Sergeant First Class Deb Richardson is an Army Reserve Public Affairs NCO with abundant experience. She most recently served as the US and NATO Headquarters Public Affairs Non-commissioned officer in charge. In civilian life, she is the product marketing and public relations manager for Nisos, a boutique cybersecurity company in DC.
I like to be in the know. I unabashedly join meetings even though I wasn’t invited, stop to contribute to conversations I overhear in passing, borrow books I will likely forget to give back, stalk influencers on social media and seek out people much smarter than me to ask questions or drum up a debate. I can be annoying but I stay in the know.
Not good enough. It doesn’t do anyone, especially my leaders, any good to be the only one in the know. My previous boss used to say he didn’t want one person to be the single point of failure. You’re nodding your head in agreement but thinking, easier said than done. But what’s the alternative?
Do you know what happens when you’re the only member of your PAO team to be sought out, included and trusted? You fail your team. Don’t wait until you have a crisis requiring a knowledgeable, capable staff to realize your team sucks.
Taking the time to provide hands-on training, bringing soldiers up from lower commands to shadow you and providing positive feedback and blunt criticism are invaluable. Our PAOs, officers and NCOs alike, lack formal education and diverse experience. We are cultivated in PADs and MPADs and often restricted to environments hyperfocused on telling the Army’s story rather than environments where PAOs enable leaders to provide their best military advice.
PAOs get accused of sucking. I’m inclined to agree. However, we can suck a lot less if we push a strong culture of educating our team — all of them. Get your team experience at every level, let them shadow you in meetings, take the time to explain your decision-making process and for the love of all things purple, convey a bias for action.
Don’t be the great PAO. Be the PAO who has a great team.
Photo by Staff Sgt. Megan Floyd
