Today is one of the milestones of my creative leaps.
When I chose to get into the 5th P of marketing and become a positive perception catalyst after dabbling for a few years in the 4 Ps of marketing, I found myself quite alone. PR then was a niche, emerging profession and I just could not find myself a mentor as much as I looked around. While I read voraciously on the profession as well as researched on the internet, which was then still surfacing compared to what it is today as a way of life, I felt lost till I repeatedly tried, failed and learnt. That’s when I had taken the pledge that I would make over 3 decades of my multicounty and multidomain experience accessible to budding PR aspirants and professionals.
Teaching is more learning and relearning
I chose to teach PR at B reputed schools using my practical learning and found that teaching was a wonderful way to learn and relearn. Firstly preparing to teach forces you to research each time and learn. Secondly when you teach, you relearn and thirdly you understand the mindset of the students who are the future leaders. When you teach business executives you create a connect with them and stay ahead of the curve comprehending current problems and progress blocks. I remain thankful to various B schools who nurtured my knowledge sessions. Some names of such B schools include- MET School of Mass Media, Pearl Academy, ISB&M, Mulshi Institute of Business Management, School of Communications and Reputation, MSEED and more.
Passionately sharing my learnings from the University of Life
My journey with Reputation Today as a columnist has indeed been very fulfilling. When I started my first article. My purpose was clear- to offer my life’s experiences, a bridge to what we learn from the books to students and PR professionals to relearn and refresh. I thought very carefully. Let’s look at what we PR practioners do and aim at? Don’t we chase mindsets to create the correct perceptions through our strategic campaigns and tactics? Therefore my column was aptly named, ‘Destination Mindset. I thank all my readers for reaching out, seeking clarifications and generously giving your suggestions. You have truly made me realise the value of ‘Response’ for a communicator!
The story telling mindset today is most relevant for leadership communication and influence
I have said this before, but let us take the example of progress from the holy Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam’s footpath 3650 steps. I once went with my family as a young teenager and climbed these steps to reach the revered shrine. Halfway up, there was a sign, when our guide translated what was written, it roughly meant “Whenever your destination seems far ahead, just look back at how far you have come. It will give you renewed energy to go ahead. It’s all about the climb, life is all about the climb”.
So when I just crossed the 150th article in my column I too looked back at all the articles I have written and tried to find some trends that are prevalent in the current world of work and life. I found two that are loud and clear-
Most business blocks are because we do not communicate well
We, specially do not communicate well. We brief but do not check if our brief is clear and understood. We are generally not good listeners. As I say repeatedly we do not listen to understand but listen to reply. That’s why especially in PR our understanding of expectations are dependent on our perception of the purpose. Since time is becoming more and scarcer we really need to put turbo into our efforts to understand better and communicate well.
Develop a story telling mindset to become a transformative leader in reality
Instruct, delegate and control, carrot and stick etc. are completely outdated with the evolving human mind from generation to generation. Today you need to provide logic in your strategic recommendations. HR is all about retention for valued talent. It’s all about storytelling today to your teams, collaboration and bonding through common purpose and EQ.
“The mind is everything. What you think you become.” Anonymous
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