The question of how leadership sees our roles is a huge one, and we must prove to them that we offer value — not necessarily in the fiscal sense (though this is of increasing importance), but in the wider business sense. Sometimes, that’s going to rely upon our technical skills and sometimes on our managerial skills.

Big D’s point about too many communicators not understanding their strategic role in the business is one I think most of us have encountered time and time again. Too many in our field see themsleves as tacticians & are unable or unwilling to understand how their actions affect business objectives in the same way, say, that marketers customarily do (heresy, I know, and betrays my marketing roots). Grunig writes about ‘elite communicators’ vs. PR tacticians, but it is the latter that dominate the profession and perceptions of it. But this is very much a cause worth fighting for….

Public relations professionals, as the classic ‘boundary spanners’, are perfectly positioned to deliver the good and bad news to the organisation that change equals happy stakeholders, a more favourable operating environment and, in all likelihood, a more promising future for the organisation.

Takes both strategic nous and business/career chutzpah to deliver this, though. Sadly, you don’t see much evidence of it. Let’s keep being cheerleaders for the cause, though, as if we don’t then society and our profession loses out.