Managing levels of expectation – Obama might have raised the bar too high
Friday, November 7th, 2008Managing expectation can be quite a task. Everyone has a different idea of what constitutes success in terms of PR.
The PR practitioner has to ensure that unrealistic expectations do not derail a campaign or even lose an account. It is the job of the PR to guide clients, state a reasonable benchmark and beat it. Of course this is subjective, and therein lies the problem.
But when I think of managing expectation, it compares as nothing to the level of hope, of anticipation that Barack Obama has generated, both in the US and worldwide. It is an impossible task already.
Two wars, an economic meltdown, a terrible budget deficit (from a budget surplus under Clinton), health care provision, education to all that are gifted enough to take it and a housing crisis is enough. But on top of that there will be conflicting hopes – he cannot satisfy everyone.
Now that Barack Obama has won, he now must cool down expectation, if he can do that he will be a very talented politician. How he does that I have no idea, but if he doesn’t he could derail his own presidency.
