Copyright © 2002, 2003 - League of American Communications Professionals

Conventional wisdom dictates that a typical PR pro is happy in their position for 2-3 years before becoming restless and in search of a new job. Given that the PR job market has pretty much been frozen since 2000, it's safe to say that once it begins to thaw, there will be a lot of folks ready to make jumps into new positions offering greater responsibilities, challenges, and opportunities.

Ever optimistic about a job recovery, we've outlined ten key steps to starting a new PR job on the right foot. While this guide might not aid all PR pros this month, we hope that it will help many as they transition to new positions in the year ahead.

1. MEET EVERYONE.
If there's one thing PR pros could arguably not overdo, it's being ubiquitous. Get to know everyone across the organization as quickly as possible, demonstrating respect and interest in every individual's area of expertise. You never know who you'll have to work with in the future, so work hard to proactively establish a rapport early.

Also, remember people's names--try to use their name at the end of your initial conversation with them, both as a self-check for you and affirmation for them of how you find them to be valuable and important associates. If you don't remember, regretfully apologize and acknowledge that you're bad at learning new names, asking them to helpfully remind you.

Finally, as soon as your conversation ends with them, write their name down along with a quick, distinguishing physical description that will guide you in easily recognizing them. When you have down time in your office later, reflect on your notes to ensure that you'll be able to identify them among a sea of faces during a meeting or along the hallway.

2. WORK EXTRA HOURS.
During the first two or three weeks, spend some extra time at the office. First impressions are being formed about you now, so this is a critical time to demonstrate a strong commitment to the organization. Also, create an outline, so to speak, of the hours you're working to show your passion and intensity: send your e-mails and voicemails, either replies or new messages, close to the beginning of the day, near the end of the day, and during lunch.

3. DEMONSTRATE CONSTANT CONTACT.
Check voicemail and e-mail at night and on weekends during your first few weeks. This again re-affirms your passion and intensity. During the first few weeks, what you don't have in company knowledge and background can be readily made up for in drive.

4. DEMONSTRATE YOUR GRACE.
If you have employees reporting to you, bend over backwards to be especially gracious the first few months on the job. First, you'll need their help to get up to speed. More importantly, you're establishing a rapport with them now. Most likely, they didn't have much say about you coming on board. Or even worse, you might have taken the job that one of them hoped to inherit. In either case, now is the time to demonstrate just how gracious a person you are, chasing them out of the office at 5 pm, glossing over poor choices in judgment, and so on.

However, be sure to balance your friendliness with subtle assertions that you have the broader and deeper expertise in communications. You don't want to fall in the trap of making them feel like you're a peer rather than a mentor.

As you become more accomplished in your role, you can begin to clamp down on employees not keeping pace with the corporate drum beat. The best approach, again, is to serve as a mentor. Mentors, unlike "bosses," are looking out for the welfare and development of their students, working to guide them to becoming a more developed professional. "Bosses" smack of ostentatiousness and simply want something done a certain way while having no concerns about the human actually performing the work.

5. REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE.
Send out plenty of e-mails and voicemails. Now's the time to establish yourself as a contact in your area of responsibility and anchor your expertise.

This can and should be done at two different levels. First, there's the generic message to an entire functional group, e.g. the entire marketing team, where you introduce yourself and your desire to work closely together.

Next, there's the follow up with the key players, where you assert your desire to soon meet one-on-one in order to better understand their needs and objectives while also communicating your desire to develop communications programs tailored to help them meet THEIR objectives.

6. LEARN THE BACKGROUND.
If you're filling a position held by a predecessor, be sure to gain an early understanding of the previous employee's workload and responsibilities.

Delegate the uninteresting elements of their work NOW to your subordinates as a form of promotion, increasing their set of responsibilities and range of job exposure. Be sure to keep for yourself the tasks that create high visibility for you to executive management and leadership in other functional areas of the company.

7. BE YOURSELF.
Don't try to repeat the act of your predecessor. Be sure to establish a strong margin between who they were and who you are. Gain recognition for yourself as you, not the weaker second act of whomever the previous employee was.

8. CONTROL YOUR EXTERNAL RELATIONSHIPS EARLY.
Grab your organization's top-tier media list and send out an e-mail to all contacts as soon as possible introducing yourself, your role, your background, and a few of the activities that attracted you to this position. Be sure to highlight your interest in working with the media to develop the stories they're interested in. Further, underscore your ability to keep them abreast of news and on the company's 'inside track.'

Next, delegate the media you don't want to have a relationship with to subordinates. Have them send out a similar note to those contacts. Once again, this can be implicitly presented as a form of promotion for your direct reports, which ultimately leads to...

9. BUILD A SENSE OF TRUST WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES.
Getting back to your mentorship role, let your employees know, both through word and deed, that you're passionate about seeing them succeed. Communicate the fact that you put your faith in what they do and trust their judgment. Engender the principles you communicate-let them know that there's a genuine passion and interest on your part to see them blossom.

This is a stressful time for your employees, as well as for you. You'll earn major points and cooperation if your direct reports sense your genuine concern for them and respect for their capabilities and personal desires.

At the same time, they want someone to help take them to the 'next level' of being a PR pro. That's why providing a sense of growing responsibilities and learning by example can be so valuable to them. Consider letting them tag along to some of the higher-up meetings you attend, as appropriate. They'll feel the sense of trust you put in them while also building up a strong #2 to fill in for you as you need and according to your terms.

10. CONTROL WHAT YOU WANT TO CONTROL.
Out of all of the responsibilities on your plate, be sure to quickly understand what you want to control out of your entire team and what you want to delegate. Send out an e-mail at the end of the first week to your internal clients reminding them of who you are and what your position is, identifying the responsibilities you'll be managing first-hand, and how folks can route their needs to other team members.

CONCLUSION: Starting a new job is never a piece of cake. But by keeping these ten steps in mind, you'll have better footing at establishing the right tone and relationships in your position for the years ahead.