Shashikant Someshwar is the Chief Executive Officer at Weber Shandwick, India
The Future of PR is Not Just Confined to a Playbook
Would you believe me if I told you that in most high-stakes communications challenges, the most powerful tool you have isn’t a strategic playbook, but your instinct?
I know it sounds almost unscientific for a strategic communications professional to admit. But when a major mandate is on the line, or a critical client negotiation hits a wall, it’s often that sudden gut feeling that steers the ship away from the rocks and towards a solution.
But here is the secret: communication instincts aren’t one-dimensional, and they certainly aren’t magic. What we casually call “instinct” is actually rapid-fire pattern recognition. It is the invisible culmination of years of exposure. Every tense boardroom debate, every complex client negotiation, and every meticulously crafted brand narrative you’ve ever navigated gets stored in your mental hard drive. Over time, that compounding experience synthesizes into a sharp, decisive acumen.
The good news? Because it’s an acquired skill rather than an innate gift, you can actively practice and develop it. You don’t have to wait a decade to hone your gut.
Developing this professional edge really comes down to the subtle art of listening—not just to the words being spoken, but to the nuances beneath them. In any meaningful partnership, we can learn a lot about what a stakeholder is experiencing simply by paying attention to the subtle phrasing they use. For instance, when a partner shifts from asking ‘what is your plan for this campaign?’ to ‘how are we going to roll this out?’—that transition from ‘you’ to ‘we’ is a beautiful, subtle cue that they have officially transitioned from reviewing the idea and are excited to bring it to life together.
Beyond those specific word choices, paying close attention to the natural tone and cadence of a conversation offers so much helpful context. We naturally focus a great deal on crafting our own message, but taking a moment to tune into how others are speaking-noticing a slight hesitation before agreeing to a path, or a brief change in tempo when discussing a project element-can reveal underlying comfort levels or areas of uncertainty that a formal email might miss altogether.
Ultimately, this is about listening for what remains unsaid. Often, if a partner seems exceptionally focused on a minor operational detail, it isn’t just about that single task; it’s frequently their way of working through a much larger, unspoken pressure, such as expectations from their own executive leadership.
Tuning into these quiet signals isn’t about overanalyzing; it’s about building a deeper sense of professional empathy. By paying attention to the overall texture of a conversation-the phrasing, the pauses, and the tone-you feed your brain the critical data it needs. Soon enough, that data will speak to you as an instinctual flash of brilliance, right when you and your partners need it most.