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Ken Jacobs

PRStudChat Sponsored by Spin Sucks

#PRStudChat Gathers on June 13th to Learn Leadership Skills

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It’s never too early to learn about and start to hone leadership skills. That’s because leadership isn’t about having the big title, office, and salary, but about the ability to influence others to achieve organizational goals. That means leading oneself, “leading up” to your boss and leading one’s peers.

Join the #PRStudChat Twitter discussion on Thursday, June 13th at 12:00 p.m. ET to take a deep dive into the differences between managing and leading. Our special guest and co-host, Ken Jacobs (@KensViews), ACC, CPC, who is the CEO of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching, will lead the discussion on how to make the jump from student to practitioner and from manager to leader. Our community will also learn the importance of observing the leaders in an organization (regardless of their titles). 

Some of the topics/questions Ken and the #PRStudChat community will answer include:

1. What’s your definition of leadership? 
2. What’s the difference between management and leadership?
3. What’s the best way to lead up to my boss? 
4. Why do some managers get promoted to positions of leadership before they’re ready? 
5. Does one not get to lead until one has a senior title? 
6. How early can I start to hone my leadership skills? 
7. What are some important first steps I can take to hone those skills?
8. Who are some people you’ve seen in your career who were leaders early on in theirs? 
9. How can leaders communicate more effectively through social media?
10. What do you know about leadership now that you wish you had known early in your career?  

Get ready for a fast-paced #PRStudChat discussion on Thursday, June 13th with actionable tips and advice for successful PR leadership and career growth. #PRStudChat

As always, you can tweet in advance to @PRStudChat, @SpinSucks, @LKPetrolino, @ValerieSimon, or @DBreakenridge with any questions you would like answered.

Ken Jacobs, ACC, CPC, CEO of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching

About Ken Jacobs

Ken Jacobs, ACC, CPC, an experienced consultant, and certified coach, is the principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching. For 10 years, his firm has helped agencies grow and manage a business, improve client service and relationships, and enhance staff performance. It does so via consulting and training. In addition, through his executive coaching, he has helped leaders from C-suite executives to managers, achieve and surpass their goals. Jacobs holds Associate Certified Coach (ACC) credentials from the International Coach Federation (ICF) and is accredited as a Certified Professional Coach (CPC), Energy Leadership Index (ELI) Master Practitioner and a COR.E Leadership Dynamics Specialist (CLDS) by the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC).

About #PRStudChat

It began with a simple question asked by Angela Hernandez, then President of PRSSA at Central Michigan University (CMU). “Is PR Right for me?” A follow-up blog post by Communication Strategist Deirdre Breakenridge inspired a series of direct messages on Twitter between Breakenridge and fellow PR industry pro, Valerie Simon. This was an important question and one that should be explored beyond one student or one blog post. Why not build a community to help students across the country, and even the globe, learn from the experience and perspective of industry professionals … A community where everyone can learn and grow together.

About Spin Sucks

Spin Sucks was started in September 2006 by Gini Dietrich, the founder and CEO of Arment Dietrich, an integrated marketing communications firm. Its mission? To change the perception or PR. What started as a simple blog, soon became a movement. Spin Sucks is the number one PR blog in the world, the go-to resource for PR professionals to learn new strategies and tactics, to share and receive expert advice. It’s also the place where people have fun discussions, brainstorm, ask for help, and make new friends.

Lead by Example

Are You Being A Leadership Role Model?

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A Guest Post By Ken Jacobs, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP is the principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching

Yes You CanI’ve often said that leadership involves two choices: Your choice to be a leader, not a practitioner, not a manager, and not just a senior vice president, but to build trust with, motivate, and inspire one’s followers. And your followers’ choice to follow you…or not. Even if your name is on their paycheck, they still have a choice. They may do their jobs and check off the boxes on their to-do lists, but they might not truly follow you unless they choose to do so.

