What skills does a modern PR leader require?

PRmoment Podcast

On the show today, I’m chatting with Will Hart, who is the CEO of PRmoment Leaders.

Before becoming CEO of PRmoment Leaders, Will was the group MD of Unlimited Group and, before that, the managing director of PR agency Nelson Bostock for over ten years.

Will joined PRmoment in January this year to lead its subscription training programme for agency directors - PRmoment Leaders.

The first semester of masterclasses has just been released and includes the following themes:

How to build and develop your agency business
Rachel Bell, founder, Brand Spanking

How to improve the diversity, inclusion and retention of PR teams
Sheeraz Gulsher, co-founder, People Like Us and Braver

How to lead a pitch more effectively
Kat McGettigan, founder, Fine Lines

The financial controls you need in a modern PR firm
Adrian Talbot, CFO, Miroma Group, Formerly Global CEO of Hotwire

How do you build a great agency team?
Frankie Cory, ex co-CEO, W Communications
What is the contribution of comms in the modern corporate world?
Bruce McLachlan, director, Consumer Communications, International, Amazon

What does a great agency: client partnership look like?
Sian O’Keefe, Vice President of Corporate Affairs, Mars Wrigley Europe, CIS and Turkey
Holly Clarke, regional senior manager - consumer PR, Mars Wrigley

Finally, thanks so much to the PRmoment Podcast sponsors the PRCA.

Here's a summary of what Will and PRmoment founder discussed:

4 mins: In partnership with our friends at Censuswide PRmoment, we recently conducted some quantitative research into the attributes of modern PR leaders. Will talks us through the top 5 trends emerging from that research.

• PR agency leaders believe in themselves. They have confidence in their abilities.
• The biggest issue for PR agency leaders is how to handle unrealistic client expectations.
• PR agency leaders lack confidence in the business of PR and their ability to futureproof the agency
• PR Agency leaders want to get out of their own agency’s echo chamber
• PR agency leaders don’t have enough time

15 mins Will has worked in the London PR market for 25 years. When agencies have scaled quickly - what have you observed that they are doing right?

“PR is a team sport.”

16.30 mins Conversely, when agencies fall off that growth line, are there any common traits in terms of the mistakes they make?

“The key to happiness? Make yourself small.”

“So often those second generation (PR agency appointments) don’t quite work.”

“No one goes to work to make the founder a millionaire.”

20 mins What are the skills and attributes of a modern PR leader?

23 mins PR firms have spent the best part of 10 years playing around with their structure to try and replicate the setup of ad agencies. Does hindsight suggest that was a wrong move for PR?

“There’s some magic in the generalist account team-focused PR agency structure.”

“PR planners are some of the best planners on the planet.”

“There’s a beautiful sweet spot between the old-school PR structure and ad agency world (structure.)”

29 mins Will talks us through what PRmoment Leaders is all about and how you hope it can help the PR leaders of tomorrow.

“We’re focussing bespoke training on senior people in PR businesses to prepare them for leadership.”