Jan 10, 2010 76 degrees beautifull

I jokingly told my manager I was going to quit today and go sailing instead.  She smiled and said she'd join me.  It put me at ease about some of the crap that's going on at work right now, just a small sense of humility, empathy, and an understanding of where someone is coming from.  Putting people at ease is the greatest gift I believe anyone in public relations can have.  Being able to look them in the eye, upset, angry, grieving, or whatever emotion is taking hold of them.  Ensuring them their feelings are valid and trying to see where they are coming from regardless of how you feel personally about their views is the key. 

 

I just got in from doing something just like that.  The family was upset with me, I made a mistake, they are mad, no getting around it.  I could make excuses or tell them it's no big deal but that won't do.  Simply coming to them admitting the wrong and validating their frustration always seems to lower the tension of the situation, I don't know how I picked this up because in all other situations I tend to infuriate people but here I got it right.