{"id":346,"date":"2020-11-29T10:51:01","date_gmt":"2020-11-29T10:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/commsnews.com\/?p=346"},"modified":"2020-12-12T13:18:04","modified_gmt":"2020-12-12T13:18:04","slug":"you-cant-please-everybody-in-this-complex-world-sabia-schwarzer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/?p=346","title":{"rendered":"You can\u2019t please everybody in this complex world: Sabia Schwarzer"},"content":{"rendered":"

On day one of Spectra, the online conference focused on reputation management, Sabia Schwarzer, Global Head of Communications and Responsibility, Allianz, spoke about the importance of reputation counselling.<\/span><\/p>\n

I, you and we<\/b><\/p>\n

Schwarzer explained that a good reputation provides the license to operate, in turn giving options and room to manoeuvre in.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn our networked world, it\u2019s so important for people to understand what you stand for, who you are and what your values are as a company. The only thing you would have to remember about reputation and reputation counsel are: I, you and we,\u201d said Schwarzer before diving into to explain the three.<\/span><\/p>\n

I<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018I\u2019 is either the company, or the CEO, or the person whose reputation is at stake or the person who is engaging with stakeholders,\u201d she explained. \u201cReputation counsel is important because it builds a bridge between your stakeholders and the person.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She added, \u201cA CEO doesn\u2019t just express his or her values, but represents a company. There\u2019s not much difference between your public and personal persona; both need to be consistent. Reputation counsel can help you combine your personal and company\u2019s values, building a bridge between the two.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

You<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018you\u2019 represents the stakeholders \u2013 customers, employees, investors, regulators and even societies. There have been some surprising stakeholders like children, too. Think about Greta Thunberg, for instance \u2013 who would have thought that a 16-year old girl would become such an important stakeholder and a figurehead of a movement? The \u2018you\u2019 refers to the people you are talking to, and they want to be treated as humans and adults. What that means is that if you\u2019re having a conversation or dialogue, it needs to be at eye level,\u201d Schwarzer said.<\/span><\/p>\n

She said often, she notices that the dialogue comes from a position of superiority and turns into arm-wrestling than a dialogue, failing to be constructive. Goodwill comes from listening and not just answering. It isn\u2019t about winning arguments or being right, but wanting to solve an issue. It\u2019s impossible to expand the license to operate otherwise, she feels.<\/span><\/p>\n

Further, she added, \u201cYou have to realise that you can\u2019t please everybody. An important aspect of reputation management is making people aware of the trade-offs that you face and it\u2019s important to face them head on. Honesty, transparency and taking a stand are more important than pleasing everybody in this complex world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

We<\/b><\/p>\n

Schwarzer said that the \u2018we\u2019 stands for community. \u201cI think over the past 15 years, the communication community has become so important. If you think about social media, every person can create their own community \u2013 not just their friends but there might be interested in research, trends. Managing that community today is also an important aspect of reputation management. Communications has so many analytical tools available today, that you can actually look through data and find out where those communities are that are talking about these trends.\u201d Companies need to go and meaningfully participate in those conversations,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In closing, she noted that the \u2018we\u2019 is that entity or big group that\u2019s going to solve problems for the world. Take climate change, for instance. It\u2019s too large a problem to be solved by one company or even one nation. It needs a collective effort and to prosper in the world, the \u2018we\u2019 is important to move forward as a community.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On day one of Spectra, the online conference focused on reputation management, Sabia Schwarzer, Global Head of Communications and Responsibility, Allianz, spoke about the importance of reputation counselling. I, you and we Schwarzer explained that a good reputation provides the license to operate, in turn giving options and room to manoeuvre in. \u201cIn our networked world, it\u2019s so important for people to understand what you stand for, who you are and what your values are as a company. The only thing you would have to remember about reputation and reputation counsel are: I, you and we,\u201d said Schwarzer before diving <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-event-coverage","category-spectra-2020"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=346"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":348,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346\/revisions\/348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}