The Value Of Courage In PR

While it may seem odd, I regularly think of the?concept of courage throughout the course of my work week. It takes me back to my liberal arts education at the University of Texas and my philosophy class. That particular class taught me that the Greek concept of courage revolved around a willingness to be brave as citizen-soldiers and the importance of standing against a common enemy with fellow Greeks, although many say the Socratic definition of courage is simply “wise endurance.” Courage can also involve perseverance against the odds and outlasting the enemy.

So, why I am I getting “all philosophical” here? It’s because I believe that as PR people, we practice Socratic courage every day. PR is tough, and we can quite easily liken it to a battle — whether we’re working with the media or clients.

The first example that comes to mind involves the distribution of press releases. When we in the trade “embargo” a press release, this means that we provide the information to reporters in advance of an official launch date of some kind in order for them to do research and get their stories together. However, given the competitive nature of the news business, journalists are always clamoring for a scoop and want to be the first to report on a given topic. That being said, reporters regularly push us PR pros on the timing of their news stories, and they often ask to release news days before their competition or to “pre-run” the release by a few hours.

Of course, the implicit threat (and potential for real risk) here is that the journalist in question might bury your story or not bother to report on it at all. This usually doesn’t happen, and it is pretty unlikely that your story won’t get covered — particularly if your client’s firm is on the reporter’s regular beat. But there is a certain amount of “chicken” that PR people have to play with journalists in this scenario. You have the potential to lose big, and if you’re striving to get your client the maximum amount of coverage, there is some gamesmanship and courage involved in letting the cards fall where they may.

This is also why we insist that our press releases and media relations campaigns are information-packed, timely and compelling to journalists. And there’s less chance that a media outlet won’t cover you and will honor the embargo if you’re not releasing ho-hum news and your media campaign is on point. And there are ways to offer specific benefits to journalists who play by the rules and honor your embargoes — for example, by offering an exclusive interview with an executive or letting them lead with a specific asset, like an infographic — in order to differentiate their coverage.

Another element of courage in PR involves client relations. It takes bravery to stand up to clients. I’ve had many uncomfortable conversations with VP- and C-level executives whose sense of perspective is affected by their own experience. In a typical scenario, the exec will think that because they’re surrounded by fans, the world — or at least their market space — will receive them in the same way. They may think that their company, no matter how small it is, should be on the cover of?Forbes?or the front page of?The Wall Street Journal,?The New York Times?and?The Washington Post?to boot.

But of course, hard reality can set in when we have a realistic discussion about their relative position in the marketplace. The likelihood of obtaining major coverage — at least at the outset — is slim. Yet many execs don’t want to hear this at the beginning of the process, and they sometimes take out their frustrations on the agency. While many of these executives do come around to a more reasonable point of view after we explain our strategic PR efforts again, it takes real courage to stand up to second-guessing. It also takes perseverance to stay on the path of a program that will eventually bear fruit, despite the doubters.

In PR, we’re courageous all of the time — whether we’re handling calls to the media or dealing with tough clients — and we all have to do our own version of “sucking it up.” Thanks to Socrates, we can cultivate the notion of wise endurance each and every day to grow stronger and more resilient as both professionals and people.

This article originally appeared in Forbes.