You might be draining value from your organization if your social media efforts create more activity than results. There’s no doubt that social media is here to stay, one way or another. We’re bombarded with emails that offer “10 ways to generate leads and checklists to succeed with social selling” and social selling checklists that… Read more
Sustainable Outcomes
Communication Breakdowns = Lost Revenue
Our recent survey of Leadership Report readers produced a bucket-load of content suggestions for future Reports. (Thanks to all who participated.) Several suggestions centered on using case studies to “help us get the kinds of measurable results you talk and write about.” Today’s issue is in response to the requests for case studies received from… Read more
Five Steps to Re-Inventing Communication in Business
Contemporary communication functions can make a huge financial impact on their organizations. As business leaders realize that communication functions don’t have to be value-sapping cost centers, the old days of “shoveling out stuff” are riding into the sunset. It’s very much the equivalent of the human resources transformation 25 years ago. HR was viewed as… Read more
Developing Effective First Line Leaders
What’s the one best way to develop first-line leaders’ communication skills? Hint: it’s not just training. Having advised many of the companies that regularly churn out the best leaders, I believe the most effective type of leadership development comes from blending classroom training and on-the-job execution that’s targeted squarely at improving business results that matter…. Read more
What the World Needs Now is Love, Sweet Love
What the hell was I thinking? I just re-read my January, 2017 Leadership Report. The lead paragraph of that issue asks: “Is it possible to make political discussions more civil? Can we use our political conversations and posts to help us learn and grow, or at least start by pretending that despite what we might… Read more
The High Performance Cocktail
Open book management is the purest form of organization communication that I’ve seen in more than 30 years. Blended with a sound change management process, it can take business performance to heights never thought possible. It is the high performance cocktail. I met Jack Stack nearly 25 years ago. He was CEO of SRC Holdings… Read more
Measure What Matters
What gets measured gets done. Even though we’ve heard that a gazillion times, many organizations are still managing the wrong measures. Consequently, they’re getting the wrong results. Too many leaders today don’t give enough thought to what they’re measuring. The leader of a large U.S operation once suggested that training should be measured by how… Read more
How to Develop Leaders That Boost Results
Welcome to our car wash, otherwise known as leadership development training. We’re going to hose you down and dry you off over the course of the day. Topics we’re covering during this training include critical thinking, achieving success through people, coaching from a distance, collaboration skills, team creativity, coaching as a virtual team, non-verbal communication,… Read more
Give Value or Give Notice
It’s been a decade since human resources guru David Ulrich told HR professionals they needed to give value or give notice. That same message needs to be directed at communication professionals, who today produce activity often at the expense of results. Ulrich, a University of Michigan business school professor and author on numerous HR-related books,… Read more
Doing These Five Things Will Add More Value To Your Job
Why are you continuing to push out information when shifting your focus to where communication process breaks down can add so much more value? Internal communication functions have enormous opportunities to change their role from activity producing cost centers to results generating value creators. How does your communication function make the shift—from sending out news… Read more