Clive Thompson of Wired wrote about the need for honesty and transparency in his article on “The See-Through CEO”. I agree with Greg that this is a pretty good piece, but I’m appalled by Clive’s sub-headline – “Fire the publicist. Go off message. Let all your employees blab and blog. In the new world of radical transparency, the path to business success is clear.”

In the interest of fellow PR professionals, I’d like to dissect it and examine the misconceptions embedded within:

• “Fire the publicist” – For too long, the term “Public Relations Professional” has been contracted to “Publicist”. This wrongly puts the focus on “Publicity” as the end-in-mind. The focus should be on “Relationships” instead. Publicity is mere “fruit” of the process, and a means to an end.

• “Go off message. Let all your employees blab and blog.” – “Messages” should explain the vision and actions of an organisation. A company that “goes off message” gives wrong and unclear impressions of the company’s vision and state of affairs. This is no good for everyone. Yes, we need to listen to the public, but after the listening is done, we have to make decisions; and our messages have to explain what the decisions are. Then we listen some more, participate in more conversations and adapt, innovate, and clearly state what we’re doing, where we are going. Leadership and clear directions are vital to the “conversation” process. I said it earlier at the end of my post on Leading Change, and I’ll say it again – the path (conversations with the public) ahead is a journey to lead, and not a walk in the dark.

• “Radical transparency” doesn’t mean “reduced accountability” (to the organization, shareholders and customers). If you prioritise blabber above action, you alarm the public and you waste their time. Yes, I’m all for “naked conversations” and “naked corporations”, but who wants a CEO to shift his businesses strategies from boardroom to bedroom? PR professionals are responsible for helping to pull that act together and make sure that CEOs listen and act in the best interest of the public and every stakeholder. CEOs and their companies must be human, personal and transparent. But Greg sums it up perfectly when he says that “being transparent doesn’t mean being stupid or sloppy.”

PR, Clive Thompsons-of-the-world, is far higher up the rungs of leadership than you perceive it to be. It is more about relationships than publicity, and more about leadership than relationships.

We PR folks get our priorities mixed up sometimes; but some of us are changing things.

And CEOs, this is not the time to “fire your publicists, go off message and let your employess blab and blog”. Even more than ever, you need the counsel of true PR professionals who understand that our chief mandate should not be “to create publicity”. We build the vital, trusted relationships that your companies depend on, and not the illusion of it.

“PR” is not a job title or “marketing strategy”. It is organisational leadership made public and personal. And today, we have the tools to do this better than ever.

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