Archive for: Blog Posts

‘I wanted to fly a flag for communicators and recognise the amazing work they and we do each week, each month, and each year’ – Darren Caveney shares the catalyst for launching comms2point0 (highly recommended in the PR and Comms category at this year’s Online Influence Awards) over nine years ago and his big plans for celebrating and supporting the PR and comms industry in 2021.

How does it feel to be highly commended in your category at the Online Influence Awards this year?
comms2point0 has been my baby and passion for more than nine years now. But I felt like the recognition was more for the 500+ comms pros who have written posts and case studies and shared insights in that time, and everyone else who has supported the comms2point0 community and its events and initiatives. It really is the best community.

What started your passion for your subject?
Well the real start point was joining the PR degree course at Leeds Business School back in 1993 with the great Anne Gregory.

Back in 2011, I felt there was a gap for where comms and PR professionals could share lessons, experiences and work examples, especially across the public sector, and as a way to support one another. We’re often all doing very similar work, and I felt there was an opportunity for us to be smarter, so I created a free online resource for the community to make use of, be a part of and add to.

I also wanted to just generally fly a flag for communicators and recognise the amazing work they and we do each week, each month, and each year.

How has the pandemic impacted your work?
First off, I’m lucky that neither me, my loved ones or friends have been impacted health-wise by COVID-19. And if 2020 has taught us anything it’s to be grateful for what we do have.

My consultancy – Creative Communicators Ltd – had a full five to six months of work, training and events lined up when Lockdown 1 hit in March. Watching much of it get cancelled in a matter of days was a really weird experience. And I won’t lie, I had been so busy for the previous five years that initially the rest was quite nice. But after two weeks of sitting drinking coffee I grew bored and fortunately the work began to return, albeit a little different to what had gone before. Now it was about very tailored consultancy and training requests to support very specific needs of organisations. For example, helping lockdown councils reframe their communications strategies so that it recognised the demands and impacts of COVID-19 and gave them at least a chance of protecting their mental health and wellbeing in what, was becoming clear, was a long-term crisis.

Much of my work previously has been face-to-face training, consultancy and events so of course it’s bound to be reduced by COVID. But I’ve been busy and felt like I have really been able to support teams and individuals during a really difficult year for them.

What do you love most about being a blogger/influencer?
Well, I’ve never thought of myself as an influencer – my kids would mock me mercilessly if I ever claimed to be. But I think the comms2point0 website has had influence within the public sector communications community over time. The stats, growth, reach and traffic back this up. But also, the work requests which come in to me.

The site has over 1.5k blog posts on it now and it’s an absolute treasure trove of comms and PR learning. And other free resources – such as my essential comms planning guide, which has had over 5k downloads – make it a good place for comms pros to look to support their own work and development.

What I love most are the very personal posts that shine a light on important topics such as mental health, bullying and equality in our profession. I’ve lost count of the number of people who have contacted me to thank me for hosting these posts and for the positive impact they’ve had on them in realising that they are not alone in sometimes struggling with these issues.

How do you like to work with brands and PRs?
I have a trusted set of brands and companies I have worked with on projects such as The UnAwards over a number of years. I think of them more as partnerships and collaborations and we can learn so much from good industry suppliers, and the skills, knowledge and resources they bring to the table.

After 25-years in the industry I’m very clear on the values and ethos which are important to me – this includes always trying to do the right thing for the right reason, rather than trying to just make a quick buck.

I’m open to new collaborations if the products and services are of genuine value to the comms community. And I love a new project and initiative – I love to create new things which can support the industry and the people in it so if you think we have some aligned ambitions and values, then shout me.

What plans do you have for 2021?
Big ones. I’m incredibly excited about my plans for the 7th annual UnAwards to take place in the summer of 2021. And that is a chance for new partners to come on board. Following that will be the winner’s masterclass too, where attendees can, for free, hear from the winners, their lessons and their insights.

I’m rolling out a new series of training workshops for 2021 – everything from supercharged social media and strategy surgeries, through to podcast training and how to engage with Generations Z and Alpha with a couple of leading fellow consultants.