I believe this to be true, whether you lead an enormous unit, a boutique agency, or a two-person department. And it’s also true no matter whom you’re “leading”: your followers, your peers, your boss, and yes, yourself.

One of the best ways to assure that you’re being the most effective leader possible is to think of yourself as a role model in all your interactions.

Answering the following eight questions will help you to become a leadership role model:

  1. Am I self-aware? Awareness is the first step in becoming more effective leader, and certainly one of the most important ones in enhancing one’s leadership skills. You can grow your awareness of how your team perceives you as a leader via 360 feedback reports, and self-awareness of who you are as a person and a leader via a number of sources, such as the Energy Leadership Index from the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC, where I underwent coaching training and earned and three of my certifications), EQ, the book Emotional Intelligence V2, and the MBTI.
  2. Am I choosing perceptions that work? The perceptions of people and situations that best serve me, them, and the organization, and the outcomes for all. Our perceptions are our realities, and we do get to choose the perception we want. Try it!
  3. Am I tapping into the power of questions? As leaders, we’re often tempted to provide all the answers. But that’s not true leadership, because it doesn’t encourage our follower to be engaged, or to take ownership. That’s because our answers light up a small part of the other person’s brain. But questions light up additional parts of their brain that encourage emotional engagement. More than that, our providing the question, rather than the answer, signals to the follower “I believe you can figure this out.” And nearly all the time, they can!
  4. Am I giving others a heaping plate of confidence? This is related to the point above. When we, as leaders provide the answers, we are being teachers, but we’re not fulfilling our true responsibility to mentor and coach our people to figure things out for themselves, and thereby, ultimately achieve their own success. And our followers don’t always come up with their own solutions because 1) We’re always supplying them; 2) They don’t believe they can come up with them; or most likely 3) A little of both. When we tell our people to come into our offices with solutions, not problems, and when we let them know, via our words, tone, and energy, that we believe they have the ability to do so, we’re giving them a tremendous gift.
  5. Am I displaying courage? Courage is one of the most magnetic of leadership attributes. Why? Because, our followers’ antennae are tuned to high alert for fear, but they yearn for our bravery. Just look at how the American patriots followed Washington, the British people followed Churchill during World War II,  and the Indian people followed Gandhi during frightening, turbulent times.
  6. Am I consistent? Followers would much rather follow a leader who is consistently good, than one who is great three days a week, awful one day week, and the other day of the week they don’t know what they’re going to get from their leader. So whatever leadership style you employ, do so consistency. Your followers will respond with loyalty.
  7. Am I investing in my own leadership development? Leadership is a never-ending journey. The best leaders with the most loyal followers have learned that effective leadership is about being a lifelong leadership student. The good news is that there are so many leadership experts out there whom we can follow, so many great leadership books, so many leadership blogs we can follow so many leadership webinars and classes we can take to make sure we’re bringing out best as leaders!
  8. Am I truly a servant leader? There are many different leadership styles, but in my opinion, the most effective one is that of servant leader, because that’s what’s most effective for their followers. The servant leader first sees their organization or department as a pyramid, with them at the top illustrating their role and the buck-stops-here responsibility. Then they flip that pyramid upside down, seeing that they are truly on the bottom, supporting everyone else in their organization to their greatest success. It’s only when leaders acknowledge that their greatest responsibility it to help their followers succeed, that they’re on the road to truly effective leadership, and ultimate organizational success.

So, are you being a leadership role model? If you answered yes to all or nearly all the questions above, you probably are.

If not, you may want to do some work around your leadership. Please feel free to reach out to me for a complimentary session to explore your leadership opportunities, how coaching works, and if partnering as client and coach might make sense for us. What do you have to lose?

Ken Jacobs, ACC, CPC, ELI-MP is the principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching, which helps leaders, executives and managers in the communications space achieve and surpass their organizational, career, and personal goals, by becoming more inspired and inspiring leaders. You can reach find him on LinkedIn, Twitter, and at ken@jacobscomm.com

 

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Seven Steps to Walk Through Your Fear

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A guest post by Ken Jacobs, Principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching.

