Bulletin No. 14 | March – April 2003

REMARKS FROM THE EDITOR

Every board or stop executives with whom the editor has talked or worked  has placed a high importance on achieving a good corporate reputation. executives and directors know that a good reputation allows them to attract more capital, gain a higher multiple  for their market share, enhance their recruiting efforts, Improve employee satisfaction and attract more customers.  However,  they often misunderstand how reputations are achieve and maintain and, as a result are likely  to rely too heavily on corporate  advertising,  while at the same time not doing enough on reputation building activities with stakeholders.

Why organizations fail to achieve their desired reputation? Some would argue that’s the problem is related to a given situation, say, an environmental incident. Others will argue that the funding is not adequate for marketing and advertising, and by far – the public relations staff is poor. In number of crisis situation in this country, we are witnessing how public relations is not empowered. How top executives have underestimated PR potentials and how much money has been spent for gaining public trust. Major public relations problems can affect an organization’s  reputation. PR problems lead to financial and social costs. Burson (2002),  a world-leading PR consultant stated that PR problem is the problem of reality.

In this issue, you will find some answers about  promotion and communication activities whether or not they are classified as Public Relations.  Tips of the month gives practical guidance for building interpersonal relationship and how to raise your emotional intelligence.  in Marketing you will find new principles to adopt and in Leadership you have more skills to effective team working. 

Practice your EI in our interactive discussion online PR. Riza Primadi (News Director Trans TV) FA Suhardi Soetedja ( PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk) and Arief Warsito (PT Aneka Tambang Tbk) will be there to share with you.

Enjoy your reading!

Elizabeth Goenawan Ananto
Editor

TIPS OF THE MONTH

Building Rapport Takes Skills and Practice

‘If you want to win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend’ – Abraham Lincoln
Have you ever been in a situation where you meet someone for the first time and after a few minutes talk feel as if you are more like friends than strangers. if you have the same fuse on a particular issues, similar backgrounds, or something else in common then you are building rapport.

How far is the ability to get one the right things with someone. It is the ability to be able to enter someone’s worldviews and make them feel you understand them. It is about establishing an atmosphere  of trust and responsiveness. 

You can either emphasize the differences or to emphasize the similarities. Establishing rapport is very difficult with people if they only emphasize the differences.

People with good interpersonal skills create rapport and rapport create trust
Here are some tips:

1. Listen to the kinds of words and phrases the other person uses,  and try to incorporate them into your conversation
2. Be sensitive to the level of vocabulary
3. Avoid using your own speech any jargon which other person does not understand
4. Attempt to match the other person’s body language sensitively and with respect
5. Put your body position in a similar position to the other person’
   • Emphasize similarities and differences
   • Knowing how to response effectively to a variety of situation takes skills and practice

(Source : Interpersonal Skills, Astrid French)