Personality.OLIVIA GADD Head of Corporate Communications Corporate communications is the process of facilitating information and knowledge exchanges with internal and key external groups and individuals that have a direct relationship with an enterprise. at the London office of Arup, a global management, engineering and design consulting firm Noun 1. consulting firm - a firm of experts providing professional advice to an organization for a fee consulting company business firm, firm, house - the members of a business organization that owns or operates one or more establishments; "he worked for a with 72 offices in 31 countries. WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST PAYING JOB? Working at a local petrol station and store before starting college--frontline community relations 1. The relationship between military and civilian communities. 2. Those public affairs programs that address issues of interest to the general public, business, academia, veterans, Service organizations, military-related associations, and other non-news media entities. ! WHAT'S THE MOST VALUABLE ADVICE YOU'VE BEEN GIVEN IN YOUR CAREER? Life is short (and you work too many hours) not to enjoy your job. I'm pleased to say that I've found a line of work I love. WHAT'S THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE YOU'VE FACED IN YOUR CAREER? Overcoming a deep-felt fear of public speaking that started with an inability to read aloud in class, due to the stammer stam·mer n. A speech disorder characterized by hesitation and repetition of sounds, or by mispronunciation or transposition of certain consonants, especially l, r, and s. v. To speak with a stammer. the experience created. The solution I hit upon was hard, but effective: I volunteered to take as many speaking opportunities as people would let me, starting with a talk to 150 colleagues at a company I was about to join. I was more scared of giving a bad impression as their new communication person than I was of the actual event! TELL US ABOUT A TIME YOU ACTED FIRST AND ASKED PERMISSION LATER? That tends to be my style, which is why I love working in my current job so much. Arup is a company that enables me to be creative and maverick, and I'm judged on the output and results rather than the process. WHAT'S THE BIGGEST RISK YOU'VE EVER TAKEN? Our company's annual leadership meeting had not been communicated well to the general membership of the firm. A two-day meeting full of presentation and debate is not an easy thing to explain simply to those not attending. I wanted to open the doors on the event but in a measured way--with no budget and a chairman who was not keen--I was in a tricky place. I asked the chairman if it would be OK for me to have cameras at the event ... not sure what I wanted to do with the footage, but that it would be good. He was very lukewarm, but agreed. A large factor in the risk was that everyone at the meeting was aware of the cameras and was eager to know what we were doing. We held mini-interviews with a number of attendees to delve into their views on the event and its content. The final edit was a seven-minute insight showing the flavour and scale of the event, which we streamed on our intranet. It was very well received. DESCRIBE AN ETHICAL DILEMMA An ethical dilemma is a situation that will often involve an apparent conflict between moral imperatives, in which to obey one would result in transgressing another. This is also called an ethical paradox THAT YOU FACED. HOW DID YOU RESOLVE IT? In a previous job at a PR agency, I was asked to work with a particular client that was effectively an asset stripper Asset Stripper An individual who determines if the value of a company is worth more purchased as a whole or divided into separate assets which are sold off. This is usually done in order to fulfill debt agreements. . I think it's important to believe in the product or company you're promoting, and I was not comfortable with the idea of working with people whom I couldn't relate to at any level. So I refused the account, which caused ructions for me with my boss for a long time. But eventually things settled down and he admitted a grudging admiration for the strength of my convictions. WHAT GETS UNDER YOUR SKIN PROFESSIONALLY? Bad English Bad English was an American rock band supergroup formed in 1988, reuniting keyboardist Jonathan Cain with singer John Waite and bassist Ricky Phillips, his former bandmates in The Babys. History The members decided on a name for the band while playing pool. ! I'm amazed at the number of people who have no grasp of grammar, punctuation or spelling. In the UK there has been a dearth of English language English language, member of the West Germanic group of the Germanic subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages (see Germanic languages). Spoken by about 470 million people throughout the world, English is the official language of about 45 nations. education in schools for at least 25 years, and it shows in just about everything you read. IF YOU COULD INVENT OR CREATE SOMETHING TO MAKE YOUR JOB EASIER, WHAT WOULD IT BE? Teleportation tel·e·por·ta·tion n. A hypothetical method of transportation in which matter or information is dematerialized, usually instantaneously, at one point and recreated at another. : giving me a way to visit our offices around the world without all the travel [although video conferencing See videoconferencing. (communications) video conferencing - A discussion between two or more groups of people who are in different places but can see and hear each other using electronic communications. is a good start!] and a way to commute to work, and, more important, home--instantly. IF YOU HAD A 28-HOUR DAY, HOW WOULD YOU SPEND THOSE EXTRA FOUR HOURS? One hour would go to my daughter, one to reading novels, one to having a drowsy drows·y adj. drows·i·er, drows·i·est 1. Dull with sleepiness; sluggish. 2. Produced or characterized by sleepiness. 3. Inducing sleepiness; soporific. lie-in, and the last would be spent in good company. WHAT CAN'T YOU SAY "NO" TO? Too many things--particularly challenges and chocolate. What's your personality? Download and complete our questionnaire at www.iabc.com/personality, and you could be featured in a future issue of CW. |
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