It may surprise you how much fear there is among the ranks of PR managers and leaders. As an executive coach to these executives, trust me on this. “I could never ask that of a client,” “I could never tell that to that team member,” “I could never discuss that with my boss” are phrases I hear frequently.

And these are people with enormous responsibilities, who manage budgets in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and who supervise many executives.

What a shame.

When we live with guilt, we’re living in the past. When we worry or fear, we’re often living in the future. Wouldn’t it be great to live in the present? To have the self-confidence that allows us to see countless choices, and which encourages our teams, peers, and even our bosses to follow us?

Well you can. Here are some steps to combat fear when it rears its ugly head. I call the first three the AAA: Awareness, Acknowledgement, and Action.

  1. Be Aware Of The Manifestations Of Your Fear. The first step of managing any issue that prevents you from achieving your goals is to be aware that this is occurring. So turn your fear radar on high. Specifically, be aware of the physical manifestations that result when you go into your fear zone. Is it a sensation in the hairs on your neck? A tightening in the chest or throat? A feeling of lack of choice or inaction? As you pay attention, you’ll become more aware, and that’s a critical and highly valuable first step.
  2. Acknowledge Your Fear. Know that while these feelings are very real, they don’t have to be your reality. Your perceptions create your reality. Think, or even say out loud “OK, I recognize this. It’s happened before. Does this perception benefit me? What else might be going on here? What are other ways to perceive what’s going on? What’s the perception that serves me?” Now you can segue into Step 3.
  3. Take Action. Ask yourself “Will this fear get me the outcome I want? Will following it make me feel fulfilled or happy? (The answer is always a resounding “No!”) Now what do I want to do about it? The operative words here are “I” and “do.” That’s because when we’re ready to step out of our fear, we need to 1) Take responsibility; and 2) Take action! You then have two additional choices: 1) What’s the biggest, hairiest-scariest step I can take to get what I want? Or 2) What’s the baby step I feel comfortable taking here? Neither answer is wrong, because either way, you’re taking action!
  4. Recognize What and Who Make You Feel Fearful. There’s often a pattern to our fears. Certain situations and people bring up thoughts and feelings of fear. Exploring these will help you recognize these patterns, help you get to the root cause of these fears. These steps will assist you to combat the fear, and respond in new and more beneficial ways to respond to it.
  5. Know That Fear Will Never Get You What You Want-Ever! Fear is an awful strategy for both business and life. It won’t make you happier. It won’t help you build mutually beneficial client relationships. It won’t help you attract and win new business. It won’t foster team loyalty: Quite the opposite, because your team, your peers, your boss, are attracted to courage. Being brave makes you a more magnetic and effective leader.
  6. You Can Only Attract What You Want, Not What You Don’t. We manifest what we think. You can attract what you want. However, (and please excuse the double negatives here), you can’t not attract what you don’t want. So while the statement “I’m no longer going to be a prisoner of fear” may be a good first step, you’re still thinking about and articulating the word “fear.” That’s giving it too much mental bandwidth and power. You’ll truly get what you want, and faster, when you say and phrases like “I’m ready to be brave!” or “I am a courageous leader” and embrace their power. Do you see the difference?
  7. Have The Courage To Get Help To Combat Your Fear. The person you bring to the office each day is a reflection of your previous experiences, perceptions and learning. It’s affected by your prior careers, education, and life, going back through college, high school and our earliest family experiences. As you can imagine, this is all very powerful.

When we try to make change, like becoming a brave leader, we often get what we want, and faster, when we seek out help. So be courageous and contact a therapist, mentor, or certified coach to learn how to walk through your fear.  I’m happy to offer anyone a free one-hour session to determine if executive coaching can help you achieve your goals, and if we’d be a good fit.

