Three steps to creating mutual expectations

I thought you said you said you were going to do more today! What's the deal?

Part two of a two-part series on setting expectations in your personal and professional life (Read first part)

Us PR folks all try and “get er done” at our jobs, but sometimes we go a little overboard. We take on so much that we begin to drown in a sea of self-imposed work. To better manage your workload and the expectations surrounding each project, consider these three simple rules of setting and managing expectations. You might just find that taking on that project isn’t the best use of time and resources for both you and your organization. Try and:

1. Know your limitations and stay within them - We’re constantly put in positions to “learn on the job.” That happens, but be realistic. Can you do the project you’re attempting? Do you need more professional development? It’s better to admit your limitations than to fail because of pride.
2. Be honest with yourself and your clients/bosses - We have a tendency to be “yes” people to everyone because we love to be the clutch player. That’s how we’re built. Know how much work you can handle to be successful and stay within those boundaries.
3. Have a plan that’s realistic and routine - We’re planners and strategists, right?  So why shouldn’t our expectations be rooted in the same thought process? Well, they should. Think about your strengths and weaknesses and work to enhance your strengths and turn your weaknesses into strengths. Routine and constant learning do this. Know how much time and energy you can dedicate to each area and stick within those boundaries.

In the end, the insane world of PR can, to a certain degree, be managed. It takes setting realistic and mutual expectations, knowing  your limitations, having a routine and being honest with yourself, your bosses and clients.

Here’s a few other recent posts discussing PR as one of the top-ten most stressful jobs:

• “Public Relations, It’s Not Kid’s Play” by Narciso Tovar on Waxing UnLyrical
• “Top 10 Reasons Why Being a PR Pro is One of the Toughest Jobs You Could Have” by Andrew Worob of PR at Sunrise
• “Report: PR Pro is the second-most stressful job” by Michael Sebastian on Ragan’s PR Daily
• “America’s Most Stressful Jobs” on CNBC.com
• “Public Relations Ranked Second-Most Stressful Job in America” by Lynn Lewis
• “Is PR the second-most stressful occupation?” by Beth Krietsch of PRWeek

We expect the world of you… can you deliver?

Why did I say yes to all this work?

Part one of a two-part series on setting expectations in your personal and professional life

After reading Andrew Worob’s recent post on Ragan’s PR Daily entitled, “10 reasons PR is a tough job,” I thought to myself, “Yep, he’s dead on with that list. PR people do live in one crazy, non-stop world!”

In Andrew’s article, he talks about the complexities and demands of our profession. Some of these demands include tough clients and bosses, meeting high (sometimes ridiculous) expectations, always being on call, and worst of all, getting no respect! Having any semblance of a work-life balance can seem impossible as well, unless your life is your profession.

Managing expectations is tough work!

So, if you want to have some sort of life outside of your career, it’s critical to manage your personal and professional expectations.

I can say from experience that our profession is extremely demanding, and our bosses, boards of directors and clients place extraordinarily high expectations on us. Sometimes those expectations are floating in outer space, and sometimes they’re within our atmosphere.

But I’m certain that most people reading this are a jack of many trades, doing whatever is needed from whomever asks. We’re the people behind the large curtain that make things happen. On any given day, we’ll write a press release, create an e-blast, present a strategic plan to a client and put out several fires, all before lunch time!

You think you’ve met expectations…

Even after we do all of this, there’s always more to be expected. Even Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz is a tough cookie to please. When she and her entourage come face-t0-face with the man behind the curtain, she forcefully proclaims:

“If you were really great and powerful, you’d keep your promises!” 

This response is funny, but true. When we think we’ve knocked it out of the park, we get flack and perceived failure. That’s our fault though. In most cases that means we didn’t properly set and manage  mutual expectations. If we did, then we’d all be on the same page respectively.

"There's no place like home..." I think this is what she wants me to do. I hope I meet her expectations of me!

I think Dorothy taught us a valuable lesson here. When you think you’re succeeding, take a step back in your sparkly red heels and say to yourself, “Is this what my boss or client expects of me?”  That simple question will allow you to know if you’re on or off track. I’m sure Dorothy wasn’t expecting that grand, imposing voice to be some elderly fellow using old hi-fi equipment to create the illusion of omnipotence.

Sometimes expectations can be based on illusion just like in the Wizard of Oz, especially in the PR business! We should, however, work to ensure expectations are transparent and realistic. Because if you don’t, someone will flip open that infamous green curtain to reveal the truth. You’ll definitely be in hot water if you get caught spinning wheels and pushing buttons when they find you.

To censor or not to censor, Google is the question

Google has become quite the topic of debate in the last six to eight months. From alleged government hacking to having search content censored, the multi-billion dollar top search engine company has been under fire. According to a recent New York Times article by Jonathan Stray and Lily Lee entitled, “After Google’s Move, a Shift in Search Terms,” the company’s recent unfiltered search update for Chinese users created a flash of buzz and then fizzled. Traffic died after a few days because the Chinese government was slow to move on blocking content. Or should I say, allegedly blocking (hmm).

This move spurred an increase of more than 10 times the normal search traffic for politically delicate topics, such as “Falun Gong” and “corruption.” The article mentions that:

In tests over the weekend from several Chinese cities, users searching for “Tiananmen” or even the names of Chinese government leaders reliably found the site google.com.hk mysteriously inaccessible for a few minutes…The more frequently used Chinese search engine Baidu, which continues to censor its results, remained accessible no matter what users searched for.

Although this seems like the big issue here with Google in China, the bigger story here is the fact that anti-Google sentiment is on the rise and pro-Google sentiment is being “eradicated.” This is occurring through statewide digital mandates to remove any content involving Google or any associated terms, especially content that supports the company. This is one of the reasons that Google has been teetering on withdrawing its Chinese operations, but has yet to fully commit to doing so.

Another article in the Irish Times states that:

Most international companies participating in that market are willing to accept the constraints involved in the belief that this rate of growth will outpace the state’s ability to police and censor it.

So, what’s it going to be? Will they remove all operations and cease to fight what they call the good fight or tuck tail and run? Is it in their best interest to be there and maybe wait it out? Is it in the best interest of the people to have accessibility to information?

These questions are but a few that have been posed and remain to be answered. As a PR professional, I think they should remain in China and all other countries they currently operate in. I’m not saying they should become a democratic society, but information and valuable content supports knowledge, economic growth, freedom of thought and so much more. It’s what keeps a living record of our history and reminds each of us of our rich heritage.

Can we really afford to lose that? Chime in… let me know what you think.