The outpouring of love and affection for Dolly Parton from everyone from Beyonce to our own Prime Minister Andy Burnham has been extraordinary.

I have been a Dolly fan for 25 years, since I moved into a tiny bedsit and my neighbour in the much bigger flat next door used to blast out Jolene on a regular basis through our shared wall. I never had the courage to complain and gradually found myself becoming intrigued by the story of the song and loving it too.

So I’m so pleased to write a blog which talks about comms and Dolly!

by Kristina Fox

As communicators, it would be easy to look at Dolly Parton and all the coverage of her story and legacy over the last week and focus on the myriad of powerful Dolly stories. It’s quite phenomenal how many there are: the powerful rags to riches story of her starting off life in a one room cabin in the smoky mountains and reaching musical superstardom; breaking stereotypes with her blond bombshell glamour and savvy business sense; and the heartwarming stories of her hugely generous philanthropy. Not to mention all her quotes and quips, which are all over social media right now.

Dolly herself was a master storyteller. She understood her audience. She knew how to communicate consistently over decades without sounding repetitive or losing touch with or alienating the people who loved her. She understood all the key elements of comms and I’m absolutely confident would have been a brilliant comms officer!

All of this is true. But it is not what I have been thinking about.

I've been thinking about careers.

Because if I’m honest, my career does not look anything like I thought it would five years ago.

Back then, I assumed there was a fairly obvious path ahead of me. Work hard, gain experience, move into more senior roles, take on bigger responsibilities and keep progressing. Like many of us in communications, I had absorbed the idea that success looked a certain way.

You move up. That is what careers are supposed to do.

But three years ago, I found myself having to stop and reassess.

I had reached a point where I found myself questioning things I had always taken for granted. Not just where my career was heading, but frankly whether I was actually any good at communications at all.

I know I am not the only person who has felt that way. In recent months, I have had countless conversations with communications professionals who have experienced similar moments.

The pressures facing our profession are real. Communications teams are being asked to do more with less. Resources are tight. Expectations are high and huge egos are everywhere. Political and organisational environments can sometimes feel volatile. And the jobs market feels tougher than it has for years.

Against that backdrop, it is not unusual to wonder whether you are the problem.

What if you’re not?

When I stepped back and really thought about what I wanted from my career, something unexpected happened.

Instead of focusing on the next rung of the ladder, I started focusing on the work itself. I retrained, particularly in social media strategy. I invested time in learning. I experimented. I paid attention to what was changing and where I could genuinely add value and more importantly what fired me up.

Slowly, my confidence returned. Not overnight. Not in a dramatic movie montage sort of way. But piece by piece.

The irony is that, by stepping away from the career path I thought I should be following, I found work that felt far more aligned with who I am and what I enjoy.

Today, I have the opportunity to be both creative and strategic.

I work with senior leaders who trust me and give me the space to do my best work. I am fortunate to be operating in a part of the organisation where ideas are welcomed, where communications is valued and where there is room to think rather than simply react.

The result has been some of the best work of my career. Last year, my social media work won Best Social Media Account at the UnAwards.

Of course, awards are lovely. But the award itself is not really the point. The point is that, like other bloggers for this newsletter have said, there was a time when I doubted whether I belonged in communications at all.

Winning was a reminder that the negative stories we tell ourselves are not always the most accurate ones.

Which brings me back to Dolly.

For me, one of the most fascinating parts of her story is not her success. It is what happened before it.

When Dolly Parton left the Porter Wagoner show in 1974, she was walking away from security, certainty and a relationship that launched her career. From the outside, it must have looked incredibly risky, and he reportedly told her she’d never make it. Many people would have stayed, or would have convinced themselves that they should stay.

But Dolly understood something important. The next chapter of her career required her to become more fully herself.

That decision came at a cost. It took every penny she had when Wagoner sued her, and she had to pay him $1 million. It was difficult and messy and involved setbacks and a huge leap of faith that striking out would be worth it. Yet it ultimately allowed her to build the extraordinary career that followed.

I think there is a lesson in that for communicators. Not because we are all destined to become global superstars, thankfully. But because we often define career success far too narrowly. We talk about progression as though it only means promotion.

A bigger title, a bigger team, a bigger budget, a bigger salary, more management responsibility. Sometimes those things are exactly right but sometimes they aren’t. Sometimes success is finding work that plays to your strengths. Sometimes it is discovering that you enjoy being a specialist. Sometimes it is working in an environment where you feel trusted. Sometimes it is having enough headspace to enjoy your life outside work.

And sometimes success is admitting that the version of your career you imagined at 30 is not the version you want at 40 or 50. There is no shame in that.

In fact, I increasingly think there is wisdom in it.

One of the great privileges of working in communications is that we spend our lives helping other people tell stories.

We help organisations explain change, leaders communicate vision and communities understand what comes next.

Yet we are often surprisingly harsh when it comes to the stories we tell ourselves. We see detours as failures. We see pauses as setbacks. And we see changes of direction as evidence that something has gone wrong.

What if they are simply part of the plot?

Looking back now, the career I thought I wanted was probably never the career that suited me best. The version of success I was chasing belonged to an idea of who I thought I should be. The version of success I have now feels far closer to who I actually am.

So, if I find myself asking what Dolly would do, I don’t think the answer is ‘be more ambitious’.

I think it is something simpler. I think it’s keep learning, keep growing, know your strengths, trust your instincts, and ultimately tell a better story about, and to, yourself.

And most importantly don’t let somebody else’s definition of success become more important than your own.

Kristina Fox is Senior Communications Officer for Children's Services at Norfolk County Council and winner of Best Social Media Account at the 2025 UnAwards for the Norfolk SEND Local Offer.

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