The complete PR practitioner

There is a saying that it is not the size of a tree, big or small, which makes it produce fruits but how that tree is looked after and nurtured. This is true of modern-day corporate world. Every organisation in today’s contemporary industry yearns to make an impact in whatever business it is involved in.

Many organisations have stood out not because of the nature of business, product or environment they operate in, but because of a serene and rapport co-existence with their business landscape.

For instance, the Zimbabwean economy is not operating at full throttle and yet we still have organisations that are prospering.

Similarly, the South African economy might be the pride of the whole of Southern Africa and yet liquidation is still catching up on some of their companies.

Therefore, the spine of an organisation rests on how its business is looked at and nurtured. And PR is usually the organisational brush that dusts, spruces and nurtures corporate image and reputation.

However, most organisations have looked down upon this practice, making it a “structure-completion” section.

Most organisations have put this practice under the bushel of unqualified personnel. Most corporates engage marketing, human resources or administrative personnel as PR managers.

Some companies use the PR section to accommodate demoted workers instead of creating career paths for the practice.

Some organisations disdain the practice to save resources. But this is all because corporates take on board people who are not competent to do PR, people who lack good qualities for PR and people who are not complete PR practitioners.

This information age calls for organisations to be proactive. This is the time for companies to turn back the years, start all over again and engage complete PR practitioners to be successful in their business operations.

But what kind of person is a complete PR practitioner? This person is a qualified PR practitioner trained in the professional attributes of PR.

A complete PR practitioner adheres to PR ethics, business ethics, environment rules and regulations, and cultural and societal respect.

Gone are the days of testing a marketing professional or human resources professional in the PR profession.

A quality PR practitioner revels in personal integrity. Personal integrity entails a respected, trustworthy, honest and principled figure.

Integrity is usually enriched by a positive attitude, rational character, being adept in judgment and logic, truthfulness and discretion, and objectivity.

Personal integrity is about a brand. The PR practitioner should be a brand in itself, well-cultured in grooming and deportment. When we talk of a brand, we are talking of uniqueness and trademark issues.

For instance, most media practitioners make it into the PR practice because they have created a niche for themselves in either broadcasting or print media where they are a brand that appears regularly on those platforms.

Most of them are in the public eye and they are followed by the same public hence they harness an active saleable brand.

A complete PR practitioner has got to own and be owned by society. Societal ownership is a crucial quality for any PR professional.

A good PR professional should adorn the cultural variety and background. If it entails being multi-lingual or cultural tolerance, then that is the hallmark of owning a society from an individual, group and corporate perspective.

Owning a society entails being friendly, charming, outgoing, self-confident, being emotionally stable and mature, and being able to co-exist in the turbulent societal waters. Making consultations, providing counselling and community involvement makes PR practitioners achieve community and societal ownership.

And it is this ownership which opens gates and avenues to corporate social responsibility and community development activities.

Most organisations today get acceptance in communities and societies because of such programmes.

An excellent PR practitioner has got to have ability. Ability comes in various forms but certainly goes beyond hard work and coercion.

The practitioner has got to have the ability to communicate in all forms in order to satisfy a cross section of the publics of the organisation.

It is important to have the ability to listen, understand, motivate people, organise people, analyse and synthesise issues affecting the organisation and its publics.

Ability cannot be accomplished if one does not have the ability to think creatively and imaginatively.

And for a PR practitioner, being creative is one powerful quality that transforms the corporate world.

One is reminded of how imaginative companies like Econet Wireless Zimbabwe have been in the threshold of the farming dispensation in Zimbabwe, thus honing communicative programmes for the new farmers like Eco-Farmer.

Professional responsibility entails that a good PR practitioner should be professional. Being professional is adhering to PR and organisational ethics, respecting the cloak ethos, listening and attending to corporate problems and hence honing solutions thereafter.

Working with all people within the professional circumference, pleasant or unpleasant, is one critical quality of a PR professional.

A professional PR practitioner has got to have responsibility, flexibility, intellectual and knowledge curiosity, professional intuition and above all be fully equipped with PR training to ensure there is corporate satisfaction for organisations in society.

It is high time organisations engage complete PR practitioners to ensure they are successful.

Complete PR practitioners have special qualities that make organisations tick and develop for the benefit of the community, society, country and the world, at large.

The engagement of complete PR practitioners by organisations, big or small, will ensure proper nurturing of co-existence between the corporate world and its myriad of publics and stakeholders for long- lasting corporate fruits.