Off The Record

By Paul Dixon*

In my latest flirt with the on-line virtual world “there.com” I commented to a fellow avatar how great she looked in her bright pink boots - only for her to flee into the jungle.  Did I offend her?  Should I have pursued her?  I think I was more confused in suddenly facing a decision that was for me, well, weird.  But for 400,000 there.com members these kinds of experiences aren’t weird at all – in fact they’re perfectly normal.

Online social interaction is transforming the way people communicate, the emergence of blogs, vlogs, podcasts, RSS, and social interaction websites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Second Life have created an arena for people to communicate in a way the world has never seen before.  If PR is really about communicating with your publics, then PR practitioners – especially those who are just starting out like me – need to embrace the emergence of new media as a powerful tool for PR practice in the future.
 

The last thirty years has witnessed the proliferation of mass media.  Long before the advent of the now already out-dated internet-dial-up, audiences were able to choose media outlets dedicated to their special interest, rather than having to watch prime-time programs.  Greater choice is part of modern day life, look at food for example. Once upon a time you had the choice of maybe a strawberry, vanilla or chocolate ice cream - now you can enjoy green tea flavor, with nuts.  In today’s consumer-driven world, consumers – audiences if you like – are making choices based on their own preferences more than they have ever done in the past.  This new found ‘empowerment’ has caused the audience to fragment, requiring a fresh PR approach.

This newly fragmented audience is also doing something that has serious consequences for PR strategies:  they are placing their invaluable trust in fresh and new ‘credible’ sources.  Yes, that’s right, the public no longer only trust doctors, public organizations – and even governments – more than ever, people trust their peers and the people around them.  You may argue that word-of-mouth began when humans learnt to talk, but what is so clearly different today is that the public is empowered to find their peers – and talk to them directly - through the platforms the Internet provides.  One Chinese woman created a blog dedicated to the discussion of family matters – such as creating online photo albums from old photos tucked away in the attic.  The 60,000 netizens who regularly visit her blog learnt about the best scanner to use, the most efficient on-line photo sharing website – they placed their invaluable trust in the Chinese lady’s opinions.

If I was a CEO with the responsibility to up-hold the reputation of a brand that was built up over the course of decades, I would be pretty concerned by this paradigmatic shift in communications.  In these new environments brands risk losing control of their message – as PR practitioners, it is our role to guarantee to our clients that this never happens. I am not saying we should all abandon the bread and butter aspects of being a young PR professional – communicating with mainstream media will always be one of the cornerstones of PR.  For us all to build and preserve our own brand, as perceived by our clients, we do however need to look beyond these traditional push communication models and become familiar with the less formal platforms.  As professional communicators, embracing the increasingly influential two-way group communications found online can only help us along in our career ahead.

_________________________________________________________________                                                      * Paul Dixon is an Assistant Account Executive in the Beijing office of AC Capital Strategic Public Relations.

By Uma Li*

One of the problems with
China’s guanxi or relationship culture is that its practice has been carried into the workplace.  But guanxi doesn’t work too well in a modern business or corporation.  And those working in foreign enterprises in particular soon find that they need to either get over this cultural complication or ship-out, back to a State-owned enterprise.  Those who want to work in an organization where ability and effort are recognized and rewarded read on.

And it is a tyranny because the practice of guanxi places relationships ahead of good business performance, and personal ability and effort.  Guanxi companies end up selecting their business partners and suppliers on poor criteria rather than for their ability to deliver goods and services either efficiently or cost effectively.  Choosing your cousin’s company as a key supplier might sit well at Auntie Ming’s tea ceremony soiree, but doesn’t necessarily do your employer any good in the cut throat world of business.

If you work in a foreign company you are likely to find yourself thrown out by the scruff of your neck when it’s discovered that your key supplier is Cousin Ming.  And it could be much worse if it is also discovered that your cousin was paying you a commission for the business you sent his way.

Guanxi can also be a bad thing to introduce to the internal workings of your company.  Promoting staff based on guanxi rather than merit can be very dumb.  While even foreigners play internal politics and try to curry favour with the boss, good foreign bosses do not join the game.  They keep themselves above it and can take drastic action against those who are playing it.

