I read with interest yesterday, the results of a survey on PRmoments.com (in association with BusinessWire) on the most important skills in PR.
Surely it’s got to it’s got to be creativity, writing, multi-tasking or pitching I thought to myself….But no! How wrong was I? A whopping 93% of survey respondents voted empathy as the most important skill needed by PR professionals.
So, not the first ‘PR skill’ that springs to my mind, but I agree, a pretty essential one nonetheless.
The definition of empathy is: Identification with and understanding of another’s situation, feelings, and motives.
And in PR terms this essentially means having the ability to get under the skin of our clients and really understand what it is our clients want; and then of course deciphering what it is they think they want and what it is they really need.
Having empathy is essentially the ability to listen to our clients and understanding the challenges they face from a business perspective and sometimes internally and coming up with a PR strategy that can help solve some of these issues.
So listen up PR professionals! Start listening more closely to your clients and understand what it is they need. Empathy is key!