I look forward to helping deliver the brilliant Comms Unplugged event which will take place in Dorset in September. It’s another thing I’m really proud of and has aimed to push mental health and wellbeing much higher up the agenda and equip us all with the skills and knowledge and deal with the growing problem in an effective way. It’s more of an experience than an event and we think it’s pretty unique in our industry. Come along, I promise you’ll love it.

I’ll continue to mentor a number of comms pros, which is something I’ve done for a decade now and really enjoy.

I set up a consultants group during Lockdown 1 as a place for small business owners in the industry to have a place to check-in with like-minded people. We have a lunchtime coffee chat via Zoom each Monday and it’s become a special group and we’ll look to develop that in 2021, and even get to that much anticipated face-to-face meet-up.

And of course I’ll continue to deliver strategic comms consultancy for organisations across the UK.

Which other influencers/podcasters do you follow/enjoy?
All of the people who write guest blog posts for comms2point0. That’s a weekly treat to see those come in.

My friend Sally Northeast produces the lovely CU on the Air podcast, and pal Adrian Stirrup the fun Talking Comms Pod, which I help with.

I really like the weekly email from The Joy of Work author, Bruce Daisley (who, incidentally, is our keynote speaker for next year’s Comms Unplugged), and the research he shares around the changing dynamics of the workplace especially as we battle through COVID-19.

Which other media do you always make time for?
There are so many. For my factual news fix and update I tune in to the brilliant James O’Brien show on LBC whenever I’m free. It’s stripped of opinion and uses those old-fashioned skills of research and evidence, and boy do we need more of that. I love Marina Hyde in The Guardian for her humorous take on the week’s big events. In a similar vein, I love the work of Birmingham artist Cold War Steve.

I’m a proper film and TV nerd so there are too many to name here. But rest assured I have worked my way through Netflix and Amazon Prime’s finest during 2020.

I have really missed the cinema in 2020 and can’t wait to remedy that next year.

For the first time in its history, the PRCA has released details of its ethnicity and gender pay gaps.

Based on a survey completed by its UK-based and full-time employees, the data reveals that half (50%) of PRCA employees are from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds, the median ethnicity pay gap is £8,000, and that ethnically diverse employees are more likely to be working in lower paying roles.

For gender composition, the PRCA found that its workforce largely reflects the PR and communications industry at large, with 67% of employees identifying as female and 33% as male. The PRCA’s median gender pay gap is £11,000 (26%), which is 5% higher than the industry average of 21%, according to the PR Census.

Of the results, PRCA director general Francis Ingham said: ‘This is an important exercise and something we wholeheartedly encourage our members to do. From 2021 onwards, we will include data on our ethnicity and gender pay gaps within our annual report so that we can effectively track and measure our progress on these important issues.’

This data from the PRCA follows the publication of its Race and Ethnicity Equity Board (REEB) guide ‘Closing the ethnicity pay gap in the PR and comms industry’ in November.

Full results from the pay gap data can be found here on the PRCA website.

Read more on the aims of the PRCA Race and Ethnicity Equity Board in our interview with its chair Barbara Phillips.

‘I remember proudly calling myself a comms chameleon and telling people how I can adapt my personality to make others feel comfortable. When I think about it now, I feel sad that I felt like I couldn’t bring my whole self to work,’ says CommsRebel’s Advita Patel who, with Inner Strength Communication Inc’s Priya Bates, created A Leader Like Me to support and mentor other womxn working their way up in the PR and comms industry.

While long-overdue work on improving representation within the public relations and communications sector has been a major focus of 2020, data on diversity shows there is much to be done to welcome and uplift womxn from a variety of backgrounds into the profession. Being able to find professionals who look like you is a good start, believes Advita, who shares why initiatives like A Leader Like Me are so vital.

How did you and Priya Bates originally connect?

I found Priya on LinkedIn after I read a blog she wrote for IABC and I connected with her. I was thrilled that there was a woman, who worked in the same industry as me and looked like me as sadly it’s still a bit rare to see a South Asian woman working within Internal Communications.

What sparked the idea for A Leader Like Me?
It was after I had a conversation with Priya. I asked her to be my mentor after I launched my own communications consultancy CommsRebel in January 2020. In our first conversation, Priya asked me to talk through my career journey and why I wanted to work for myself. It was during this conversation that we both connected over our shared experience.

