Comms can be a challenging place to work.
It can sometimes feel as if it is full of setbacks, pressures and demands.
Maybe your latest campaign has been changed by someone higher up in the organisation and has not got much coverage.
Perhaps that press release you’ve been working on has been filled with boardroom speak, having gone through an exhaustive sign-off process.
You may just have too much to do and too little time to do it in.
Maybe you feel few understand what the comms team does, but everyone appears to want to have an input.
To succeed in the face of these pressures, you need to be resilient.
But what does ‘resilience’ mean? And how do you build it?
This is a topic we will explore in our next masterclass for members of The Media Team Academy.
Kirsty Waite and Dan Boniface, business coaching and leadership experts from The BCF Group, will lead the session on Thursday (11/8).
They will explore how comms professionals can build personal and team resilience and offer tips and techniques you can immediately put into place to help you in your role.
I met with Kirsty and Dan ahead of the session.
And while they were keen to stress there is no magic formula, they shared some advice and tips you can use now to manage setbacks, conflicting demands and the day-to-day stresses that come with the career we chose.
Personal wellbeing
Dan and Kirsty will look more closely at what resilience means during Thursday’s online masterclass.
But emerging stronger from the pressures and demands you face begins with considering your wellbeing.
“When people talk about resilience, they tend to think about it in the workplace,” Kirsty said.
“But if we don’t look after ourselves, we will not be able to cope with challenges in the workplace.
“So, resilience starts with thinking about how well you are looking after yourself.
“Are you acknowledging when you feel stressed? Are you getting enough downtime? Are you taking time away?
“If you are operating at capacity every day and you are burnt out from what you are doing, you will not be able to cope with change well. When you are resilient, you can adapt quickly in challenging circumstances.”
Dan believes it is also crucial to develop your self-awareness.
He said: “One of the key things about resilience is it starts with you, even though others may be pushing more work your way and asking more from you.
“It is about controlling yourself, understanding your trigger points and knowing how to deal with them, whether it is a case of going for a walk to clear your head, making a cup of tea, or venting to someone.
“You need to understand the coping mechanisms that work for you because what one person does will be different from what others do.”
Boundaries
And that leads us neatly on to understanding your work boundaries and limits.
Can you keep adding more work to your list? At what point does a busy to-do list become unmanageable?
Do you need help prioritising what to do next?
Kirsty believes increasing your self-awareness around questions like this is vital.
“If you know you don’t respond well when you are up against it and are being pulled in lots of different directions, you need to self-reflect and consider your boundaries,” she said.
“If someone knocks on your door and adds something else to your to-do list, what is your response?
“Is it ‘yes, add it to the list’, or is it that you need to understand how it sits with your other priorities?
“You might need to come back to them in 15 minutes, once you’ve had time to think about everything else you have going on.
“Maybe you need a bit more time so you can speak to your line manager and understand your priorities before getting back to them.
“Self-reflection and understanding what you need to respond in a way that is healthy for you and the situation is crucial.”
Understand the needs of others
Alongside that greater self-awareness, comms professionals also need to develop their understanding of what others need from them.
It can help you stay ahead of the pressures and demands that will come your way.
Dan: “You need to understand what others need from you, and then pre-empt that.
“The more you understand someone else, the more you know what is going to come up.
“You must be proactive.
“If you know someone always comes to you at 4pm every day, plan ahead. Don’t wait for 4pm to come around - pre-empt what will happen.”
The power of choice
In any situation, you have the choice of whether to react or respond.
When you react, you are typically driven by your emotions and instinct – and that does not often lead to the best outcome.
When you respond, it is more measured, considered and conscious.
“When something happens, you have choices in how you react and respond,” Dan said.
“It might be stressful. It might cause anxiety. But you have the choice of whether you are going to flap, panic and be defensive, or whether you will think about it logically.
“Can you do it on your own? If not, make the decision to get some support. Choose to know who is around you who can help in different situations.”
Kirsty added: “You need to recognise there is time between the input to your brain and the output to your mouth. And that can be as long as you like.
“There does not need to be an instant response. You can say, ‘I’ll come back to you in half an hour’.
“Give yourself time, and then choose how to respond in that time.
“We can’t choose what happens, but we can choose how we respond.”
Be open
Let’s think about where the stresses, challenges, and demands come from that comms people face.
Often, they originate from the top of an organisation.
A member of the senior leadership team may suddenly need your help with a presentation. Perhaps they have an idea for a new media campaign or initiative. Or they may urgently need some web or social media content.
Meanwhile, your line manager might have set you different priorities. And you may be juggling some press enquiries at the same time.
What strategies can you employ to manage these demands effectively?
Kirsty said: “If someone senior comes to you and says ‘I need this, and I need it to be done now’, there needs to be an understanding of what you will need to drop to make that happen.
“Make them aware.
“Ultimately, if someone senior asks you to prioritise your workload, that is not your decision. It is their decision.
“But you need to be transparent so they know what else is going on.
“It is not about pushing back necessarily. You’re saying, ‘if this is the priority, that’s fine, but this is going to get dropped or what I will have to put back until next week’.
“It goes back to your boundaries. You’re not willing to work 24/7, but neither should anyone ask you to do that.”
But you must consider the language you use when doing this.
Dan said: “You don’t want to come across as being defensive. People will not respond well.
“But if you say ‘I’m happy to take this on, but if I do that, the consequence will be… Can I delegate the task I’m currently working on to someone else?’ – the outcome is likely to be a lot better.”
This assumes that the person asking you to do the task is your line manager or someone more senior in the same team. If it is someone senior from outside of the comms team, a suitable response could be “Okay. This sounds great. I just need to have a chat to the team / my manager before I commit to the deadline. There could be some things that I need to drop. Can I just clarify exactly when you need this by and if there is any flex in that deadline?”
What about external pressures?
We mentioned press enquiries.
A journalist is not going to care what else you have going on. They’ve got their pressures and want a response to the story they are looking to run.
Deadlines are normally pretty tight. So, how can you manage that with your other tasks and not go into meltdown mode?
“For me, open internal conversations are crucial,” Kirsty said.
“If it is a story you need to respond to and you need to respond right now, what other work do you need to put off?
“Have an adult conversation with your team and colleagues about how you can manage it internally.
“And just because you are the one who has answered the call from the journalist or picked up the email, does that mean you are the right person to manage the response?
“Another comms colleague could be better suited or have fewer immediate deadlines.
“Just because they have come to your door does not automatically make it your responsibility.”
Do you want to learn more about comms team resilience?
This masterclass is exclusive to members of The Media Team Academy.
If you are already a member of The Media Team Academy, check your inbox for the invite to the session.
If you’re not yet a member, you can’t get access.
But we can sort that for you – drop us a line at hello@mediafirst.co.uk or give us a call on 0118 9180530 and ask to speak to someone about signing up to The Media Team Academy.
Our next cohort does not officially start until October. But if you sign-up now, we’ll give you early access to all the membership benefits. And the sooner you join, the more extra time you get for free.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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