A Young(ish) Communicator's Manifesto

I can be an insufferable know-it-all.

That’s not really that hard for me to admit; some of the know-it-all things I know are my own shortcomings. I like to think I come by this trait honestly: my dad collects useless facts and my mom likes to make confident-sounding statements. Combined, these traits have created someone who knows a lot of useless information and has no problem sharing it with anyone who will listen.

Yes, an insufferable know-it-all.

For me, it’s not usually about proving that other people are wrong; rather, it’s about proving that I’m right. My introverted personality almost guarantees that by the time I say something, I’m 99 per cent sure what I’m saying is correct. I’ve thought about the statement, researched it even – and only then will I hit someone with my knowledge.

As a professional and a writer (and as a professional writer), I’ve learned to curb my know-it-all-itis. My high-school English teacher taught me the humbling lesson of owning my mistakes and understanding them. She later commented to my mother that I rarely, if ever, make the same mistake twice. In college, I learned that working with people effectively requires collaboration and compromise.

I share these little life lessons because – despite being a self-described know-it-all, despite my innate desire to be right – I can choose my battles, admit my mistakes, compromise when it makes sense.

But this has been a challenge throughout my career, one that I’m sure other Millennials face: at what point in my career can I start standing my ground?

Early in my six-year career as a communicator, I learned very quickly that, as a young, inexperienced professional, my advice was not always heeded and my expertise was not always trusted. That’s fair. I was young and inexperienced. An unfortunate side-effect of this – of being forced to compromise on everything, of being subject to my clients’ whims and caprices – was that I became an order-taker.

Most communications professionals will understand what I mean: I began to do what my client asked without much fuss, without providing a better way, without questioning the reasoning behind it. You want a brochure? Sure thing! An ad? Why not! Different wording? Okay!

But by trying to develop good working relationships with my clients, I actually did them a disservice. Not everyone is an effective writer, despite the fact that most everyone can put words on a page. Not everyone is an effective communicator, despite the fact that most everyone can communicate in some form or another. I received training to be an effective writer and communicator, and then I used this training in various workplaces, honing my expertise by learning both from other professionals and from my own successes and failures as my career progressed.

I don’t know everything, but I know enough. And when I chose to be an order-taker, I was doing my job the easy way, not the right way. It seems pretty hypocritical that I love to be right but won’t do right.

The only thing I hate more than being wrong is being hypocritical. Here, then, is my new manifesto, one that I hope other just-past-young communicators will adopt:

No longer am I young; no longer am I inexperienced; no longer will I be an order-taker when there is a better way. Of course, I’ll still admit my own mistakes, still compromise, still choose my battles – but now, I’ll also choose to die on a few hills if it means doing right for my clients, my organization, and myself.