Comrade,
A wise man once told me, “Making dinner every night doesn’t make you a chef.” As the saying goes, reading the newspaper doesn’t make you a PAO.
That being said, your PAO likely doesn’t have a master’s degree in communication or years of experience doing public relations.
They have had the benefit of a 60ish day course in this curriculum. If you’re manned correctly, you have an NCO. He or she could be a reclass with little or no experience in PA either.
But don’t worry, the stakes are high.
You will still be successful, this isn’t rocket science. It’s a business of creativity and passion.
Here is the simple paradigm for success: make news. Seems counter-intuitive to commanders who want to stay out of the papers and “just do their jobs.” Make news as much as possible.
Expect your PA team to work hard to make news and you will cushion the information environment, develop the right relationships, gain confidence and sharpen skills.
If you have your team stay active on social media, you will have a bigger and more receptive audience when you have something vitally important to say.
If you invite the local media to an event and get them what they need to be successful, you will lean on the same relationship when times are tough.
The old PA mantra, “break glass in case of emergency” is dead and has been proven wrong over and again. Practice proactive public affairs in everything you do, this will ready you for any disaster.
To be successful, your PA team needs direct access to you. PA is important enough to your command that you can afford another direct report. In my overwhelming experience a supervisory Chief of Staff is counterproductive.
As far as your public persona goes, you’ll be just fine. If you’re reserved, be reserved when you engage to your audiences. If you’re outgoing, be outgoing. Always be calculated, never speak publicly off the cuff.
If your PAO sucks, fire him. There are plenty of Infantryman who can do this job as well.
Have fun.
Respectfully,
Dave