If you think you can butter up a foreign boss with sweet talk and dumplings, think again.  The good foreigners are hip to what’s going on and won’t fall for it – even if they listen to your flattery and eat your dumplings.

Merit means performance
At the end of the day a good boss, foreign or Chinese, is interested in one thing and one thing only – are you delivering against your performance measures?

So, when performance review time comes around, enter it with an open mind.  A bad review doesn’t mean your boss has been paying attention to your enemies in the company or that those enemies have developed better guanxi with your boss than you have.  It probably means you have been doing a bad job and you need to improve.  Pay attention to your boss’ feedback and make a plan to improve your performance.

You are the owner of your personal brand – it is up to you to take note and to manage your brand better.  The best way to do that in a foreign managed company is to do your job well.  Astonish your boss with your ability and your effort.  Actions speak louder than words.  And your boss probably prefers the dumplings s/he can get at the restaurant up the street to the ones you stayed up all night to make.  You can give your dumplings to Aunt Ming on the weekend to smooth things over with her.  In other words, leave the guanxi at home and focus on proving your merit in the workplace.

* Uma Li is a human resources development consultant living in the United States.  She previously worked in public relations in China.

If you google the words “career success”, which I just did, you get more than 109 million hits.  This tells me two things:  first there must be a lot of interest in the subject for so much information to have been posted on the world wide web.  Secondly, there is an awful lot of information out there – more than any one person could ever sift through; and you can leave it to google to decide what’s important for you to read because these hits are prioritized according to mathematical formulae created by some geek who’s been living on a steady diet of pizza, soda and Internet chat rooms for the past 15 years.

So what’s a young upwardly mobile professional – what we used to call “Yuppies” back in the day - to do to get the best advice to start building career success?

At the risk of sounding smug – you need look no further.  Having spent the past few years of my career hiring, firing, training and retraining people, I have a few insights – four actually – to share with those who are interested in achieving success in their professional lives.  But, before I get to them, let’s define what success is so we can be sure we are talking about the same thing.

 Career success is about being recognized by your peers and superiors as an outstanding professional in your chosen field.  It is not about money or title, though those often do come with recognition for one’s abilities.

Now it’s very easy to look at a definition like this and say – that’s easy:  The geek who graduated dux of the class is going to rise to the top.  Maybe.  But probably not if the geek was a geek.  The person who is going to be successful in their career is the one with the right mix of hard and soft skills.  Hard skills are the knowledge and expertise the person has in their chosen field.  If they graduated there’s a good chance the person at least has that –no guarantee though as blockheads occasionally get through Harvard Business School, for example.  Even law schools and medical colleges have been known to graduate their share of dolts.

So what are the soft skills that are important to long-term career success?

Communicate like you know what you want to say
The first is probably obvious, but sometimes watching recent graduates in job interviews I wonder.  But good communication skills are the base building blocks.  If you don’t have these or can’t acquire them it’s probably time to think about a career selling shampoo over the Internet or something similar.

Good communication skills come in two forms and these days you need both.  Written communication is fundamental given the amount of work that has to be done in writing – business reports, e-mails, proposals and plans.  If you can’t write to save your life, as the saying goes, then your career is also unsalvageable.

Can you do anything to improve your writing skills?  A lot.  First spend less time chatting on line because that’s not writing – it’s cryptography understood only by the initiated, usually teenagers who have too much time on their hands.  As your boss doesn’t spend as much time in chat rooms, chances are he’s not going to understand what you call spelling.  Start reading good books.  Professional books are a good start because you can learn more about your career as well as picking up good pointers on how to write well.  Secondly practice writing.  Just write for the sake of it.  Keep a diary or write a short story; but write.  The more you write the better you get at it.  Who knows, if you write well enough your blog might become a hit and Google might buy it for US$100 million or more – eliminating the need to fret about career success at all.

The second type of communication is oral.  Learning how to talk is important.  Again, you won’t learn this on the Internet.  It’s about talking and sounding professional and articulate.  The more you do it, the better you become.  But to really move up the food chain you need to become a good public presenter and speaker.  There are courses you can do, such as via Toastmasters International.  There are also training companies, such as AC Capital Strategic Public Relations that can tailor courses to suit your company: Talk to your human resources director, we’re friendly people eager to help staff improve their abilities.