I spoke about the years I refused to acknowledge that I was different from the majority of people that I worked with. How I genuinely thought that if I refuse to engage in the fact that I was an Asian woman then no one else will notice. I remember proudly calling myself a comms chameleon and telling people how I can adapt my personality to make others feel comfortable. When I think about it now I feel sad that I felt like I couldn’t bring my whole self to work and that I had to hide parts of my identity – mainly due to fear of being treated differently.

Priya recognised some of this in her experience and we realised that if we had someone who looked like us in a leadership role, around the board table, speaking at industry events, etc. then maybe we wouldn’t have felt the need to adapt our personalities and shrink ourselves to makes others comfortable. It was at this point A Leader Like Me was created.

What are the main aims of the community?
Being a minority in a majority workplace can be very lonely. You often don’t want to overstep your mark as you’ll fear that you’re ‘rocking the boat’ and or you’ll convince yourself that ‘you’re lucky’ to have the role that you do, so you stay quiet. You’re being told that you have to work harder to achieve more and prove your worth. You struggle to get the opportunities, and when you do achieve success, you may face resentment from others because they think it was a tick-box exercise, so you work even harder to prove them wrong. It’s a vicious cycle.

Our A Leader Like Community helps to create empowerment, build confidence and give hope. The community encourages our members to step up, step out and find their voice. We want them to believe in their self-worth, recognise their achievement and understand that they are capable of whatever they want to achieve.

Priya and I thought carefully of the modules we wanted to create and the value they will bring to our members. We wanted to give them the tools and techniques to hold courageous conversations, to understand their values and purpose. To get them to think deeper about their leadership skills and how they can negotiate more effectively in the future; the type of skills that are often overlooked in traditional leadership programmes.

Can you tell us about Flight and Nest?
Flight is a 12-week skills and strategy programme, where we meet every week for 45 minutes to discuss core topics. We’ve splits the modules under four key themes which align with the programme values: Build a nest, Nurture growth, Spread your wings and Take flight. We cover topics such as imposter syndrome, personal brand, leadership, productivity, negotiation skills, values, purpose, finance, etc.

The Nest is our community and collaboration space for members. We wanted to create a safe space where people could gather and learn monthly from inspiring experts and from one another. In The Nest, we see many of our Flight programme members continue to network and learn along with new members who may not necessarily need the intense 12-week programme yet still wanted to benefit from the community of like-minded womxn. In order for the womxn on the programme to get to build trust and connect with each other, we only open the doors to The Nest four times a year. This may change in the future but it’s working well so far.

How has the pandemic impacted the work of A Leader Like Me this year?
To be honest, we don’t know. Even though Priya and I started work on A Leader Like Me in January 2020, we actually launched right in the middle of the pandemic so this is the only world we know at the moment. We do think that the pandemic and everything that happened with Black Lives Matters has changed the way people look at inclusion, diversity and equity, which has probably created a greater need in the work that we are doing.

What projects do you have planned for 2021?
We’ve got some big plans for 2021. At the moment the programme is only available to womxn of colour but we are hoping to expand this to other underrepresented groups for 2021. We have our global Diversity in Action conference on 23 March, which is an opportunity for people to learn more about how they can be more inclusive in their workplace. We’re also going to launch our corporate bespoke 12-week programme to help support organizations who are struggling to move things forward in the IDE space.

How did you and Priya get started in PR and comms?

I completed a degree in IT and specialised in web development (I had big ambitions to be the female version of Bill Gates!) but when I graduated the dot.com crash happened and no one was hiring. And if they were, they were not hiring a northern-based Asian woman. After a particularly horrendous experience in my first job, I started to work for a university in an admin role. There, the marketing manager took me under her wing and convinced me to change my Masters in HR to Strategic Marketing. While completing my Masters part-time, I started to apply for marketing jobs and I was offered an opportunity as a marketing officer for a mentoring scheme for the NHS. It turned out that job was more internal communications than marketing and the rest, as they say, is history.

