For all the major highs that come with a job in public relations, there are lows, and that usually comes from the amount of rejection PRs face. Aside from sales, there are few other professions that face rejection, high stress levels or are ignored multiple times a day.
PRmoment recently asked professionals how they dealt with rejection in their day-to-day and it would seem many agencies have practices and policies, alongside learning resources, to ensure the entire team is able to build resilience to the word “no”.
But what is resilience, where does it come from and can it be built in a busy PR environment?
Low resilience? Have a check in
For anyone reading this who is having a low resilience day, Emma Ewing, coach at Big Fish Training ,says that checking your resilience levels is something you can do at the beginning of the day. If it turns out that a crisis comms situation might send you over the edge try this (and of course, speak to your manager):
How could you get a ‘quick win’?
What could you reprioritise for another day?
What are the resilience drains?
How can you get more energy to lift over obstacles?
Who can help?
What do you need to feel better today?
Our brush with resilience
Hayley Knight, co-founder and communications director at PR firm Be Yellow, explains that as rejection is “part of the job” when it comes to PR, which can be “demotivating”, it can be reframed to rebuild resilience.
“Receiving feedback from a journalist, editor, or even potential client can be demoralising, but it’s also a good chance to build a relationship, as they’ve taken the time to respond, and it has the potential to open the door to give them something they’re looking for,” says Knight.
“But the worst kind of rejection is radio silence when it comes to pitching, and you don’t have any direction or feedback to understand where it went wrong. Radio silence is a good learning tool, and an opportunity to process and reflect, and create something better, and more relevant. When something doesn’t work, don’t rush to fix it.”
Similarly, Leah Archibald, senior PR and content executive at PR agency Herd explains: “Boy, I've faced my share of rejections. There's nothing more frustrating than nailing a press release or campaign, carefully compiling a list of journalists, and crafting the perfect pitch, only to be met with a no or, worse, silence. But rejection is part of the game, and how you handle it will make all the difference.”
Understanding resilience
But, resilience in itself is a somewhat contentious concept in the employee wellbeing space, chiefly because some post-pandemic employers harnessed its power for evil by developing super resilient employees to handle impossible workloads.
Putting the onus on employees to be more resilient in the face of adversity created by the organisation is not the way to go, but being mindful of yours and your team's resilience could make or break a day.
The main issue with resilience is that it's not a linear journey, says Emma Ewing: “Resilience is not static and I think it's so important to have that self knowledge that it's ok. It's totally normal and human for resilience to be variable and to not expect ourselves to be superhuman and zen-like in the face of it.”
Alex Shore, resilience coach at Shore Coaching says the first step to understanding resilience is this simple fact: “Resilience isn’t something any of us naturally have or don’t have. It’s a daily practice rather than a personality trait, no one is born resilient. When you break resilience down, it’s the daily practice of flexible thinking, self-compassion, an optimistic mindset, emotional awareness, being your authentic self and working with your nervous system.”
Resilience is best built with techniques not too dissimilar to therapeutic exercises used in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) that involve a person looking inwards and having a check-in with their feelings and/or resilience levels.
How to build resilience
Resilience coach Karolina Szweda runs down her top tips for leaders and PR practitioners on how to build and maintain resilience.
For PR professionals
1. Reframe rejection. Instead of seeing it as failure, view it as valuable feedback. What did you learn from this experience? How can you use this insight to move forward?
2. Separate yourself from the outcome. Most times, rejection is situational and based on a specific moment in time, not a reflection of your value as a person.
3. Focus on what’s within your control. The truth is that you can only control your actions, not the outcomes. Do your best to keep on showing up and distance yourself from the results.
4. Build an internal validation engine. Instead of focusing on the results, focus on the effort you put into your work, and make your activity your success metric.
5. Ask more experienced professionals and peers about their experience. Everyone faces rejection at some point. You’re not alone in the struggle. Treat yourself with the same kindness you would offer a colleague in a similar situation.
6. Give yourself time to process. It's okay to feel disappointed. Give yourself the space to process emotions without judgment.
7. Strengthen your growth mindset. See challenges as opportunities to grow. Sometimes, it’s a numbers game, so each 'no' gets you closer to a 'yes'.
For PR leaders
1. Create a safe space to make mistakes. Reassure your team that rejection is a part of the game and encourage them to take calculated risks.
2. Lead by an example. Share your own experiences with rejection. Normalise rejections as part of the process.
3. Provide quality feedback. Offer specific, actionable suggestions, focusing on areas of improvement while also acknowledging what was done well.
4. Recognise the efforts and progress. Don’t focus only on celebrating successes; highlight the effort and progress even if the outcomes were different to what was expected. At the end of the day, you learned something from that rejection, so it’s still valuable.
5. Offer development opportunities. Suggest training and resources that can support those who are especially sensitive to rejection so they can build their confidence in a supported way.
PRmoment Leaders
PRmoment Leaders is our new subscription-based learning programme and community, built by PRmoment specifically for the next generation of PR and communications leaders to learn, network, and lead.
PRmoment LeadersIf you enjoyed this article, sign up for free to our twice weekly editorial alert.
We have six email alerts in total - covering ESG, internal comms, PR jobs and events. Enter your email address below to find out more: