How To Work With A PR Prima Donna

My answer: I'm not sure.

How's that for a definitive answer? But here's a few thoughts.

First off, if you're the prima donna, it's time to recognize that the days when this tactic worked ended about 100 years ago. It's time to grow up, play well with others, and learn some humility voluntarily, before that humility is thrust upon you by others.

On the other hand, if you have to work with someone else who's the problem, here's a few ideas that have worked for me. Some of these techniques work by themselves, some work in combination. None are easy, but then again, working with a prima donna isn't exactly the definition of a cakewalk job...

1. Isolate that person from the media as much as possible and expose them directly to the media only in key situations, and just for a few comments (there's a reason why PR personnel are the voice at the microphone in many media situations.)

One way to do this is to focus media attention on others also involved in the project. For example, if the problem is your CEO, try to convince him that it's time for the Manufacturing VP to have some media training and exposure. Try to convince him that person is the one closest to this particular situation, and is better prepared to answer specific questions.

2. Have the prima donna give a prepared statement, then have them leave, answering no questions - again, limiting their exposure time to the media.

3. Learn your prima donna's pet peeves, then only expose them to the media in situations where you are in control and those pet peeves are mitigated. For example, you may want to never do an interview outside of corporate offices, and only in a room that is set up exactly as the prima donna desires.

4. Play along in the little stuff so you have currency to cash in on the big issues when necessary. Since part of the motivation of a prima donna seems to be "winning" - give them some wins so they feel comfortable taking an occasional setback.

I remember a period when I worked in marketing with a famous Hollywood actress as our spokesperson. She was wonderful, but had one small problem - she had a sporadic lisp which made her reluctant to say certain words.

As time wore on, each commercial shoot became more and more of a struggle. Inevitably, there would be one word in the script that she simply couldn't say. The marketer on the shoot and the ad agency would become increasingly frustrated as they tried to get usable film, making the actress tense, until the entire shoot disintegrated into an endless series of retakes, with each take decreasing in quality.

So when it came time for the next commercial shoot, I decided to go myself. After 3 miserable takes, I took her for a walk outside the studio. We talked about the line, and somewhere over by the begonias, decided that we would change the copy slightly to remove the difficult word.

10 minutes later we walked back onto the set, she stood in front of the camera, and in one single take nailed the entire commercial! We got three more versions into the can, and I praised her to high heaven. She was glowing.

Then I asked her to try the line the way it had originally been written. She nailed it perfectly, three times in a row.

In short, we finished a 2-day shoot in a single day, and had the best commercial we'd ever had her do. So I rewarded her by taking her shopping in a limo, spent a couple of thousand on clothing for her, bought her an expensive dinner, and still saved $50,000 on the commercial.

That started a tradition. I'd go to the shoot, be flexible on a word or two when necessary, give her a win, later getting the script recorded as written, ending the day with a shopping trip, each time saving tens of thousands of dollars in the process. Eventually we got to the point where we pulled off a 1.5 day radio commercial session in about 90 minutes.

The ad agency hated it - marketers aren't traditionally supposed to interact with talent, but the results were worth it. Sometimes creativity is vital to getting the results you need. I learned a valuable lesson that year.

5. Have "the talk" with them about how the media punishes those who try to push them around. Perhaps, if your job is secure, you may want to bring up the growing up part too... :<)

Do you have any other ideas? Experiences? Share them with us through our contact us page - we'll pass the best along to everyone else.

Want to know more about how to avoid getting punished by the media? Check out our Audio CD, The Dangerous Hidden Secrets of Print and Broadcast Reporters, detailing not only the secrets that can hurt you, but the secrets that can work to your advantage to help you get the publicity you desire.

Tags: Working with difficult people