Must-Reads for the PR Pro: Succeeding in Organizational Leadership

As public relations professionals, the best way to stay up to date with the industry is to curl up with a good read, whether it is a book, article or blog post. Take some of your free time during break to pick up one of the books reviewed below:

Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul by Howard Schulz

“Onward” is a great book to learn more about organizational structure and image, as well as leadership. It provides a first-hand account of how Starbucks recreated itself, and how CEO Howard Schulz developed his main leadership philosophy. This book is especially appropriate in terms of seeing how a company was able to be successful and revive its image in one of the most tumultuous economic times in history.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Meerman Scott

Especially important for the modern workplace, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” is a great read. It provides readers with the knowledge of how web communications may benefit your business. Establishing a proper personal relationship with your customers via the Internet is essential in the new media world. The book offers first-hand examples of marketing and PR trends, techniques for using social media sites, an action plan for utilizing new media and suggestions of how to craft powerful, effective messages.

The World is Flat, 3.0 by Tom Friedman

To know your world is to be a better public relations practitioner. Tom Friedman helps readers to understand globalization. It is important to know how globalization provides opportunities for individual and organizational success, how it is helping poverty around the world and how it may be detrimental environmentally, socially and politically. The book helps address the essential question “How may globalization effect different industries?”

How to Win Friends and Influence People

This was one of the first books I read relating to public relations, and one of the most influential I have read so far. The best advice I received from this book is how to communicate with others and to value them and instead of manipulating their attitudes and beliefs working to change them by ethical means.

Do you have any PR reads to add to our list? Let us know!

This guest blog was written by PRowl Public Relations staff member Kurie Fitzgerald.

What I Learned from Kelly Cutrone

“When you’re following your inner voice, doors tend to eventually open for you, even if they mostly slam shut at first.”

No, these aren’t the words of an inspirational talk-show host or lines from a sappy self-help book. They are wise words from sharp-tongued PR maven Kelly Cutrone’s book, “If You Have to Cry, Go Outside.” After reading the book, I learned that there is more to her than her scenes on shows like The Hills and Kell On Earth, her all black outfits, and her brutally honest comments.

I was pleasantly surprised by the encouraging and maternal tone of the book. Cutrone offers some great advice for all Public Relations hopefuls, not just those working in Fashion PR. My PR focus is non-profit, with a strong interest in museums and art. I never thought a Fashion PR book could relate to me and motivate me to step out of my comfort zone to get what I truly want in life, but I was wrong!

Here are the best things I learned from Cutrone’s book:

Surround Yourself with the Right People
Cutrone talks a lot about surrounding yourself with people who will guide you in the right direction and help you figure out what you want to do with your life. She says, “Start by identifying people in your community you look up to and then, graciously and with their blessing, use their hard work and experience to your advantage. Pick their brains.”

Treat Internships and Early Jobs Like Gold
Cutrone treats her interns like family and expects hard work and complete dedication from them in return. She explains just how important internships and entry-level jobs are, no matter what the tasks include. Picking up dry-cleaning and going on coffee runs may not be so glamorous, but those jobs will lead to bigger and better things in the future, she says.

“Give Good Phone”
One of the most beneficial things I learned from reading Cutrone’s book is to always rely on the phone to get things done. Forget the Blackberry, Twitter, or even standard emails. In PR, communication is key, and the best and most successful communication comes from actually speaking to someone, not having them read it off a screen.

This guest blog was written by PRowl Public Relations staff member Mackenzie Krott.

Hamlet's BlackBerry: A Great Summer Read

Summer is a time where most of us look forward to enjoying some well-deserved relaxation. However, between BlackBerries, iPhones, laptops and wifi it's difficult to completely disconnect. Have you ever planned on having a relaxing dinner, or on going to bed early, when you receive an urgent email that completely distracts you? I think we ALL have!