But practice, practice and then practice some more.

A third part of communication is about learning English.  It’s the new lingua franca, which is Latin for a language that is widely used as a means of communication.  (And you have to learn the lingua franca as much as it might gaul you; sorry, bad pun.)  Most global companies now – even French and German ones – use English as their language of business.  So career success these days does require a good working knowledge of the language.  If you’re having trouble reading this, duibuqi kids, but you’re going to have to brush up your language skills.  One way to do that is by taking a course, of course.  And again, practice, practice and practice some more.

Of course the secret to good communications is what my good friend
Alistair Nicholas calls the Kippling Maxim.  Rudyard Kippling was a great British journalist who lived in India in the last century and wrote wonderful stories such as The Jungle Book and Kim.  Kippling said that every good journalist has six friends – Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.  If you follow this maxim to structure your communications you will go a long way towards becoming a great communicator.  It will help you to also eliminate the circumlocution to which Chinese writing and speech is held hostage and which frustrates bosses who are standing by waiting for you to get to the point.  You’ve got to learn to talk fast and talk direct.

Network till you drop
The second soft skill to learn, and very closely related to the first, is how to network.  If you are going to succeed in your career you can’t be the Invisible Man in the company.  You need to learn to network both within your organization and outside it.  And again, Internet chat rooms are not where this networking takes place.  Nor is it about the idle gossip that goes on around the office water cooler.  Leave those two to the geeks and gigglers of the office.  Serious networking is done over lunch and coffee where you talk about serious issues affecting the company and offer practical solutions.  This networking positions you as someone who cares about your company and someone who is thinking about how to solve the problems it may be facing.  Bosses don’t like employees who bring them problems; but they certainly like team players who bring them solutions.  In other words, make yourself part of the solution, not part of the problem in the company – whatever the problem might be.

External networking is equally important to being recognized as a professional.  Therefore it is important to join business associations such as chambers of commerce and industry associations or professional associations and clubs.  These organizations are always looking for someone to work on one of their committees or to help out arranging a networking event.  Volunteer to help.  That way you will be seen and respected.  One of the things you find on these committees is that the most successful of professionals tend to be on them.  If you have something to contribute, don’t snipe from the sides; join in and make a contribution.

When you get high enough up the tree you can do your networking on the golf course or in the corporate box at the Hong Kong Rugby Sevens.  But when you’re starting out you need to do it by rolling up your sleeves and pitching in to help.  The long-term dividends will be worth it.

Be a quick learner, too

The ability to learn new things quickly is increasing in importance.  In a world that is increasingly moving at the speed of light there is no room for slow learners.  We all need to master new technologies quickly and technology is changing every day.  Being able to chat on MSN is one thing that speeds up communication for companies.  But MSN is the grunt end of the business food chain.  Fourteen year olds master it in the blink of an eye.  But if you are going to really be successful in your career you need to master the company’s database software and other mission-critical programs and technology that the firm uses.  Bosses don’t like to hear excuses about why the technology doesn’t work.  They usually have a view, right or wrong, that it doesn’t work because there is a Luddite or technophobe trying to use it.  Ironically, even if they can’t use the technology themselves they will hold a poor view of you for not mastering it.  So the best thing to do is master the technology that your company uses.  And by all means demonstrate that you are a quick learner when new technology is introduced.  If you think you can change the way the company works or the way your boss thinks it should work, think again.  You won’t succeed; therefore you need to adapt to the company’s work processes and your boss’ requirements.

Analyse this

Analytical skills are also very important in today’s world.  This is because leading companies don’t just make widgets any more.  What successful companies do is process information – and vast amounts of it.  A pharmaceutical company doesn’t just make drugs.  It looks at trends in disease development and contagion and finds solutions to those problems.  At the top end of such a company, the smartest people are employed to process everything from scientific data to market research information, to financial data, etc. in order to develop solutions that will bring products to market profitably.  Obviously an ability to analyse information quickly and accurately and develop solutions is going to make someone indispensable to their company.  A successful “analytical aggregator” - for want of a better term - is someone who can get to the nub of a problem quickly and then bring the right information to bear in solving it.  The few who can do this are the few who will make it to the very top of their careers – provided of course they have the other three parts of the formulae for success.  Analytical ability combined with good communication skills, a networking sense and flexibility to learn new things puts you at the top of the food chain.

