Communications
6 Reasons An Arts Education Makes Good Business Sense
As an executive coach with a degree in fine art, Iâm often asked. “How did you go from artist to executive coach”? Itâs a fair question. To clarify, in between I did spend a huge chunk of my career running a small media company, with P&L, revenue, budgeting, hiring and leadership responsibilities. But the transferable…
Read MoreDoes Rudeness Really Matter?
In three experimental studies, Christine L. Porath provides an empirical test of how rudeness affects task performance and helpfulness. Different forms of rudenessârudeness instigated by a direct authority figure, rudeness delivered by a third party, and imagined rudenessâconverged to produce the same effects. Results from these studies showed that rudeness reduced performance on routine tasks as well…
Read MoreHow do you keep your team aligned and focused around what matters most?
Projects of critical importance and impact are almost always done in a team setting. In fact, the ability to function at a high level within a team setting is what defines great companies. But not all of us understand the skillset required to be a great teammate. The impulse to achieve individual results and be…
Read MoreCommunicating Bad News
At present, the single greatest risk from the Ebola virus is managing communications around its threat, informing citizens in ways that inspire smart behaviors and avoid widespread panic. Misinformation invites irrational behavior, which in turn invites more misinformation. As cable news network health pundits and other informed sources are pressed to provide facts on things…
Read MoreGaming the System
What if there was a way to guarantee that the enterprise training you just invested heavily in would live on in the hearts and minds of employees? What if you could continually engage team members around important change, innovation, communications, or customer service initiatives? And, what if you could improve your connection to your customers…
Read MoreBehavioral Insights: Finding What Works
Behavioral science has proven that subtle choices in framing a message can have a significant impact on outcomes and can dramatically improve transactions. The UK and other nations have begun to aggressively use behavioral insights to make subtle but meaningful changes in the delivery of government services. Their rapid iteration testing and experiments have the…
Read MoreCommunication
âUtility cannot be divorced from emotion⊠A theory of choice that completely ignores feelings leads to prescriptions that do not maximize the utility of outcomes as they are actually experienced. “Simplified: Employees pretty much do what they feel like doing. So, as a communicator, our greatest source of power is your ability to influence the…
Read MoreThe Importance of âInside Outâ Communication.
Whatâs communicated within impacts whatâs communicated out. Itâs rare that a company with a great external reputation is dysfunctional when it comes to communicating internally. In this social-digital age, leadership messages communicated internally eventually resonate out into the world. Just as the stories we tell ourselves influence our own behavior (and ultimately the opinions of…
Read MoreResolving conflict and getting back on track.
There is a tendency among leaders to mask conflict, even when there are underlying issues that could threaten the future of the organization. We recently worked with a successful and creative organization that was beginning to feel itself go off the rails. The company is the gold standard in the industry. It has received numerous…
Read MoreThe Power of Appreciation
Appreciation is feeling that we truly matter, that we contribute to the greater whole and that someone genuinely cares about our contribution. It is a major driver of productivity and organizational growth. A culture of appreciation creates a workplace where people feel energized and inspired to do their best work. However, leaders sometimes struggle with…
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