That's precisely why William Powers' new book Hamlet's BlackBerry immediately intrigued me. He wrote it as a 'practical philosophy for building a good life in the digital age' aimed at helping readers unplug from technology and be fully present around family and friends. Powers understands how difficult this can be, especially when so many people are married to their jobs as well as their spouses. The proof is in the pudding for Powers who practices this philosophy in his own life. To counteract his family's connectedness they have weekend 'dead time' where their modem is unplugged and cell phones are turned off. He claims to see a huge improvement in family communication that brings them closer together and has lasting effects throughout the week.

Powers also theorizes that constant connectivity both fragments our social network and distracts us from our own internal dialogue. When you're tending to relationships through several different avenues of communication (tweet, wall post, text, e-mail) it has an isolating effect. Keeping tabs on your friends and loved ones digitally just isn't sufficient as it's missing a human element. Similarly, all of this digital communication distracts us so much that we don't have time to think anymore. Our thoughts are so jumbled from the buzzing, beeping or flashing we don't have the chance to take a look around and 'smell the roses'.

Powers knows that the digital world is here to stay and doesn't expect readers to stop using technology all together. He's simply suggesting better ways to balance connectivity with real life, one-on-one communication so we can live happier, less stressed lives. As PR professionals we know the importance of connectedness all too well and it's good for us to take a deep breath and relax every once in a while!

Read a July 20th interview with William Powers by NPR and an excerpt from Hamlet's Blackberry here. How do you feel about the pervasiveness of digital connectivity today? Is it a friend or foe?

A Great Summer Read...or Anytime for That Matter

If you read one book this month, make it Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office 101 by Lois. P. Frankel. This book includes great tips to get ahead in your career, by pointing out everything that women do in the office that stops them from getting ahead. My previous manager recommended it to me and I immediately ordered it. It’s probably one of the best books I have ever read. Here are a few of the classic mistakes women make that I found I do.

• Working without a break

• Failing to capitalize on relationships

• Polling before making a decision

• Not asking questions for fear of sounding stupid.

Coaching tips are given to help women overcome these behaviors.

I was never mentored when I entered the business world, but this book was the next best thing. It helped me understand how to improve my learning experience while gaining respect.

This book is guaranteed to be a go-to guide for the rest of your career. You can never stop improving!

Click here to read an excerpt.

This guest blog was written by PRowl Public Relations firm staff member, Kayleigh Nance.

A bit of summer reading..

I just finished reading the book Everyone Worth Knowing by Lauren Weisberger, who is also the author of the book The Devil Wears Prada. It was a really fun and entertaining book, about a woman named Bette, who is fired from her dreadful banking job. Her Uncle gets her a job working at the hottest PR Firm in NYC, and Better is thrust into a fabulous world of fashion, partying, and most stressful of all, her new job and her new life.

While I was reading the book, I questioned the validity of the PR Firm that Bette worked at. For instance, some parts of the book were extremely accurate, at least to my knowledge. Scenes depicted Bette sending out press releases, taking phone calls with the media, and scoping out locations for events. However, other parts of the book made me question its validity. For instance, Bette was encouraged to go out every single night of the week until 4 in the morning, only to make it work by 8 am, cheery? I don't think so.

Another thing that I found quite ridiculous was when Bette was photographed with a celebrity, and the tabloids produced the picture with a caption about this PR Firm's newest associate. At the first mention, Bette's boss was thrilled with the publicity, but soon the photographers were writing mean, crude things about Bette, yet her boss encouraged her to keep hanging out with this celebrity, so they could keep getting publicity. I know that all publicity is good publicity, but isn't that taking things a bit too far?

Also, and this may or not really exist in PR Firms, but something that I personally just think is so cool, was what the book called 'The List.' 'The List" was a database with the name of every media person (which I know many PR firms have), every celebrity, anyone remotely connected to a celebrity, their likes, dislikes, who they travel with, their agent's name, their manager's name, all cross referenced under categories. 'The List' was probably the books PR Firm's claim to fame.

If you have read this book, what do you think? Do you think it depicts a real PR Firm? I personally enjoyed the book, but needed to step back and remind myself that it was just a work of fiction.