Are you a waiter or a chef?

Are you a waiter or a chef? Our longer serving employees have heard me pine on this topic for some time but it is a critical element in the way we think and act as public relations consultants to our clients.

The waiter, as we all know, comes to the table and takes our orders. They nicely ask what would we like to drink, what would like to order, etc. But they essentially come to the ask us to take the initiative on giving them the order. This is akin to the public relations professional who rhetorically comes to the table with a client and asks what kind of news do they have. It’s a good question, but it puts the onus on the client to do the work and have the news in hand. If the customer hems and haws, in many cases the waiter is lost and just says, I’ll come back in a few minutes, still waiting to be told what to fetch.

I am much more excited about the “chefs” in our midst. The chef is a creator. They have the ability to take a piece of chicken and turn it into Chicken Marseille. They don’t only create anew but they are adept at going out of the kitchen and meeting their customers. They ask how the food tasted. They learn and they modify. The “chefs” in the public relations business are equally exciting to me. These are your colleagues who can take a trend that a client references, or a flicker or news and transform it into a story that generates great results for clients.

So ask yourself, are you a chef or a waiter and what do you think your clients prefer?