Master these four things and you will be sailing.  But, of course, that’s the trick; if everyone could master them we’d all be equal.  Those who can master these talents will tip the career success balance their way.

* Uma Li is a human resources development consultant living in the United States.  She previously worked in public relations in China.

As jean cuts went lower and tops went higher to reveal more midriff, the debate also hotted up and even America’s former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright weighed in. Albright was incensed that female staffers working on both sides of Congress were compromising their professional reputations for the sake of keeping pace with the fads of today’s fashions.  She opined that the political masters of Washington’s female policy wonks were less interested in the sisterhood’s knowledgeable advice than they were in seeing their belly-buttons and other unmentionables.  Ms. Albright, who as Clinton’s Secretary of State made the world’s dictators quake in their boots, warned young women, as quoted in July in the British Sunday Times: “If you dress like a sex object then you will be treated like one.”

A visit back to China this summer demonstrated that the issue is not restricted to the US either.  It seems that young Chinese women have similarly become slaves of fashion and thrown caution to the wind when it comes to dress in the workplace.  Many career minded women don’t seem to realize how much damage they are doing their professional reputations by showing more and more flesh during working hours.

While your male bosses and colleagues might be giving the impression they like it – and they probably do like to see pretty young things bobbing about the office in revealing clothes – the unfortunate truth is that they simultaneously also lose respect for you as a professional.  Men are strange creatures that see women as either princesses or prostitutes.  In the end you as eye candy for the boys at work will impact your reputation in the office and will limit your career advancement.

Ever wonder why men don’t come to the office in the latest casual fashion for men?  Why do they maintain a professional look no matter what the Fashion Fascists dictate is hot for men?  Why don’t men wear baggy jeans that show their boxer shorts to the office or open neck shirts that show the hair on their chests?  Because men get it – they get how important professionalism is and that they must at all costs maintain their reputations at work.

Girls we need to learn this from the boys.  If we are going to be respected as professionals and move forward in our careers we have to take note of how they do it.  Learn from the enemy!

So how can we career women dress to impress in a professional way?  Wear dark suits to start with.  They can look and feel feminine, even sexy, but they must also be professional.  That means the less meat you have showing the better.  Keep it sensible, like mother used to say.  Wear a light coloured blouse – white or light blue – to contrast with the dark suit.  A brooch or discreet earrings, or a scarf or a shawl can help set it off.  The end result – you look good, authoritative, professional, yet feminine and even sexy.

Leave the low-rider jeans for Saturday night’s rave party.

Come on sisters – this is what our mothers and grandmothers fought so hard for: our chance to get ahead on our intellectual merits.  Let’s not throw it away by pandering to the sexual whims of the weaker sex – men.  The operative word for dress in the office should be stylish not sluttish.

* Uma Li is a human resources development consultant living in the United States.  She previously worked in public relations in China.

Too many young people in
China’s overheating economy are not acting in their long-term career interests by changing jobs as often as they do.  They will come to rue the day they chose to quit a job too soon, without having acquired the necessary knowledge and experience to prepare them for the real challenges that will come later in their careers.  This is particularly the case in the PR industry where turnover in agencies averages 100% per annum in the junior ranks and where some young PRO’s are changing jobs as often as every six months. 

Maybe it’s that I belong to an older generation, but I tend to think that job hopping, like bed hopping, is bad for your reputation, and certainly doesn’t say you are a safe long-term prospect to any suitors.  The problem for many job-hoppers is that future employers belong to my generation – a generation that looks down on the self-indulgent practices of today’s young.  Doing it your way may seem brave when you are twenty-something, but it is often folly in the corporate world.

* Uma Li is a human resources development consultant.  From China, she is currently working in the United States.

by Diane Faure*

Young professionals, be aware - Websites, blogs and even your MSN name can be a career killer if not properly managed. Consider this:

“We are aware that many of you are using on-line directories and social networks. While we understand the value of these types of virtual communities, we would like to remind you that just as your friends are able to search for your profiles, so are employers, and others who might be in a position to influence your job search. We recommend that you do not put anything in your profile that you would not want these people to read or see. We further recommend that you use ‘blockers’ to prevent unwanted comments to be posted to your site. Check frequently and remove any inappropriate comments or photos on your site.”

