If you ask my mother, she’ll likely say I have an answer for everything. And while I do consider her to be correct (I wouldn’t second guess her if I were you), I find it highly unlikely we’re speaking with the same vernacular.

Believe it or not, however, there was one question that – until only recently – left me trembling and tongue-tied, without even the prospect of a coherent response. It was a query that I dreaded at every presentation, lunch meeting and after-hours social: So, Derek, what exactly do you do in your job?

Invariably, there were only two types of people who asked this question: students and other PR folk who were interested solely on a surface level; and, friends and family who really didn’t care yet were genuinely confused. In both cases, I found myself left with about five seconds of attentiveness, which were usually followed by five additional minutes of awkward, forced explanation, and a whole lot of sweating.

Then, one day, on a return flight back home from Saskatchewan, it hit me: The perfect analogy.

“Just imagine for a moment,” I’d explain, “tens and tens of small children running around with books of matches. My job is to make sure they don’t burn down the house.”

At first, it came across as somewhat of a joke – an icebreaker. But then it evolved into something much, much more. It became my personal encapsulation of the PR practice, and embodied the very essence of how I view myself as a both a communicator and, by definition, as a professional.

Our job is, when you think about it, very easy to define. We solve problems. There’s not a whole lot else to it. Sure, there’s a ton of intricate strategy and ‘deliverables’ and a gamut of technical lingo that I’m pretty sure most who teach in this industry don’t fully understand; but the raison d’etre for our work is consistent. People need our help because they can’t (or won’t) do something on their own. Our purpose is to analyze that situation and come up with a solution that is predicated on common sense and the absence of ignorance.

Now, that may come across as a tad harsh, and I want to make it perfectly clear that common sense does not imply a lack of creativity or managed risk. It is merely the reality of why we’re paid to do what we do – particularly at an executive level. We are paid for our ability to deliver real solutions to tough problems.

I’m sure that my title to this blog post caught some of you off-guard. Perhaps it even put you on the defensive. But if modern day capitalism has taught us anything, it’s that you don’t have to be the smartest or most educated person to excel at your profession. Steve Jobs dropped out of college. Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas didn’t even graduate high school. If education isn’t the base measure, the overall notion of being dumb isn’t exactly correct in its traditional sense, is it?

That’s because the intangible quality that produces successful leaders in public relations – and, for that matter, business – is not necessarily measured by an intellectual quotient (or IQ); it’s measured by emotional intelligence and by how quick one can cognitively adjust to circumstances.

But those words are way too long for my liking, so let’s break it down. In layman’s terms, what does that mean?

Well, this isn’t a thesis. Although, it is in fact, one of the lengthier pieces I’ve written in the past year, so feel free to continue this conversation and weigh its merits on your own free time. But a few things, I believe, are certain:

We need to teach problem solving skills to both post-secondary students as well as senior practitioners on a continual basis – always learn, learn all ways. We need to laugh more and love where we work. We need to do a better job recognizing the importance of teams and in the value of listening. Oh, and above all else, we need to use our heads.

You can reach me at derek.lothian@cme-mec.ca or on Twitter at @dereklothian.

Let’s take Apple, for example – the Holy Grail for digital evangelists, who seem to remind us everyday that the tech empire is not only one of the most valuable companies on the planet, but one that has created more than 60,000 jobs worldwide.

Trouble is: it’s really not that many.

According to The Economist, Apple, Amazon and Google – the three corporate crown jewels of Generation Y – collectively employ only 113,000 people, which is less than one-third as General Motors in the height of the 1980s.

One of the most prevalent illustrations of this paradigm came last year, when Apple unveiled its new half-a-million-square-foot data centre in Maiden, North Carolina.

Located in a town where the unemployment rate nears 13 per cent – four percentage points higher than the national average and six points higher than the Canadian average – the facility is expected to employ a measly 50 full-time workers at capacity. That’s less than half as Newfoundland-based sonar manufacturer Marport Deep Sea Technologies (number five on PROFIT‘s list of Canada’s fastest growing companies) – and I bet you haven’t heard of them.

Now, that’s not to say the Apples of the world don’t have a role to play. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. For example, as of September, Techvibe’s number one Canadian startup, Hoot Suite Media, employed nearly 50 people. In today’s labour market, that’s nothing to scoff at.

But the truth is: traditional manufacturing operations, propelled a culture of innovation, play a much more significant role in determining our standard of living. Here are the stats:

• In Canada alone, more than 1.8 million people are employed by the manufacturing sector – about 15 per cent of the entire Canadian workforce;
• One in three jobs (or 30 per cent of Canada’s GDP) rely on exports; and,
• Every dollar of manufacturing output generates $3.05 in total economic activity.

I think we all can agree that the path to sustainable growth is not a single-pronged approach. It will take diversity, public-sector support, a greater integration of partnerships, and – most importantly – specialized knowledge and skills. The cloud, so to speak, is a major part of that blue sky. So, however, is our ability to produce both raw materials and finished goods.

It is no secret the global landscape of business has fundamentally changed. Yet, we as Canadians don’t need to reinvent our identity; we must simply re-engineer what we’ve always been good at.

We're all in this together.

Earlier this week, I read a fascinating piece from Harvard Business Review blogger, Tony Schwartz.

In it, Mr. Schwartz – an award-winning author and business executive – hypothesized we’d be better off eliminating terms like “feedback” and “constructive criticism” from our lexicons altogether.

He suggested they were largely polarizing; and we should instead be thinking of these exchanges as opportunities for honest inquiry and genuine discovery.

While Schwartz did preface his post by saying feedback is “the primary means by which we learn and grow,” he went on to note the need to establish ways of providing insight with a higher degree of value – meaning the recipient must actually absorb and act on it.

I couldn’t agree more.

The basic principles of human psychology have taught us that we are hard-wired to defend our existing positions. It’s a reflex – a safeguard, if you will – to vet all feedback against the limits of our knowledge and understanding.

Until those limits can be breached, the interchange is fundamentally futile, as the desired outcome of the information provider will not be heard, let alone realized, by the receiver.

If you step back and view this dynamic from a public relations perspective, you can quickly see the merit of Schwartz’s argument.

Under the concept at issue, constructive criticism causes many communications professionals and their organizations to become entrenched in a particular policy or collective belief. We’ve all seen it: practitioners defending a viewpoint that, to the average stakeholder, seems utterly ridiculous (see BP oil spill, Enron, Toyota). Honest censure, in this model, only encourages a more introverted response.

But if we in PR adopt a much more open and formative approach to consultation – the very forum propelling the growth of social media – we can use these exchanges proactively as a way of gathering external opinion, evaluating cause-and-effect, and then developing a strategic message that is highly informed, honest and ultimately powerful.

I’ve personally implemented this methodology in my own workplace in the form of a national communications committee – so far, to resounding success. We’ve enjoyed heightened level of engagement from talent pools previously untapped (thus boosting overall morale), and stronger end-product results. In other words: a win-win for everybody.

I’m not saying we all have to sit around a campfire, join hands and sing Kumbaya; I do still believe, after all, that initiative and conviction are the drivers of innovation. Yet, we cannot ignore the immense worth of collaborative creation – not just simple teamwork, but the basic tenets of shared intelligence.

For now, I’ll call it common sense crowdsourcing. That is, until some Harvard-type comes up with a better name.

I graduated from Ottawa's Algonquin College in 2011 with a diploma in public relations.

I’ve never been a big believer in luck. If you do your homework, and put yourself in the right situations at the right times, good things will happen. Outcomes, after all, are not random; they are games of probability – carefully plotted intersections between the frequency of an event and how prepared you are to capitalize on it.

I believe the same philosophy reigns true in one’s career. Success, especially in the competitive realm of public relations, is determined by more than just a good education. It takes natural ability, character, foresight, and a thorough understanding of the factors in which you cannot control.

