What the heck is "diplomatic tenacity?"

I had the good fortune of participating on a panel discussion yesterday at the Business Communicators Summit - the Kansas City chapter of IABC's annual get-together of business communications professionals in this region.

The panel was made of up of three other senior marketers like me and we were asked a series of questions regarding trends in communications, how we use data to build data-driven content and the usual "tell us some advice you can pass along to help all of us advance our careers."

My response? Have "diplomatic tenacity." Let me explain.

I often hear managers say that they want team members who are "tenacious." I subsequently have seen team members develop sharp elbows and become a bull-in-a-china-closet in their interactions with colleagues in other departments.

The term "diplomatic" is critical. Why? The word is defined as "Skill in managing negotiations, handling people, etc., so that there is little or no ill will; tact." Combine that skill set - the deft building and handling of relationships - with tenacity and you have a formula for success.

When explaining the phrase I used an example from earlier in my career. A colleague of mine and I were working to get our corporation to approve a major investment in a sponsorship partnership. This investment was not only significant for our company but it also was an unprecedented amount in the world of partnership marketing.

The two of us made 27 presentations - 27! - internally to senior leaders across the company. While some would likely define that as insanity ("the process of doing something that isn't working over and over"), we used the process to fine tune our presentation and sales effort each of the 27 times that we made our pitch. Ultimately, this "diplomatic tenacity" - the refusal to grow weary of the process and the numerous reasons "why not" - resulted in one senior exec pounding his hand on the table and saying "we must do this - it's the right thing for our company!"

Not everyone gets that once-in-career opportunity to doggedly work to gain approval on something that changes the direction of a brand. But, everyone does get a chance in their career to practice diplomatic tenacity.

To learn more, shoot me an email (mgoff@goffmarketing.com) - I'd love to help you and your team implement diplomatic tenacity within your organization.