Diaries are so much more exciting than autobiographies. Where autobiographies conjure up images of an 800-page tome of door stopping magnitude, diaries smack of easy to read intrigue and insight – with more than a hint of dirt and grime lobbed in for good measure. As any decent publisher will tell you, it’s all about the packaging darling.

Of course, some diaries are better packaged than others. Anyone who picked up a copy of Clinton’s “My Life” for the first time would be lying if they told you that they did not go straight to the page marked Interns. Closer to home, Mark Latham’s diaries were considered by most to be a good old fashion bitchfest – more bitter vilification than tantalising voyeurism.

So flicking through Alastair Campbell’s recently published diaries, “The Blair Years”, was a breath of fresh air. Smart, tactful and irrepressibly direct, Campbell makes great reading for anyone remotely interested in the power base that effective communications has become. Clearly his greatest asset was his unwillingness to mince his words. For anyone who doubts me, take a quick trawl through his blog (alastair-campbell.blogspot.com). If you’re a sensitive soul, don’t. You might cry.

For those who have not heard of Campbell, he was Tony Blair’s Director of Communications and Strategy at Number 10. For those who have not heard of Tony Blair, you might want to consider stopping reading this article now.

Shortly after the publication of his diaries, Weber Shandwick hosted Campbell at one of our “Evening With …” sessions in the London office. He was affable, specific and a master at ensuring the 100 or so clients in attendance left in no doubt about the single most important factor in effective communications and leadership. Clarity: clarity of objective; clarity of strategy; and clarity of execution. Campbell was hell bent on sticking to the plan, never taking his eye off the ball and developing a skin that was thicker than the walls of your average nuclear fall out shelter.

“Hour by hour, week by week” was his mantra. His unrelenting belief in 24/7 upset plenty of people on the way, including most of his staff. But Campbell knew what he was aiming for and was not going to let anyone get in his way. By all accounts, he was the modern-day Macchiavelli. Doggedly determined and a true believer that the real challenge in communications and leadership is not to be right, but to get what you want.

Whilst his style might not be to everyone’s taste, there’s much that we can learn from Alastair Campbell. A good public relations person is often the last line of defence when it comes to protecting an organisation’s reputation. It may not be easy to tell the CEO or client that they’re wrong, but it’s your mandate to do so.

So stick with the strategy and be ruthless if things get off track. You may not make any friends in the short term, but you will shift the needle of opinion in the right direction and that’s what matters. And if it all goes horribly wrong, you could always sit down and write your diaries. Who knows where that could lead to.