“How did I do?” -I’m not going to talk about how you did. Let’s talk about what you’ll do next time. Feedback sucks. Positive or negative, it serves no purpose.
“How did I do?” -I’m not going to talk about how you did. Let’s talk about what you’ll do next time. Feedback sucks. Positive or negative, it serves no purpose.
I’m a popular guy. Every PAO is, right? Especially when you have something to offer. You probably provide good input to discussions, you have access to a camera, you can
I joined my current organization as the Deputy PAO almost three years ago. Since we shared one calendar to rule them all, I could tell one meeting was noticeably absent:
GoodmorningSir. I’manempoweredbadge-wearingmemberofyourorganization. I’mnowgoingtoreadyousomewordsfromapieceofpaper. ThisisabriefIwastoldtogivethismorning. ThisscriptwasreviewedseveraltimesbyvariousstaffleaderssoIamnotgoingtodeviatefromit. Blahblahblahblahblahblahblah. IonlywrotelikethirtyperentofthecontentI’mbriefingrightnow. Theyremovedsomeofthemostimportantinformationfrommyscriptbecauseweweren’tsureiftheG2hadseenthatinformationyet, oriftheyagreedwithmyassessment. Wedon’twantyoutoknowtwoprofessionalstaffelementscouldpotentiallyhavedifferentperspectivesonacomplicatedtopic. Blahblahblahblahblahblah. Thisscriptwasapproved24hoursagosomostoftheinformationisoutofdate. Blahblahblahblah. Areyoulistening? It’shardtotellbecauseIdon’twanttotakemyeyesofmyscript. Blahblah. MaybeI’llsneakonepeek. Itlookslikeyou’rejusttalkingtotheCommandSergeantMajoratthefronttablewhileI’mbriefing. Maybethat’sforthebest. NowIcanjustgetthroughthisfasterandhopefullyyouwon’thaveanyquestions. Mysupervisorsdidn’ttellmewhattodoifyouaskanyquestionsorwanttohaveadiscussion. Thatisn’tinmyscript. Thiscould’vebeenane-mail. Blahblahblah. Pendingyourquestions. (Photo by Pfc. Andrew Valenza,
We love to reference public affairs officers’ ‘if only’ comments. I often hear PAOs say, “If only we had a seat at the table.” We do. We have a seat
Useless pleasantries are just that: useless. “Oh man, do you believe how cold it is?” “How about them Yankees?” “Do you think Smitty has it in him to beat the
Only communicate in order to enable action. If you’re about to communicate for anything other than action, stop and wonder why. Even informing or making someone aware of something enables