Written By: Mausam Jadav, an aspiring Public Relations student from York University
Jean-Michel’s 3 Decades Worth of Learning and Unlearning
I found Carolina Salinas and Jean-Michel Catta chatting with a vibrant disposition. Upon pleasant introductions, I started our coffee chat by asking Jean-Michel where his dream of becoming a communications professional begun from, to which he described an interesting journey led by his “ circumstances in life.”
From pursuing a Master’s degree in History from the University of Ottawa, he embarked onto a teaching position, which inculcated a love for writing and research in him. After that, he aspired to pursue a PhD which helped in further in flourishing his communications and researching skills.
“Teaching opportunity at University Of Ottawa helped me acquire knowledge about the society that we live in.”
After being appointed in the Communications Department of Bank of Canada as a Junior Officer, he learned that being curious about the world is the key to effective communication and harbouring critical thinking and analytical thinking skills.
Some Challenges and Changes
Talking about some of the challenges that Jean-Michel faced throughout his career, he laid emphasis on the learning curve of the communications path and implementation of two big changes:
- Focusing on the thinking part and the creative brainstorming
- Implementation of the strategy and watching how senior authorities, executives, colleagues etc., play their strategic moves.
“Greatest way to learn is to observe the people around you.”
Tackling Leadership
Being in a senior authority role for the majority of his career, Jean-Michel shed some insight into things one must be cognizant about. Primarily, that “It’s the people. It’s all about the people.” Secondly, “The best strategy is the combination of two perspectives.”
Skills to Master
- Being a Good listener: As a rule of thumb, It is essential to be a good listener first to be a good communicator.
- Speaking Truth to Your Power: Being proactive and using your skills to your power
- Ability to think on your feet: As the communications is a fast-moving industry, and the environment is ever-changing, one must strengthen their ability to think on their feet, so they can master their ability to perform.
- Think outside of the box: Always putting forward the best idea forward in order to retain clients and ground them by helping them achieve what they want.
“The best part of being a communications professional is seeing the outcome of your actions.”
Moreover, adapting with your strategy will help you put your best foot forward and evolve with the current environment and given context.
Favourite PR Project
Jean-Michel’s favourite time of the year is not the holidays but the time of the annual federal budget set by the Ministry of Ottawa. “Being responsible for assembling the whole budget and communications pieces together with a solid communication strategy is what I love about the federal budget.” As a dedicated communications consultant working with the government it is imperative to analyse the benefits for Canadians. “The biggest challenge was to shift the Govt. Communications and represent it digitally on social media. Overall, it is an extremely fascinating to be a part of such an intrinsic process and implementing a program that depicts our understanding of how various sets of Canadian audience consume information.”
Passion Project
“After more than 3 decades of being a loyal government servant, I started my own strategic communication and consultation brand by marketing and selling my skills even though I was not accustomed to it.” After retiring, Jean-Michel ventured into developing a personal brand by showcasing his identity and skills. Talking about shortcomings, and taking a chance on things that he would do more of, he put his prime focus on mentoring throughout his career and taking negotiation courses to help him become an effective communicator.
Golden Words for Aspirants
Prominently, Jean-Michel calls upon future PR aspirants to always seek the opportunity and take calculative risk as they will always help students to expand their career while growing the skills and mindset of an effective PR and communications professional.
“Always do the tasks at hand and dive deeper into it. Seek Advice. Learn More.”
Last but not the least, I asked Jean-Michel about the one thing he can have a do-over with in his career, to which he said, “Branch out your network. Don’t wait too late and be stuck in one place. Rather, expand and grow in various communication roles as the more ingrained you become in one part of your job, the more challenging it becomes to master the other.”
About Jean Michel-Catta
Jean-Michel Catta has been doing communication for more than thirty years. He has practiced almost all its professions and led small and large teams of professional communicators. Jean-Michel has a broad and informed view of the strategic role of communications having worked at the crossroads of the public and private sectors, civil society, and organizations in the field. Thus, Jean-Michel Services Conseils / Consulting Services offer a range of personalized and tailor-made communication services ranging from strategic positioning and communications to stakeholder and media engagement, and the development and writing of communication products both traditional (e.g., news releases and speeches) and for digital platforms. He is also an experienced facilitator able to rally management and work teams around common objectives, concrete actions, and results.
About Mausam Jadav
Mausam Jadav is a Public Relations and Content Strategy student with a background in English Literature and Journalism. Highly captivated by the dynamics of Public Relations, Strategic Communications, Digital Marketing and Social Media. Mausam Jadav is an inquisitive learner, bringing her adaptable skills in devising an organized content strategy, executing marketing campaigns, and regulating PR functions. Reach her at [email protected] for work inquiries.