Ken JacobsKen Jacobs is the principal of Jacobs Consulting & Executive Coaching, which empowers PR and communications leaders to achieve breakthrough results via executive coaching, and helps communications organizations achieve their goals via consulting and training. You can find him at www.jacobscomm.com  ken@jacobscomm.com @KensViews, or on LinkedIn.

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Six Ways To Tell If Coaching Might Be Right For You

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A Guest Post By Ken Jacobs, Jacobs Executive Coaching and Jacobs Communications Consulting

In my decade as a coach to public relations-communications professionals, both agency and corporate, I’ve come across many who ask me how to know if executive coaching is right for them.

I find it helpful to share with them the kinds of issues I’ve helped empower PR executives to help achieve their desired outcomes.

  • You’re Achieving PR-Communications Success, But You Keep Losing Team Members. This is a far-too-common occurrence in our business, particularly on the agency side. I think that’s due to the fact that we have a history of promoting people into leadership slots because they’re good at PR (and these days content, social, digital, etc.) and at satisfying clients and building the business. But that doesn’t mean we have the skills to truly lead people. The reality is, leadership isn’t about the title, the money, or the corner office. It’s about if people choose to follow you. If they’re not choosing to make that choice executive coaching might be right for you.
  • Even Though You Lead A Team, or Organization, You Feel Like You’re Rowing a Boat Against The Tide, And Doing It Alone. Your title says you’re the leader, but you don’t feel the team is following your marching orders regarding where they need to be, and in the way you recommend. That’s because you can’t order people to follow you. For that to happen, you must share a vision, and your values for the organization (even if that organization is a department or group within a larger framework). People will follow you if they see the alignment between the organization’s values and their own, and if they see their role in achieving the vision. If that’s not happening yet, executive coaching might be right for you. (I’m not going to keep repeating that line, but you get the idea!)
  • Your Time Manages You, Rather Than the Other Way Around. Because our success in this business is in numerous ways dependent on how we manage our time, I’m sometimes surprised that this is an issue for so many. But indeed it is. And I believe what respected time management expert Brian Tracy says about time management: People who value themselves value their time and manage it better. As such, just taking a time management course or using a new productivity tool won’t work, unless we believe in the value of our recommendations. Coaching is a great way to help us believe in our own value. If we don’t, why should anyone else?
  • Fear Plays Too Large A Role In Your Life. PR-Communications pros often ask for budgets of $100,000, $250,000, $500,000 or more. But you might be surprised at the level of fear and self-doubt that permeates our industry, even at the highest levels. If you find yourself saying with any kind of frequency, “Oh, I could never ask that of my boss-team-peer-client” fear may be playing too large a role in your life. The reality is you won’t be fired, arrested or executed for asking them for what you want. Indeed, you can ask those people for nearly anything. The worse thing is, they’ll say “No.” And you’ll feel better for having asked.
  • You Need To Have A Tough Discussion With Someone, But… In any business or organization, people will disagree. Perhaps it’s our desire to please people, which perhaps can make us a more client service provider, but we hate having difficult discussions. The way many of us deal with disagreement is to roll over the other person, or be rolled over by them. But both those options can lead to resentment down the road: certainly not the way to achieve organizational goals. Executive coaching can empower you to ask for what you need, disagree with respect and most important, go for what we really want: the win/win.
  • You’re Just Not Enjoying It Anymore. At some point, even the most successful executive asks “Is that all there is?” Work activities that used to bring pleasure no longer do. The intellectual challenge may be gone…and so, it seems, is the fun. Coaching can help you to determine what you’re really passionate about, what would bring you abundance on multiple levels, and help you create a plan of action to bring back the joy in your work.

kj-headshot-2014-martine-1Ken Jacobs is the principal of Jacobs Executive Coaching, which helps corporate communications, PR, advertising and marketing executives become achieve and surpass their goals, by becoming more inspired and inspiring leaders. He is also the principal of Jacobs Communications Consulting, which helps PR/comm agencies grow and better manage their business, improve client service and relationships, and enhance team performance, leadership and communications skills. You can find him onTwitter and LinkedIn.