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How coaching has helped me navigate the busy world of a PR agency
The course is designed for women who want to break free from people-pleasing and impostor syndrome, learn to set healthy boundaries, be more assertive and grow in confidence and self-belief.
Like many young women in the early stages of their career, I’ve set my sights firmly on my professional development and progression.
I’ve been fortunate enough to take part in some excellent course and programmes, which have taught me invaluable PR skills, elevating the quality of my work and client relationships.
The workforce has changed dramatically over the last five years.
Not only are we now working in a post-Covid world, with some agencies choosing to operate 100% remotely, it’s becoming ever more evident that graduates joining the industry have different priorities in, and expectations of, the workplace.
Employers and employees are gaining a greater understanding of the importance of wellbeing, and how feeling our best means we can ultimately do our best too.
In December, I took part in a women’s development programme designed and delivered by the coaching and coach training organisation, Barefoot Coaching.
The course is designed for women who want to break free from habits such as people-pleasing and impostor syndrome, as well as learn to set healthy boundaries, be more assertive and grow in confidence and self-belief – both in their professional and personal lives.
I’d never coached or been coached before, or even taken part in any personal development courses, so enrolling on this programme was a slight leap into the unknown for me.
But following the five sessions with our accredited coach, I’ve now learned tools and techniques I can use in agency to not only help me be a better PR, but also a better colleague, employee and champion of my own abilities.
Putting things into perspective
Agencies are fast paced and sometimes highly stressful environments to work in.
With endless emails, deadlines, press releases and client calls on our to do lists, it can sometimes feel like we have more on our plate than we can handle, pushing us out of our depth.
We’re all human and sometimes mistakes can happen, we all know that sinking feeling – especially when we’re earlier in our careers or working quickly and under pressure.
That’s why it’s essential that we put things into perspective and see the bigger picture. During the programme, our coach introduced us to a simple scale called ‘The Scale of Awfulness’. It’s a basic yet quick and effective way to calm down the nerves and stress that we feel when something doesn’t quite go to plan.
Start by picturing a horizontal line in front of you, with zero on the left-hand side and 100 on the right.
Decide what would be 100 on the scale for you, this is the worst, most ‘awful’ situation you could imagine happening. Now plot your current situation on the scale in comparison to this.
The idea here is that we re-asses our meaning of awfulness, giving us the ability to modify and control our response, reducing levels of stress and anxiety and helping us focus on finding solutions instead of panicking about the problem.
Setting boundaries
Many of us are natural people pleasers. We want to do our best for our clients who pay for our services, and also our colleagues who rely on us day in and out to deliver results. But what happens when you’ve bitten off more than you can chew?
Our to do lists stack up quickly in agency and when you’re working with multiple account managers and directors across various clients, open communication about your workload and priorities is essential.
It can be hard to push back sometimes, especially to someone more senior than you, but handled correctly, using the right terminology and the right attitude, can help you assertively communicate this in a professional manner.
On our Barefoot course, we learnt to ask ourselves the following questions before choosing to be assertive:
• Will assertiveness improve my relationships and my self-respect?
• Will assertiveness prevent or reduce stress?
• How much will it cost me to be assertive in this situation?
• How important is this situation to me?
I know it can feel like you’re letting someone down by turning away a task, but being honest about your capacity to complete something from the get-go leads to less disruption down the line. It’s better to be open when you’re first asked, instead of jumping to say yes, only to then let someone down right before a deadline!
Why am I talking?
If you’ve chosen to work in PR, there’s a good chance that not only do you love to talk, but you’re pretty good at it too.
We work in this industry because we get a real thrill out of telling people’s stories and building great relationships with journalists and clients. But in order to convey the right message to the right people and really maximise results – we need to be just as good at listening too.
In our coaching sessions, we learnt and practiced the art of active listening. We’ve all sat impatiently while someone else spoke, waiting for our turn to share our points, thoughts or experience. In fact, most of the time we do it without even realising. But the problem with this is that we don’t take the space to really hear what the other person is saying.
In your next client or internal meeting, try listening attentively to the person speaking, absorb what they’re saying and retain the information for later. And before you respond, ask yourself, ‘W.A.I.T – Why Am I Talking?’. This will encourage you to not only have more meaningful conversations but gain a much deeper understanding of the other person’s needs. This ultimately builds stronger relationships and drives better results.
The Barefoot Coaching course has helped me significantly at work, with these just being three of many tools and techniques I’ve picked up and already started to implement day to day in agency. If you want to thrive in PR, it’s vital you take the time to invest in developing your softer skills both for your benefit, and the benefit of everyone around you too.
Find out more about the Barefoot Coaching women’s development programme.
Daniela Loffreda is PR and digital account executive at Eden Public Relations.