Communications instructions for the new millennium (Part II)
Five (additional) lessons stolen from people smarter than me
If you told me 15-ish years ago back when I was an intern on Capitol Hill that I’d eventually become a communications consultant — that people would pay me for my time, my strategic advice, my execution on comms projects, let alone just listen to the things I said — I wouldn’t have believed you.
But I didn’t get here alone. Who we develop into as professionals is shaped as much by our own principles and nature as our experiences and the people we surround ourselves with. It’s kind of like when you pick up slang from your best friend or develop your own shorthand code language with a significant other. But instead of informal conversation, it’s professional behavior.
Every job, every step of the way, I’ve had the chance to spend time with gracious people who taught me how to become a better professional (and in a few cases, a better person). When I am talking to prospective clients, one of the main things I seek out is what I can learn, and how a given experience might help me evolve and improve.
In my last essay, I shared five lessons I’ve stolen from people smarter than me. Today, I’m back with five more, all of which have been formative to my growth personally and professionally. It’s refreshing to use these essays to look back on my own career, and acknowledge how far I’ve come. I have my own business! I’m still humbled and gob smacked by it all.
6️⃣ Ignore most criticism
“Yeah . . . keep your head down and work like I do
But understand, everybody ain't gon' like you
— Kendrick Lamar, wacced out murals
Every tech company doing something notable has its critics. The easiest way to think about this criticism is like collecting data to make a decision: There’s noise and signal.
The signal is valid criticism — comms flacks need to know where their organization is credibly weak, help leaders prepare defensive messaging and communication protocols, and be ready to respond if and when needed.
But most criticism is noise. It comes from — to be frank — haters. Random people and advocacy groups and anonymous Twitter accounts who fundamentally disagree with your company’s existence — every company has at least a few. If someone believes that police departments should not exist, they will always oppose a startup working with police; if someone believes nuclear energy is bad, they will always oppose a startup working on nuclear fusion; if someone believes any amount of automation is a job killer and inherently evil, they will always oppose a robotics startup.
You will never change their minds. Ignore them.
A common mistake I see, especially in early stage startups, is to overindex on criticism and change your company’s path or identify because of it — but this is one of the surest ways to lose what makes a startup special. It’s imperative you stand for your principles in the face of criticism, understand that some criticism is inevitable, and delineate between valid critiques that are reasonable (the signal) and those that are simply a distraction (the noise).
7️⃣ You don’t need to have an opinion
Back when I worked in Congress early on in my comms career, one senior staff member and I had divergent strategic opinions on, without exaggeration, nearly every issue. I earnestly believed that they were giving bad advice, so I fought them at every turn.
Dear reader, while I maintain to this day that I was right and they were wrong, that doesn’t matter because both of us lost credibility as people just grew tired of listening to us sniping back and forth. I learned that not every battle is worth fighting, even when you just know that you are right.
You don’t need to have an opinion about some things (and if you do have a take, sometimes it’s better to keep it to yourself). Don’t let perfect be the enemy of the great. Sometimes, as the not-Dalai Lama said in his Instructions for the New Millenia, “silence is the best answer.” Reserve sharing your opinion for when it really matters so that people will listen.
8️⃣ Go slow in a crisis
“Cleanup, without fail, is labor intensive, to say the least.
If you don't want a puzzle solved, remove a piece or two. Scatter the rest.
What's the expression? Measure twice, cut once.”
— Michael Fassbender in David Fincher’s The Killer
Fassbender’s character, simply named The Killer, is talking about disposing of a body. Assuming none of my readers are contract killers (if you are, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know), let’s not take this advice at face value.
But there is truth to the idea that preparation enables methodical, deliberate execution. In the world of communications, this idea is best applied to crises. In a crisis, conventional wisdom will tell you that you have to go fast! Make decisions! Hurry, something has gone wrong! Put out the fire!
But in reality, moving slowly and acting deliberately in the face of a crisis is an unequivocally better approach.
However, intentional action during a crisis is only possible if processes and procedures are well-established ahead of time. If an incident occurs and the team is scrambling to figure out who to call, who needs to approve what, and who needs to be involved in each decision, everything will feel — and be — frantic and rushed.
Prepare for crises. Give yourself the opportunity to move slowly when a crisis happens.
Measure twice, cut once.
9️⃣ Execution is king
Nine out of ten startups fail.1 In fact, launching a startup is a riskier proposition than playing a hand of Blackjack by orders of magnitude.2
Of the 90% of startups that eventually go bust, some were founded on good ideas. Some were built with hard science and a strong research foundation. Some had the technological underpinning to succeed.
But even the most brilliant ideas are prone to failure without flawless execution. Many incredibly bright minds with amazing ideas still failed because they didn’t spend their time and intellectual capital on making their ideas a reality. On the other hand, the best operators I know, from forward deployed engineers to Chief Technology Officers to global communications leads, are top tier individual contributors.
Disenchantment with management and corporate consultant classes is, in the eyes of many, a return to the age of the IC. Meta’s recent firing of thousands of managers3 is one of many examples from the last few years, and I expect organizations will increasingly value people who contribute individually — even those in leadership positions — over pure managers.
Ideation, strategy, great ideas — it’s fun and fundamental (you can’t go do The Smart Thing if you don’t know what The Smart Thing is). But as I’ve matured, I’ve reaped more professional value by being both capable of developing a strategy and getting my hands proverbially dirty to execute it.
There’s an ocean between people who come up with ideas only to pass them off and those willing to do the hard work to make their ideas a reality. Because without execution, there is only failure.
🔟 Identify the people with the problems
In a previous piece, I wondered if DOGE would actually solve the problem it's set out to. The same technology and product development leader who told me that “it’s important to be accountable to the problem, not just to the person owning the problem,” dropped another pearl of wisdom: “Organizations don’t have problems.”
What he meant is that people have problems. If a problem can’t be ascribed to people — a statement like “Our company needs to get better at moving top of funnel sales leads through the sales pipeline” is vague — one of two things are happening. Either the “problem” isn’t really an issue, or the person articulating the problem doesn’t understand the issue well enough to ascribe it to people.
A problem can’t be solved unless there is someone whose pain is alleviated when an issue is fixed. When I’m formulating a communications strategy for anything, I focus on understanding the problem I’m solving for people within an org, not the org itself. The result is a more specific, impactful communications motion.
While I don’t love overly proscriptive advice, all the lessons here and in part one are concepts I think about every day and it’s served me well. I have a fundamental conviction that I should share what I believe to be true in the hopes it can help other people (even if I really struggle with it) and I hope it helps you, too.
Today, if you work with me, you’ll see I’m a ruthless prioritizer (sometimes the best thing a comms flack can do is say no).
I’m known for forging ahead because I believe through action, I can help people by solving their problems.
My predilection for preparation at work has even bled over into my personal life — my wedding-planning spreadsheet includes a workback plan over 60 rows long.
During Write of Passage, an online writing bootcamp that I recently enrolled in and the reason I started writing in the first place, I shared notes so granular that someone asked what notetaking software I used (the answer? None, though I do like to think I type faster thanks to the wonderful noises my mechanical keyboard makes).
I pride myself on executing well, and showing teams I work with that I, too, am ready and able to get in the weeds and get shit done. And I try — and often fail — to say less.
I’m certainly not perfect. But this advice can help you be better.
Shoutout to Emily Ann Hill for providing feedback and editing this essay. Check out Junetail Creative to see how Emily can help improve your writing and, for small businesses, develop an unforgettable brand experience.
Players win ~40% of Blackjack hands