How senior leaders can engage junior PR staff

At Method Communications, I’ve learned that being a good junior employee is about identifying and seizing opportunities, whether they’re provided to you, or you found them yourself. Passion and eagerness to learn are table stakes.

However, there are subtle things that can cause the hungry, ambitious, young PR pros out there to disengage.

How can senior leadership support junior team members in reaching their goals? I’ve been on a lot of teams that are great at motivating me—and some that haven’t done me any favors. Is some of that my fault? Sure, there’s still so many areas for growth at my level, no matter how talented you are. But, for senior leaders who want to put junior staff in a position to succeed, here are some opportunities to make a difference:

Working on announcements

Don’t box us in. For any announcement in the agency world, there are usually a few key elements: the press release, the pitch, the media list, the briefing document(s) and the coverage report. Most of the time, junior staffers are assigned to help with the last three, which require less strategic thinking and writing and—especially if you have a client with the same types of announcements—can start to feel repetitive.