One of the things I try to guard against, as I gather more experience and expertise with age, is coming off as a person who believes they’re always right. I have developed an acute allergy to people who are 100% …
Category: Leadership
Wanted: fun people doing great things
I launched this website in early 2018 because I left a full-time executive position at the end of 2017 and was about to launch a practice in communications consulting and writing. (I also wanted to do meeting design and facilitation …
Communicating about DEI in a time of crisis
One thing you hear as a communications professional is that every organization needs a crisis communications plan. When I was making my way up the leadership ladder, I heard this a lot, and at first, my idea of what a …
When people behave poorly in the workplace
From my earliest jobs after college, I have vivid memories of incidents when my bosses at the time called me into their offices to reprimand me for doing something wrong. These dressing-downs were usually about breaking confidentiality – one boss …
Thoughts about the narrative turnaround of Biden/Harris
The way I’ve talked about narrative change in the past, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was kind of a lengthy, drawn-out process. If I’m working on a narrative strategy project with a client, for example, there’s usually some type …
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The magic of alignment in work
I am six feet under with writing work and also experiencing the emotional whiplash that comes from being a consumer of political news these days, but since I skipped last month’s entry, I felt compelled to write about a topic …
Finding my way out of work ambivalence
I have a confession. In the past two months, I’ve thrown my hat into the ring for two jobs. Both were executive-level positions, and let me tell you, while I have an excellent resumé and can write a damn good …
An oldie but goodie
(I keep a personal journal and I ran across this entry from December 2005. A lifetime ago! I decided it was worth re-posting because I know quite a few twentysomethings and the thing is, they all work very hard and …
When communicating less is better
It is true that communications is my livelihood, and that I’ve made an entire career out of helping organizations communicate. The term “communications” covers a lot of things, so let me be more specific: I help organizations talk about who …
The conflict between communicating and leading
I have always believed that working in communications involves creative thinking. My day-to-day work involves a great deal of creation—messaging, stories, language that I hope will resonate with target audiences. And this is the part of the work that I …