What are the roles of PR practitioners and organizational counselors?

To be a competent PR practitioner, an individual needs a great deal of personal and professional characteristics including a curious mind and an ability to work well with others. Further, a desire to learn about the industry is essential. These are important in a general sense, but what specifically makes the PR practitioner a great organizational counselor?

While many of these skills that the PR practitioner have will be very beneficial, the main characteristics that will transfer the PR practitioner to being a highly competent organizational counselor involve a sense of responsibility and an ability to communicate PR practicing ideas. So how does a PR practitioner broaden their role to be a great organizational counselor?

The idea that there are “no good surprises” among the opinions of media relations counselors is a wise perspective. This means it is extremely to sniff out potential conflicts and preventatively find solutions for the issues that may arise. This will help the organization shape and be proactive with the issues instead of being reactive . If the organization can foresee potential issues, the organization can have more control in gaining ground right away instead of being potentially stagnated by unforeseen circumstances. Overall, the PR practitioner’s job in this department is to understand and prepare for potential surprises and communicate knowledge of the situation to the decision makers. This will help the organization build it's position on an issue.

What’s the role of an organizational counselor? This person must be able to broaden their responsibilities in the organization. Essentially, they must have a complete understanding of the inner workings of the organization as people in organizations will be asking “how should we do it?” and “what should we do”. This makes it of the utmost importance to understand the inner workings of the organization in order to competently provide advice or direction.

An organizational counselor needs to be credible in order to gain any responsibility in the organization and to be considered personally competent. Kanye West stated “only the truth exists” implying untruths may get past the organization but will not get past yourself. An organizational counselor can build credibility by following a wide variety of media, reading editorial and opinion pieces, monitoring letters to the editor, paying attention to better quality media sources, maintaining informal connections with key media people, and building strong internal connections.