata, SVP of Marketing and Communications at IBM. Foremski’s article is a few months old; sorry, but I’m a bit behind on my reading and blogging.
Foremski highlights Iwata as the most forward-thinking person in communications today. You should definitely read his posts on Iwata. From Foremski’s article and the quotes from Iwata included, I’d have to agree that he’s out in front of the pack. One of the things that resonated with me is Iwata believes you need to improve a company from the inside out in order to truly effect perception change. I agree 100% with this. I’ve thought about this at points in my career, but hadn’t put the idea together as completely as Iwata has. Nor had I gotten 1) that PR could impact this issue (silly limitations of others defining what PR is and isn’t) and 2) how to make it actionable on a massive scale, as is needed for IBM.
It makes me think about medicine and doctors. When you are sick, they almost always treat the symptom with medicine: high cholesterol, heart disease, anxiety, etc. Got a problem? We got a pill for that. The problem - as I hope people realize - is you aren’t fixing the root cause so these issues will continue to happen and your body is still being damaged and working overtime. They should instead be prescribing things that actually impact the root cause, which might be diet or exercise. And we need a cultural change so people are as religious about diet changes and exercise as they are about taking a pill. You have to treat the cause.
In effect, treating the symptom is what PR is expected to do. Fix the symptom of negative opinions. How are those caused? Well the list is endless, but the most common are internal dysfunction, poor decisions, bad products, or lateness to market with a me too product. Or my favorite to fix (note the sarcasm) - people think a product that sucks, well, sucks. Hate to pull back the curtain, but we’re not miracle workers or magicians, and people aren’t stupid. You can’t turn shit into a diamonds (that’s different than turning lemons into lemonade). If you want people to like your product, then build a better product. If you want people to think your company has changed for the better, than it needs to really have changed for the better. PR can drive a cycle or two to try to fix the damage, but it won’t be sustained, consistent coverage and therefore genuine perception change unless it’s an authentic change from the inside out. Iwata seems to get that better than a majority of people doing PR. And not only does he get it, but he’s actually coming up with solutions to impact change.
So I’ve added Jon Iwata to my list of role models. Other role models in my life professionally include:
- Becky Emmett – Becky was my manager early in my career who is now doing PR at Intel – she’s been a role model and directly mentored me. She taught me how to do PR, how to manage the politics, how to manage my emotions, and how to be an amazing manager. I feel like I owe her a lot for where I am now. She also showed me how to be amazing at your job and balance the demands of a family. She is able to manage her hours at work to make time for her three amazing kids and husband. I’m constantly in awe of how she does it. She still is one of the first people I call when I need guidance on a tough situation.
- Heidi Sinclair - Heidi just joined Weber Shandwick as the global tech practice head and she’s incredible. I’ve only begun working with her, but she’s extremely respected, well connected and experienced in technology and social impact PR. She’s kind of a big deal and I’m not timid to say she’s what I want to be when I grow up J
- Scott Trepanier – Scott is my peer and we used to work together. He’s now at Columbia Sports doing PR. He is the person who always knows the latest and greatest web technologies and comes up with innovative ideas for his clients/company. And one of my favorite things about him that I’ve learned from is he has the confidence to say what others might be only willing to think and does so unapologetically.
- Bill Gates – I am pro Bill Gates. Pro PC. Pro everything he does. I just adore him. It’s not because I work on a Microsoft PR account, it’s WHY I work on a Microsoft PR account. I’m passionate about technology because of what Windows let me do growing up. It got me into writing, spreadsheets, email, the Web, social networking before it was called social networking. It’s what helped me identify my passion for technology and doing PR for technology. That’s a big influence in my life.
I have a relationship with Becky, Heidi and Scott, and they know I look up to them and want to learn from them. But Iwata doesn’t know me and as much as it kills me to say it, neither does my beloved BillG. :P. In today’s world, they don’t need to - that matters less and less as more technology creates and encourages people to share and enables connections. You’ve heard me rave about how important Twitter is as a service to connect people, but another thing it does is lower the barrier and give people like me access to thoughts and ideas from someone like Iwata more consistently and easily than I’d otherwise have a limited opportunity to hear (Tweets can take 15 seconds vs. the hour+ it’s taken me to write this blog post). That’s really important as an equalizer for education and learning.
Iwata can help me expand my mind to the possibilities and positive impact PR can have to help companies not just appear better, but actually be better. And he doesn’t even need to know it.
Who are you role models? Why? The why says a lot about who you are and who you want to be.
P.S. I wrote this over the weekend - I’m against blogging during company hours - but it’s more relevant to post M-F during biz hours. :)
