Abstract
Every public relations practitioner, at some point in their career, has had to justify their ‘excellent interpersonal skills’ either through the process of applying for a new position, pitching for a new client or in the workplace. On the surface, this concept seems to be fairly self-explanatory. After all, aren’t all PR practitioners inherently excellent communicators? The phrase ‘I am a people person’ seems to slip easily off the tongues of many new practitioners with high hopes of making it big in the fast-paced, competitive world of PR. However, once reality kicks in, living up to these lofty, often self-imposed expectations can prove to be difficult, if not impossible. So how do seasoned practitioners develop these so-called soft skills that are considered ‘essential’ criteria for almost all employers?
Keywords: ESI, mentoring, PR practice
Addressing this question is crucial in an industry where these skills are mandatory for success, especially in an increasingly globalised communication environment. The concept of emotional social intelligence or ESI, in particular the model posited by Bar-On (1997; 2006), may provide a useful framework to identify those particular skills that are required for ‘effective communication’ as well as point to those traits that make one individual more likely to be an effective communicator than another. This framework could then be applied to tertiary courses and industry professional development programmes thus paying more than just lip-service to these crucial professional skills and in this context, the process of peer mentoring provides a useful framework for operationalising ESI.
ESI, as described by Bar-On (2006) is a cross-section of interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills and facilitators that determine how effectively we understand and express ourselves, understand others and relate with them, and cope with daily demands, and consists of several factors:
(a) The ability to recognize, understand and express emotions and feelings. (b) The ability to understand how others feel and relate with them.
(c) The ability to manage and control emotions.
(d) The ability to manage change, adapt and solve problems of a personal and interpersonal nature. (e) The ability to generate positive affect and be self-motivated.
Although professionals are expected to be able to identify and understand their performance in relation to the first three, the last two factors closely align to those traits that employers find so attractive in communications practitioners including the ability to work autonomously but also as a team player; the ability to be adaptable and changeable at the same time as being reliable and dependable; the ability to lead and be led simultaneously; and most importantly the ability to effect positive change, with little negative disruption. These implicit skills take time to develop over the course of a career but inevitably the practitioner may require mentoring at some point in order to understand what role they may play in the context of career development and progression.
The public relations industry in Australia, and internationally, represented by organisations, consultancies, sole traders, industry peak bodies and tertiary institutions, has embraced peer mentoring as a method for developing emerging as well as experienced practitioners, who may be working as freelancers and women in particular (Gaggioli, 2011). This tested channel of professional development can prove successful if the programme identifies the main areas for development, outside of hard technical skill building such as writing
and public speaking, and provides a methodology for the mentor. However, without a robust framework for identifying what skills the mentee already has and what are those that need to be addressed, over and above what they can identify themselves, the relationship can only go so far.
Mentoring, according to Zachary (2005, p.3) is “a reciprocal and collaborative learning relationship between two (or more) individuals who share mutual responsibility and accountability for helping a mentee work towards achievement of clear and mutually defined career goals” and thus is a good method for developing a talent pool within an organisation and more ambitiously, a whole industry. Although mentoring programmes are already common practice for peak bodies, such as the Public Relations Institute of Australia, the efficacy of such programmes relies heavily on the ability of the individual mentor to ‘impart their wisdom’ through perceived well developed interpersonal communication skills including ESI. Mentors are required to decide for themselves what they think their charge needs to do to ‘improve and develop’ and in this, the success of the relationship can often be hampered due to personal rather than professional perceptions of the purpose of mentoring and the meaning of ESI.
On the other hand, for some people, this form of mentoring may be more than adequate, such as those in their mid to late careers where the value in the relationship lies in the perceived access to the mentor’s network of colleagues, clients and other contacts. However, for early (including students) to mid career practitioners, mentoring is a way to improve their skills and self reflect through third party feedback and counselling from an ‘older and wiser’ industry peer. Being able to look into a career crystal ball, in the guise of an experienced practitioner, is an exciting proposition and the challenge is to ensure that the mentee’s idealistic expectations can be tamed though a formal, standardised process that meets the needs of both parties. In this I contend that mentoring to develop ESI, as a means of nurturing career-oriented personal maturity, can only really be done through a supported structure, based on a tested model for identifying ESI traits before developing personalised programmes. This should start in tertiary education and continue through to ongoing industry- sponsored professional development thus encouraging both educators and practitioners to develop upcoming talent together rather than separately, as is the case today.
This contention arose from research undertaken in 2011 when the Public Relations programme at Murdoch University was recruited to take part in an Australian Learning and Teaching Council funded project entitled ‘Internationalisation of the Curriculum in Action’ led by Associate Professor Betty Leaske (University of South Australia). The research aimed to investigate the curricular implications of transnational public relations education through research into perceptions of employers of public relations graduates in two cities, Singapore and Perth, towards intercultural competence (Fitch and Desai, 2011). Several themes, related to the professional and personal traits of graduate public relations practitioners, arose from the analysis including but not limited to personal attributes, knowledge and skills related to specific cultures, and professional knowledge and industry practices.
Several respondents reported the concept of ESI as an important element of these themes, underpinning overall communication success. However, it was not described as an interpersonal skill, rather an implicit trait expected of a practitioner in the field. This was not surprising and as educators, we know from experience that most students who are attracted to the ‘bright’ lights of the professional communications industries have innate personal qualities that lend themselves to high emotional intelligence, if nurtured and developed throughout university, particularly from their first year of study and that high ESI, represented by traits such as creativity, curiosity, adaptability and empathy (Bar-On, 1997) is essential for the success of the student and early career practitioner in all communication interactions, regardless of the setting.
What is unclear is how to create sustainable and effective opportunities for continuous learning to aid practitioners to self reflect on their personal qualities and develop them for the benefit of their ongoing careers and for early career practitioners, helping them to get their proverbial ‘foot in the door’. The question is ‘What are the specific inherent ESI traits that typify high performing communications professionals and how do we identify and scaffold them into structured mentoring programmes?’ Research and evaluation of current methodologies and experiences in the Australian PR industry, in comparison to those of other disciplines such as marketing and management, could be useful in developing a robust model.
Drawing on the results from the aforementioned project, this presentation will analyse and discuss the relevance of ESI as a useful concept for understanding and nurturing skills such as creativity, curiosity, adaptability and empathy in student and emerging practitioner groups. The concept of peer mentoring will be analysed to help explain how ESI might be researched further to develop a better understanding of the roles that interpersonal skills play in individual communication success in the context of public relations practice in Australia.
References
Bar-On, R. (2006) The Bar-On Model of Emotional-Social Intelligence (ESI). Psicothema, 18 (supl.), 13-25. Fitch, K. and Desai, R. (2011) International public relations education: Singapore and Perth employer
perspectives of intercultural competency of public relations graduates. Unpublished report.
Fitch K. and Desai, R. (2012) Developing global practitioners: Addressing industry expectations of intercultural competence in public relations graduates in Singapore and Perth. Journal of International Communication [Special issue: Cities, Creativity, Connectivity], 18 (1), 63-78.
Gaggioli, S. (2011) Mentoring Experiences Among Female Public Relations Entrepreneurs: A Qualitative Investigation. Thesis. University of Florida.