What coaching ice hockey taught me about successful public relations practices

I was fortunate to spend six years working and coaching at my high school alma mater, Culver Academies, which also happens to boast one of the top interscholastic ice hockey programs in the country.

As anyone who truly enjoys coaching will tell you, I learned more from my fellow coaches and players than they ever did from me.

After playing competitively at the high school, prep school, junior and college levels for more than 15 years, it was certainly enjoyable to live vicariously through the teams I was privileged enough to coach.

Moreover, it was rewarding to know I played at least some small part in helping them reach their goal of competing at the next level. More than a dozen players (and counting) from my time coaching at Culver (2002-08) went on to Division I college hockey programs and several more have been drafted in the National Hockey League.

The parallels between effective public relations and successful coaching haven’t escaped me, even though being a full-time father has now taken precedence over being a full-time coach.

Borrowing directly from the team guidelines I distributed to players before each season, here are other best practices that also apply to working as a PR practitioner or in corporate communications.

1. No trash talk allowed. In other words, let your work product and professionalism speak for itself. At WordWrite Communications, we do our talking on the scoreboard – which is to say we provide valuable guidance and support for our clients in a manner always consistent with our values. On the ice and in business, winning the right way is more rewarding than simply winning.
2. Play each shift as if it’s your last. Outworking the other team (or your other business competition) makes up for many shortcomings. Outthinking them with new, different and creative ways of doing business – StoryCrafting^TM as a new public relations paradigm, for example – provides an edge much sharper than the typical tactics so many others commoditize. Still, sometimes you can’t control the bounces of the puck or the calls the officials make. Likewise, despite your best effort and counsel based on experience and your clients’ best interest, you can’t always control how clients will react or what they might decide. You can, however, always control the amount of effort you exert.
3. Play under control. As John Wooden often said, “Never mistake activity for achievement.” In other words, skating around full of energy with no regard for your position on the ice or the particular system being used at that moment in the game results in chaos, and usually, goals against. Similarly, public relations activity simply for the sake of racking up billable hours does nothing strategic for your clients and won’t help either party reach mutually agreed upon goals. Understand your clients and their markets, and develop a tailored PR strategy that helps them tell their story, with a capital “S.”
4. Place the team above yourself. Support your teammates and encourage them. We all succeed or we all fail. The same philosophy holds true in an agency. My success depends on the success of my colleagues and vice versa. At WordWrite, each of us is an accomplished professional who brings different strengths and experiences. We’re given the opportunity to stretch and grow into new roles, while exercising the PR muscles we’ve fully developed thus far. Successfully putting each individual together in a well-orchestrated effort yields far greater returns for our firm and our clients.

Do you have certain philosophies and experiences outside your profession that have influenced the way you manage or lead your organization? Please share them with us. If you’re curious to see the entire list of team guidelines I designed at Culver, click here to download them.

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Jeremy Church is an account supervisor for WordWrite Communications.

He can be reached at jeremy.church@wordwritepr.com and on Twitter@churchjeremy.