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After young PR pros have landed the agency job they tirelessly hunted for, immersed themselves in the entry-level support role and officially launched their PR career, the next phase is something I like to call the support to strategy switch. While we were first brought on board to aid account managers in the tactical elements of the communications campaigns for their clients, we have now proved ourselves enough to take on the role as account lead.

Just like any transition, there are growing pains. Similar to the journey from college to career is the process of getting accustomed to managing client accounts. It’s time to take it up a notch. So what can you do to make the move to management as efficient and accelerated as possible? Here are a few things I’ve learned through my experience:

We’re about to wrap up another successful year at Identity. 2011 was a pretty big year for us. It was the first full year we spent in our new office space. We added both new clients and new team members. And most importantly, we have tons of examples of great work that we can be proud of from this past year.

As a PR practitioner, I’ve long recoiled at hearing the term “spin” being applied to my profession. I don’t think of myself as a “spin artist,” nor do I advocate that companies and executives master the art of “spin” when dealing with the media and constituents. Rather, I prefer they speak in plain English. Audiences are people, too, after all.

It is a classic and relevant example of someone getting out in front of the story. Suh could’ve very well left well enough alone, allowing the reputation to fester and living with the consequences. But a negative public perception was affecting his ability to be successful on the field (and likely in the endorsement arena—the rest of the “business” associated with professional sports), so he took action to correct it.

Stephen Sondheim has written music and lyrics for some of the most enduring musicals of the last half a century. I have no idea if he has ever written a press release, yet the lines he wrote could have emerged in whole from the textbook for PR 101: