A sixth PR personality type

I read an interesting article today about the top five PR personality types by Chris Norton which outlined them as creative, plate-spinner, eternal optimist, networking extraordinaire and trend chaser. (http://influence.cipr.co.uk/2016/07/26/top-five-personalty-types-pr-people/) I think it misses one really key type that every PR and communication team needs – the doer.

The doer is the person who can be relied upon to deliver results, deliver them on time and will be creative as well. They may not be the most creative person in the team or the one that knows all about the latest developments but they get things done.

You may think that this is the same as the ‘plate-spinner’ but if you read the article it clearly isn’t. The ‘plate-spinner’ is about rushing from one thing to another and it is difficult to hold their attention. This isn’t the same as the doer who is the person who may feel like a pack horse or the wall that is holding up the whole team.

They are the person who will put themselves forward to take on additional work, or will work late, and if you need them to come in at a weekend they will. Above all, they do this without looking for plaudits or awards. They would rather get their head down and finish the task, and they will get their reward by seeing a positive outcome.

Every team needs a blend of people with different skills, knowledge and experience and the best teams need a range of personality types. You need the people who come up with the ideas, and the people who will challenge and question, but above all you need people who will get the job done. Often we want to be seen as one of the most flamboyant or positive people but not the quiet person who gets things done.

I write this in praise of those hard workers who will keep beavering away, much of the time unseen, to complete the tasks and get results. All teams need to say thank you.