What the Stockdale Paradox Tells Us About Crisis Leadership
From Boris Groysberg and Robin Abrahams writing for the Harvard Business School: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end—which you can never afford to lose—with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” — Admiral James Stockdale. In August, while most developed […]
Goodell Super Bowl Pre-Game Interview Showcases PR Fundamentals
Nicole Schuman at PRNews writes: From a PR standpoint, highlights of CBS’s Super Bowl pregame show didn’t come from Miley Cyrus’s concert for essential workers or the moving piece celebrating the 30th anniversary of Whitney Houston’s performance of the national anthem. It came from a simple interview that many viewers may have missed while preparing […]
What’s Next When Your Apology is Not Accepted
From Michael Toebe, writing in SmartBrief: Apology, even a sincere, well-meaning one, is not always accepted. One’s name, credibility and reputation are mud. Forgiveness and trust are not granted. What then? It can prove helpful to go through a detailed, yet simple process to increase the odds of your apology eventually being well-received. Start with […]
The Stupidity Defense
From our esteemed colleague, Dr. Peter Sandman: It comes up in my consulting at least once a month. Something bad has happened on my client’s watch, and now the client has to own up to it. The key question (or at least one key question) is why it happened. And the principal contenders for best […]
Is It a Good Idea to Tape Record Another Individual? And Just Because You Can, Should You?
Whether you’re an attorney, a medical professional, counselor, CEO or friend, is it legal for you to tape record your conversation with someone else? And even if it’s legal, should you? Years ago, if you wanted to record a conversation on the phone or in-person without telling the other individual, you had to spend hundreds […]
Negative Online Client Reviews: ABA Gives Some Tips for Responding
Preface by Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications Last week, writing in Law for Lawyers, a publication of the Thompson Hine law firm, our friend Karen Rubin wrote about how attorneys should deal with negative online reviews. We’ve taken the liberty of adding this preface to her excellent article: When considering a response to a negative lawyer […]
After the Capitol Riot, What Is Your State of Preparedness?
From David Pounder, writing for Homeland Security Today, about the events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 with lessons learned for business owners and other non-governmental organizations: What happened on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol had a surreal feel to it. While there were a lot of concerns and indicators that a large […]
Political Action Committee & Personal Political Contributions Revisited – Might This Be Only of Passing Interest?
The National Law Review By Bruce Hennes, Hennes Communications After publication of our article in the National Law Review on January 16, Political Action Committee & Personal Political Contributions Become the Next Reputational Challenge for Law Firms & Their Clients, we heard from an attorney from a large firm who raised the issue of “staying […]
Will You Require Employees to Get a COVID-19 Vaccine?
Jackie Wiles, writing for Gartner: As your organization considers its vaccination strategy, think carefully about what you plan to communicate to, and ask of, employees. As COVID-19 vaccination distribution begins, organizations everywhere have critical decisions to make about their vaccination policies. A Gartner poll of more than 100 HR leaders shows that most will encourage, […]
Tips for Communicating Internally and Externally in a Divided Country
From Nicole Schuman and Seth Arenstein writing for PR News: There’s no question that the country is divided. That was so before the Nov. 2020 elections. Perhaps more so now. Last weekend (Jan. 9-10) pollster Frank Luntz surveyed 800 people who voted for the president in November. His findings illustrate the country’s political divisions. Most, if not […]