Whether you are onboarding into a new firm, taking on a new leadership role, or managing a team transition, the communication basics always apply. Three critical decisions should guide everything you say and do and don't say and don't do: Who you are talking to What you want them to understand and feel How [...]
The Words are Not the Message
October 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment
We have all been taught the importance of staying on message. Unfortunately, "message" is one of those over-used words that has come to mean different things to different people. Let's focus on one of Webster's definitions of message: "An underlying theme or idea" We often use a set of words as a short-cut to the [...]
Crisis Management: Be Do Say
August 23, 2010 By 1 Comment
Good article by Peter S. Goodman in the New York Times (8/22/10) on “In Case of Emergency: What Not to Do”. He looks at how British Petroleum, Toyota, and Goldman Sachs handled or mishandled their recent PR debacles. On the one hand, he points out that, “As conventional wisdom has it, the three companies at [...]
Managing Leaks
July 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Betty was announcing a set of changes in her organization all at the same time. She wanted to let people know in the right order, make sure they all had the same understanding and not disenfranchise her managers all at the same time. The key pieces of her announcement cascade included: Have one-on-one conversations with [...]