How Do You Keep Your Public Relations Team Motivated?
In a fast-paced PR landscape, keeping the team motivated and creative can be a complex challenge. Leading experts, including Founders and Senior Digital PR Consultants, share their best strategies to invigorate the public relations team. The first insight highlights tracking team energy levels, while the final gem emphasizes encouraging regular brainstorming sessions, with a total of three key insights provided. The article promises actionable advice from seasoned professionals in the field, ensuring valuable takeaways for any PR team.
- Track Team Energy Levels
- Use Positive Communication
- Encourage Regular Brainstorming Sessions
Track Team Energy Levels
One unconventional metric I track for business success is "team energy levels." This involves assessing how motivated, engaged, and energized the team feels daily, which I gauge through a combination of short pulse surveys, informal check-ins, and observing patterns in productivity. I discovered its value during my early days coaching a struggling medium-sized manufacturing business. Despite hitting financial targets, the business faced high employee turnover and erratic performance. By focusing on energy levels, we identified that burnout was the root cause of the issues. Over time, we introduced structured breaks, improved recognition programs, and aligned projects with employees' strengths and passions. Within six months, turnover dropped and quarterly output increased. My years of experience in business, including building a multimillion-dollar telecommunications company and coaching hundreds of entrepreneurs, have shown me that success isn't just about financials or standard KPIs. When you focus on metrics that capture the human side of the business, like energy levels, you tap into the core driver of success: people. With my background in recruitment challenges and operational efficiency, I tailored solutions that created a workplace where employees felt valued and energized. The results speak for themselves, proving that unconventional metrics often unlock transformative change.
Use Positive Communication
The key to motivating your PR team is positive communication. Reinforce when your team has done a great job, but also when they worked hard to overcome something challenging too. We learn so much more from failure than we do success and so even if the team has tried everything possible and it hasn't worked out successfully, then they should be thanked and celebrated for their hard work.
We're also realistic as managers when we've personally struggled with campaigns at work; it helps foster an honest, supportive workplace that doesn't encourage toxic positivity or put management on an unrealistic pedestal. The team knows that no problem is too big or small to combat together.
We have a Slack channel at Root Digital dedicated to highlighting and congratulating people. This is where we encourage everyone to share their feedback for people who deserve accolades. It's a great morale booster.
I also encourage the team to share positive feedback from clients and the press with the wider team and in our 1-2-1s. It's so important that we reframe sharing our successes as positive rather than bragging. We should all be our biggest cheerleaders.
Kirsty Hulse, Creator of Roar! Training and Confidence Live has talked in the past about the fact that people who celebrate success are more likely to repeat it, so there's a psychological reason for this too.
Celebrating even the smallest success helps build our resilience by teaching us to learn and adapt. This inspires people to replicate these actions repeatedly. In short it rewires the brain and develops a success-driven mindset, and a workplace where people truly feel valued.
Encourage Regular Brainstorming Sessions
One effective method to keep a public relations team motivated and creative is encouraging regular brainstorming sessions and fostering a collaborative environment. I make sure to create a space where team members feel comfortable sharing ideas, no matter how unconventional they may seem. By setting aside time for creative discussions, we can collectively generate fresh concepts and approaches for campaigns.
I also make it a point to celebrate small wins, whether it's securing media coverage or successfully executing a campaign, which boosts morale and encourages continued innovation. Recognizing individual contributions and giving team members the freedom to explore new PR tactics keeps creativity flowing and ensures the team remains energized and engaged.