The above caution notice appears on
New York University’s career center homepage and reflects a growing, but largely unrecognized, phenomenon. When looking to hire young graduates, corporate executives and recruiters are increasingly “googling” applicants and perusing their profiles on social networking sites.

On websites such as MySpace and Friendster, members share their pictures, their interests, look up other members’ profiles and contact each other by posting comments on message boards. There is no limit to the amount and type of data that one can disclose. Members may feel their privacy is protected by login processes, but the fact is this is often not the case. Profiles and comments are therefore often quite provocative and illustrated with suggestive pictures.

With 7.5 million members from more than 2000 universities and ranked as the seventh most visited site in the United States, Facebook is the leader in the online networking industry. It describes itself as “a social directory that enables people to share information [and] helps people better understand their world by giving them access to the information that is most relevant to them”. Unlike other websites such as MySpace, which are open to anyone, Facebook restricts membership by only authorizing people with an “edu” email address to register. That, at least, was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s vision when he launched the now very popular website in 2004. But non-students - such as corporate recruiters or university teachers - have found ways to sidestep the restrictive login process and are increasingly using Facebook members’ profiles to learn more about potential employees.

A recent New York Times article even pointed to some companies asking their interns to log on and conduct research on applicants. A growing number of young candidates have thus been filtered out of a company’s recruiting process because of unsavory profiles on MySpace or Facebook. The following story taken from the New York Times highlights the trend:

“When a small consulting company in Chicago was looking to hire a summer intern this month, the company’s president went online to check on a promising candidate who had just graduated from the University of Illinois. At Facebook, a popular social networking site, the executive found the candidate’s Web page with this description of his interests: “smokin’ blunts” (cigars hollowed out and stuffed with marijuana), shooting people and obsessive sex, all described in vivid slang. It did not matter that the student was clearly posturing. He was done. ” [New York Times, 11 June, 2006 ,payment required]

This example presents delicate privacy issues - one can easily argue that what employees do outside the workplace is none of their boss’ or potential boss’ business. Online directories however, are information goldmines for managers wanting to know more about potential employees than what is in a resume. As a recruiter, your job is to find the best people possible for a position. It would be dereliction of duty for a recruiter to not thoroughly check the background of possible hires; that means recruiters will use all means possible to screen candidates.

Career Tips

Personal branding is crucial to one’s career success. Reputation should therefore be protected both inside and outside the office. “Social graces” in the professional environment are as important as your intellectual abilities, if not more important on occasions. By posting provocative comments on websites such as MySpace, you convey a particular image of yourself to your friends, and to everyone who has access to the information. You never know whom you might work with in the future, and therefore you should be cautious at all times and always make sure you present yourself in a positive manner:

- Technology and your brand: As discussed above, the Internet is a great tool to advertise your brand but can become your biggest enemy if used lightly. When deciding on your MSN name or what to put in your profile on an online social network, think about your target audience and what image you want to convey, and keep in mind that familiarity breeds contempt. There is nothing wrong with wanting to express yourself online, but you should always post provocative comments anonymously or under a pseudonym. Likewise, tell your friends/contacts to be careful when they post comments on your web space;

- Build the right reputation: Having your friends nickname you “The Funnel Master” might have increased your popularity during your university years but won’t get you a corporate job or a salary raise. You should therefore make sure your brand is associated with the right attributes.

By divulging incriminating information on the Internet you leave yourself open to the judgment of others, consciously or unconsciously. The Internet is now a widely used search engine, and users should thus be aware that anything they disclose might be used against them in other situations. Once information is online, it is public. A brand is a package; therefore you should always look professional, sound professional and act professional. Maybe it is time to review and clean up that Facebook profile.

News Sources: New York Times, June 11 2006; Boston Globe, March 30 2006

* Diane Faure is an Assistant Account Executive at AC Capital. She is managing her personal brand by, amongst other things, writing this article for the benefit of fellow young professionals. 

* Cher Li is an Account Executive at AC Capital Strategic Public Relations.