Steps to Address Inaction During a Corporate Crisis
From The Wall Street Journal Risk & Compliance Journal and Deloitte: At what point does business-as-usual turn into a corporate crisis? It’s not always clear, and executives might treat the first signs of a crisis—not realizing the magnitude—with complacency. Confounded by stress responses and human behavioral factors, an organization can lose precious time if executives […]
Assessing the Board’s Role Before the Next Crisis
From The National Association of Corporate Directors and The Wall Street Journal: As a host of threats continue to mount against organizations, more boards are weighing a broader, more proactive approach to crisis management. This is a positive development: in doing so, these boards are opening the door to adding significant value and stability to the organizations they oversee. Boards are uniquely […]
How to Project Power
From The New York Times Magazine: ‘‘Keep your limbs away from your body,’’ says Deborah H Gruenfeld, a social psychologist who teaches at Stanford University. Some research shows that people posed in expansive postures feel more powerful, exhibit higher testosterone levels and have lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol — all characteristics of high-ranking […]
Body Language at the Second Presidential Debate
From The Washington Post: It’s not our faces that tend to offer the strongest clues about what we are feeling, but rather our bodies. In fact, the more intense the emotion, the more difficult the human face becomes to read and the more telling and accurate body language seems to become. That’s what a team of […]
The Benefits of Executive Communications Coaching
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] As part of your organization’s leadership team, you’re a walking, talking standard bearer of your brand and your reputation. What you communicate can dramatically impact your organization’s reputation. But HOW you communicate is crucial. Ineffectual, weak presentations are one of the quickest ways to damage your brand’s reputation. If your […]
You’re Ready For Your Video Interview. What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Don’t like being interviewed on video? Prefer an in-person meeting? Well, according to Chris Brown, Vice President of Human Resources at West Corporation, you are out of luck. Video interviewing is here to stay. Love it (most Millennials) or loathe it (many of the rest of us) we’ve all got to get better at it. […]
Context is King: 4 Ways to Take Control of That Interview
[by Howard Fencl, Hennes Communications] The second a crisis rears its ugly head and a reporter knocks on your door about it, you start quaking in your boots. You get a lump in your throat and notice you’re sweating. But you know in your heart that your organization is not the villain in this issue, […]
Getting Over Stage Fright With the Help of Your Smartphone
From The New York Times: For some people, public speaking comes naturally. But if you are like me, you may um and ah too much, spurred by the worry that nerves may get the best of you, that you might speak too fast or mess up in some way. So I have been practicing my public […]
6 Tactics For Leveraging Your Employees During a Social Media Crisis
From GaggleAmp: Every company of any size inevitably encounters a crisis situation at some point. Today, with numerous social media platforms, a crisis can quickly become very public and spread far and wide – well beyond your local city or even state. But, the same social media platforms that can help spread a negative story […]
Top 5 Mistakes Businesses (and Governments) Make in Disasters
According to the UK-based Business Continuity Institute, the top 5 mistakes that businesses and governments make when preparing to respond to, mitigate and move forward from disaster: 1. Failing to define worst-case scenario. 2. Failing to to fully understand the risks associated with its operation, and then failing to take the necessary steps to mitigate those risks. 3. Neglecting […]