By John Durante
In penning my contributions to this blog, I routinely share my initial efforts with my spouse to gain her always patient and practical editorial insight. In a recent instance she offered her usual careful attention to a missive and said, “…this is really good — usually you just rant about something on here but this one shows real perspective.” Ouch! 
Not intending to damn me with faint praise (I don’t think), my lovely lady’s authentic comments suggested that some prior posts were perhaps not as wonderful and professionally motivating as my preening ego had initially concluded. I was humbled, privately, but nonetheless humbled and fittingly reminded of authenticity’s pesky cousin — humility.
You’ll know that as an ardent advocate of authentic commercial communication, WordWrite has long believed that a strong and accurate factual base must shape authenticity. Sometimes, the facts remind us that we all have feet of clay even while reaching (either for our own personal or our client’s) stars.
As public relations and marcom pros we are hardwired to portray clients in ways that facilitate favorable audience response. And that’s as it should be. But in building an authentic communication style, steadfastness is required: In discovering the relevant story facts, in realizing what has or will work and especially, in being self-honest and outwardly candid about what has failed. It’s the last item that will often humble us — sometimes in a gentle loving way from a spouse, and others times as part of distressing collaboration with clients.
But if you commit to practicing an authentic PR and marketing communication paradigm, then that must include making room for the sometimes frightening, often irksome and always pesky leveling hand of humility. And that too, is as it should be. As the monk and scholar Thomas Merton once put it, “humility makes us real.”
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John Durante is senior marketing associate for WordWrite Communications.