Granted, college taught me a great deal. But, after my first full year back in the workforce, I realize there is so much I’ve had to learn on the fly:

#5: The most valuable skill is knowing when other people are better than you.
Nobody is good at everything – it’s the reality that makes the team dynamic so powerful. The key to effectiveness however is being able to acknowledge when another person is, in fact, better than you at a particular task, and then having the strategic insight to leverage those abilities to meet a common set of goals. This is perhaps the most difficult skill in itself to master, but one that will solidify your network and make you indispensable to employers.

#4: Reporters do more than report.
Little known fact: journalists are actually people, too. And despite how many times they pass over your e-mail pitch, they’re not cold-hearted sadists. At least not most of them. In college, the almighty news release was hailed as the be-all and end-all for communications professionals. While I agree that writing for the media is an essential ability, it is trumped sevenfold by being able to establish and nurture relationships. Don’t use reporters; learn from them. Get to know their interests – what they tweet about, what beats they cover, what their deadlines are. Help them excel at their jobs, and they will help you excel at yours. And note: beer is a universal language.

#3: You cost money to employ.
This was a sad truth to stumble upon. Remember when you were a kid, and you blissfully believed money just happened to grow on trees? Yeah, it doesn’t. In fact, some people find it’s rather hard to come by. It doesn’t matter what area of PR you’ve decided to pursue – not-for-profit or corporate, government or agency – keep in-mind there is an element of business to everything. And if you do not help your employer make or save money (and I’m talking a real, tangible difference), you won’t be employed for very long.

#2: Great ideas don’t change the world – initiative does.
Anyone can come up with a good idea. Hell, most people can come up with a brilliant one. But that idea has absolutely no value unless it is implementable and you take the initiative to implement it. As manager of national communications for Canada’s largest industry association, it’s a mentality that has been ingrained in me by our members: Invention is good; however it’s innovation – the application of an invention – that has the power to change the status quo.

#1: Being efficient is not being effective.
I once read a fascinating analogy: You can be an efficient vacuum salesman and speak with hundreds of customers in a day. They can like your product and like you. Yet, if at the end of the day, you only sell one vacuum, you are no more effective than the salesman who shows up late, takes a long lunch, and sells a single unit to the last customer in the store. That’s not to say don’t be efficient in your job. But deliver results. That is what you build your career on. Don’t worry about putting in the nine to five or clocking your coffee breaks to the minute – no one cares, so feel free to take as long as you like. Think outside the box to produce more answers than questions, and you’ll never be looking for work for very long.

You can reach me at derek.lothian@cme-mec.ca or on Twitter at @dereklothian.

Amazon Kindle

Promoted to Freshly Pressed on July 13, 2010!

Those of you who know me are well aware that I am rarely wrong. Seriously. Quit laughing. But I will be the first to admit when I have, indeed, made a mistake. And today, I am ready to acknowledge (somewhat of) an error in judgement.

When e-books first arrived on the market, I was one of those sceptics who said that no electronic device could replace the functionality or feeling that came that came with flipping through the pages of a good book. Well, hate to say it, but I’m still right about that. However, after finally trying out the acclaimed Amazon Kindle, I am here to say that I have been converted.

While it still just isn’t the same as a paperback, the Kindle is incredibly dynamic, easy-to-use and just downright convenient. Instead of taking a single book to work, I can now drag along my entire library – complete with recent periodicals and the latest edition of the local daily newspaper. But what sold me on the Kindle isn’t the wide range of purchase options or instant access; it’s the unlimited portability.

In 2009, I had the fortunate opportunity to spend fourteen weeks touring through five incredibly diverse South American countries. For each of those countries, I relied heavily on my selection of Lonely Planet guidebooks. Anyone who has backpacked knows that four or five books can slag on a needless amount of weight. The Kindle does away with virtually all of that. The serial traveller now has the ability to preview and purchase guidebooks, as needed, so if your plans change, you don’t waste money – or more importantly – precious weight.

But not everything is completely rosy. Internet access on the Kindle is limited and painfully slow at best. Then again, that’s not what it is intended for. So the question remains: does a person stick with the Kindle, or hold out for the second-generation iPad?