Candace Steele Flippin on Developing Your Career
By Amy Jacques
November-December 2020
Communications executive and multigenerational workplace scholar Candace Steele Flippin, MBA, APR, delivered the PRSSA keynote address on Oct. 27 at PRSA’s ICON 2020 virtual conference.
“In your career, make it personal, use the power of your perspective to make the world better and don’t compromise your integrity,” said Flippin, an executive research fellow at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. “People want the truth and people want transparency.”
Here are a few nuggets of advice she shared:
On career advice she received:
“The key to being a great communications leader is to always be effective in your role.”
On what she’d tell her recently graduated self:
“As a Black woman, I worried a lot. I felt like I entered my career with a burden. I had more fear than I needed to when I started out. Things always worked out in the end.”
On careers and pay equity:
“I’m not going to tell you how to manage your career; I’ll tell you how I’m going to manage mine. Give them an opportunity to fix it and, when they don’t, create your own opportunity.”
On her honest reputation:
“I try to be candid and thoughtful. When you choose to make the truth gray, the act will chip away at your credibility.”
On truth and transparency:
“Don’t compromise your integrity. Everything you do will be personal. Professional communicators are unique stewards of the public trust.”
On leadership:
“PR professionals are uniquely positioned if, and only if, they take it upon themselves to lead in ways that haven’t been requested before.”
Amy Jacques
Amy Jacques is the managing editor of publications for PRSA. A native of Greenville, S.C., she holds a master’s degree in arts journalism from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School. She also holds a bachelor’s degree in advertising from the University of Georgia’s Grady College and a certificate in magazine and website publishing from New York University.
