"People leave managers, not companies."

Have you heard this saying before? 

I'm sure you have. I've spent a lot of time learning about leadership and as part of that, it's differences to management. 

You can be a great leader and you don't have to be a manager who has direct reports. 

But management is an extremely important function in any company. 

My greatest manager so far was Amanda Whyte who taught me a lot. The thing I appreciate the most was her candid constructive feedback that every quarter gave me something to work on. I'm driven by learning so for me it was extremely important to know the areas that I needed to improve. 

I consider myself lucky to have had such a manager. 

But what about the people who are not as lucky? What makes a bad manager and what makes a great manager? 

Have you ever struggled to get a 'yes' to your proposal from your boss (or anyone else for that matter)?

I have. It's hard to persuade someone else to do what you want or to agree to the approach you are proposing so that you can execute.  

The more you move up in a company and the bigger the company becomes (i.e. a corporation), the more important it becomes to build a business case and present it in front of the right person in the right way in order to get out what you want for your next steps. It's the same if you work in an agency and need your client's buy-in.

I spend a lot of my time at my job doing exactly that. I wouldn't say I've mastered this but I've certainly learned a few things. 

And as always, I learn by reading, listening to videos and of course, by doing. 

Today, I want to share with you the key learnings from a video and a slideshare that I came across on executive presentations that get you an executive 'yes'. In addition, I'll share some of my own experience too.

Clap if you agree: PR's biggest challenge throughout its entire existence has been measurement. 

I wish I could hear you. 

But I'm sure that pretty much everyone who works in the PR industry would agree. 

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of participating in Paul Sutton's podcast where we spoke about Inbound PR and how it presents "a methodology for public relations that moves the conversation firmly away from being one about reputation management to being one about the bottom line."

What prompted this post was Paul's latest episode with Kate Hartley where they summarised the entire season of the podcast show. A lovely conversation about humanity and vulnerability, about our core as people and what drives us that you should listen to as well. 

Inbound PR popped up as part of the discussion too around minute 17:30

Account-Based Marketing (ABM) has been a popular term over the last few years with a lot of companies jumping on it. 

I came across a great article from one of our agency partners at HubSpot about ABM and decided to run a whole post on it. 

However, I thought it would be best to rely on the experts on the topic so I picked up some of the best articles about ABM from our agency partners who really are the masters of ABM as they implement it day in and day out for clients. 

Everything You Need to Know About Account-Based Marketing 

What is Account-Based Marketing

It's time for another "Why Work in PR?" interview and I'm delighted to introduce you today to Rafal Salak who will share with us his exciting PR career story in software and offer key advice for students and young professionals who want to learn more about the industry and how to get into it, especially if wanting to work in tech. 

I'm a big fan of Prowly where Rafal works. We've never met but we've been in touch through email or Twitter many times for various projects, initiatives or simply to share ideas.

Before you move onto the interview, don't forget to follow Rafal on Twitter. 

(If you've missed any of the previous interviews, you can take a look as well: Richard Bailey, Pippa Hanson, Jessica Hodkinson, Chryssa Skodra, Farzana Baduel, Scott Guthrie, Sarah Hall, Angharad Welsh, Alex May and Maria Gergova-Bengtsson.) 

Why Work in Public Relations: Interview with Rafal Salak