Part Two
THE important role of Public Relations (PR) in the management of private, as well as public organizations, has long been established. Generating broad public awareness and strong support for what a company or the government is doing and trying to do can make the difference between failure and success.
As Rodrigo R. Duterte is sworn in as the country’s next president on June 30, we believe most Filipinos would like for him to succeed in making our country safer, more peaceful and more progressive, in order to ensure a bright future for all Filipinos.
Through this column, members of the Philippine Chapter of the International PR Association (Ipra) members are offering some PR advice to incoming President Duterte. PR veterans Max Edralin Jr. and Rene Nieva started the series on this subject last Monday.
This week it’s the turn of eminent communications professional and educator Bong Osorio to give his own unsolicited, but certainly expert, PR counsel to our country’s new leader.
Dear President-elect Duterte,
You were voted into office because of your authenticity, your high empathy quotient and, perhaps, your ability to check your own hubris. More than PR posturing or kowtowing to political correctness, your campaign covered the concepts of uprightness, boldness and quality integration with the electorate.
As you assume office as the 16th president of the Philippines, let me give this unsolicited advice:
Your authenticity rules; sustain it. The basic instinct in doing PR is twofold: To inform and to influence others to think positively about your administration and your persona. These days, words are cheap, but your administration must ensure to walk its talk—and this is authenticity at its best. Authenticity is sound advice. “If you make a promise, you must deliver,” is a mantra that your administration has to take to heart. Integrity is living the value that Filipinos expect over the long term.
Make your communication team use communication strategically to link up with your constituents with authenticity. It is a vital concern. Your government must be able to effectively connect with the general public or niche clusters. The interests and expectations of the various publics your administration needs to deal with are sometimes in conflict, requiring you to strike a balance between what to do first and how to connect your actions to them. More often than not, it is good to always have authenticity and honesty in tandem and to keep them intact when you walk your talk.
Empathy is a currency of success in any field. You have a high empathy quotient and it will surely help in bringing and sustaining trust and insights into your constituents’ emotions and reasons. You have the ability to identify and understand another’s situation, feelings and motives. You have the capacity to recognize the concerns other people have. You know how to put yourself in the shoes of the people you lead. You see things through their eyes. Keep them. Use them. You will make a huge difference.
Empathy rules in the world of governance, where people have turned more discerning and skeptical. It is acknowledging the fact that Filipinos are looking “not just to buy something, but to buy into something.” You have a distinct personality, and value is the hallmark of your persona. Many of us discovered something in you that mirror who we are, what we want to be and the type of leader we want to be with.
Constantly check hubris or the loss of contact with reality and an overestimation of your own capability and accomplishments. Take inspiration from “The Tortoise and the Hare,” Aesop’s fable that gave us the moral lesson that “at the end of all bouts of unchecked hubris lies failure.”
So when you are supervising yourself and managing the country, you need to get rid of all hubris that crops up every so often. As novelist Ralph Ellison said, “The antidote to hubris, to overweening pride, is irony, that capacity to discover and systematize ideas. Or, as Emerson insisted, the development of consciousness, consciousness, consciousness.”
Have a great six years leading this great country of great people.
Sincerely,
Bong R. Osorio
Communications Professional and Educator
PR Matters is a roundtable column by members of the local chapter of the UK based Ipra, the world’s premier organization for PR professionals around the world. Bong Osorio is the Communications Consultant and Spokesman of ABS-CBN Corp.
We are devoting a special column each month to answer our readers’ questions about public relations. Please send your questions or comments to askipraphil@gmail.com.