Priya had a science degree and followed it with a PR Certificate programme at a local college. The first 12 years of her career were in the high-tech industry working in telecoms, distribution and high-tech during the tech boom and bust. It started a career of working with organisations going through transformational change. She eventually led Internal Communication for Canada’s largest public sector employer, Loblaw Companies Limited, before launching her agency, Inner Strength Communication Inc.

How important are mentorship programmes for helping people in their careers?
It’s critical. If I didn’t have mentors or coaches throughout my career, I’m not sure what I would have ended up doing. The idea behind A Leader Like Me is to have a safe space where you can learn from others as well as have time to think about your progression, and what areas you need to develop further. Having someone who is unbiased and has your best interests at heart is important so you can truly explore what you need to succeed.

Did you have mentors/people you looked up to?
Oh, for sure – without these mentors I’d never would have found my voice or confidence to do what I do today. Like I said, it can be lonely being the only woman in a room, then add on the fact you might be South Asian, Asian, Black or an Indigenous woman.

You start questioning your qualifications, your ability and whether you’re worthy of being there. You’re sometimes disregarded or ignored so you have to push yourself to be heard. These mentors gave me the ability to keep pushing and to not let anyone tell me I wasn’t good enough to be there.

I fought hard (and still do) to have my voice heard. It’s exhausting and sometimes you just want to stick to your lane and not raise your head above the parapet. But my mentors never allowed me to do that, they never allowed me to feel inadequate or unworthy – and for that I’ll always be thankful.

Increased diversity in the PR and comms industry is long overdue – have you noticed greater accountability/change during your time in the industry?
To be totally honest, not really. There’s no doubt there are pockets of great work taking place but we still have a way to go before we see a greater change across the industry. People say they want to see change and are keen to learn more, but we need more people to take accountability.

We don’t need another statistical report to tell us what’s wrong – we need tangible actions that will start to make a difference. This slow-paced change is one of the reasons Priya and I decided to host our Diversity in PR conference back in October and why we’re going to host a Diversity in Action conference in March 2021. We want folks to hear first-hand from people who have experienced discrimination of some sort, whether that’s due to race, sexuality, gender, age, ability, etc. When people hear these stories, it seems to resonate more as they can hear exactly the impact some situations have had on individuals. When more stories are shared, it will drive some more change to take place – I hope, anyway.

Registration for cohort two, which starts in January, is now open and more information can be found at www.aleaderlikeme.com. 

The fifth #FuturePRoof book launches today, Friday 27 November, and takes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on NHS communications as its focus.

Documenting the extreme challenges facing NHS comms professionals this year as a result of the coronavirus are 16 essays telling the story of digital transformations and internal communications. Contributors to #FuturePRoof Five: The impact of COVID-19 on NHS comms include Chris Hopson, John Underwood, Bill Nichols, Adam Brimelow, Daniel Reynolds, Victoria Macdonald, Cassie Zachariou, Amanda Nash, Caroline Latta, Claire Riley, Kirk Millis-Ward, Liz Davies, Mark Flannagan, Paul Dunn, Sarah Rose, Michael Carden, Ross Wigham, Lisa Ward, Adam Shepphard and Ranjeet Kaile.

‘Every NHS communicator working alongside frontline staff, engaging with patients, liasing with the media and working with the Government is a hero,’ said #FuturePRoof founder and editor Sarah Waddington of the latest book’s featured sector.

‘I’m massively grateful to all the amazing contributors in this book who somehow, in the midst of a global pandemic, found the time to write and capture an important stage in the history and evolution of the NHS.’

CIPR President-Elect Mandy Pearce believes the book is a tribute to the important work that has happened this year: ‘The collection of essays from some of the top NHS communicators shows just how well our profession has risen to the challenge of COVID-19. It provides lessons with high applicability for the rest of the public sector and the industry as a whole.’

A chapter of #FuturePRoof Five: The impact of COVID-19 on NHS comms will be shared each day on the FuturePRoof blog and shared on Twitter @weareproofed. The book can also be purchased via Blurb and on Kindle.

As part of Sarah Waddington’s mission to improve social mobility in PR by making best practice more accessible, all design, production and marketing costs for #FuturePRoof are paid by Astute.Work.