Over the last few months I have made some significant decisions. All of these are against the back drop of a day job of running a small agency that has won more than ten new clients in the last six months and yesterday saw us submit three new client proposals…. oh, and there’s the other roles of being a Non-Executive Director (NED) for the HSE and not forgetting my home team – #TeamPG
I’ve organised a conference, I accepted the most extraordinary invitation to become a partner with St James’ House and see Pinch Point Communications featured in a book about 100 Years since some women got the vote; and I’ve been relishing my new NED role with Filament PR
Today I want to share some thoughts about investing in yourself, tomorrow I’ll talk about others and on Thursday about the future.
Investing in yourself
In July I will jump on a flight to Newcastle and support Anne-Marie Lacey, the MD of Filament PR where I am a NED, as she leads the organisation of the CIPR’s Northern Conference on Friday 13th July. A hugely talented PR professional, Anne-Marie will be chairing a panel discussion, she will be working hard to ensure everyone is having a productive day and I know worrying like mad. Going along is two-fold for me, it’s about investing in myself and of course supporting Anne-Marie.
Some senior colleagues, clients and friends say that Continuous Professional Development is not for them. For me, I love learning. Any opportunity to try something new (unless it involves snakes or sprouts) the answer will always be yes from me. The conference will give me the chance to hear from some inspirational speakers and the topic, The Art and Science of Engagement is something I am so interested in.
How on earth do we get effective engagement when there is so much noise and customers, stakeholders, employees are getting so much better at ‘filtering’ the messages and in some cases, turning them off all together. I recently did some work for a client and some of the staff said they could not cope with the huge amount of information the company was sending their way, so they just didn’t engage at all
It is so important to take time out from a busy schedule, however hard that it – always on is not good, for business, for self or for colleagues. Look at the line up and think about booking your ticket; whoever regretted learning?