PRWeek’s Hall of Fame and Best Places to Work initiatives provide an excellent way to end the calendar year, celebrating giants of the industry and the principles that propelled them to legend status, often the same principles that also define great places to ply your trade.
Read the profiles of our 2016 Hall of Fame honorees Margi Booth, Lisa Caputo, David Drobis, Steve Harris, John Onoda, and Patrice Tanaka, and you will see themes emerging from which everyone can learn.
According to our fourth annual group of honorees, the golden rules of communications are transparency; honesty; being succinct and direct; a businessperson first and communicator second; doing the right thing; and adding in a dose of compassion and humor.
At the end of the day, it’s not rocket science. If you follow these rules you will have an excellent chance of succeeding as a brand or communicator — although it’s amazing how many companies don’t operate in line with these maxims, as many new and continuing reputation crises show with depressing regularity.
However, the 2016 Best Places to Work do. These companies recognize good work by employees on a constant basis, not just at annual appraisals. They create a culture where people want to get out of bed and come into the office, or work from home. And they emphasize internal development, work-life balance, and advancement opportunities.
Both initiatives provide great examples for all communications professionals to follow and excellence to aspire to as we draw to the end of another busy year and set our sights on 2017.