Leadership

Scandals. Bad leadership. Poor communication. This trio of bad news might be great for must-see TV series, but it often poses a more serious threat to leaders than they expect. The CEO of Target Gregg Steinhafel just resigned amid the bad press over the retail store’s data breech, which negatively impacted thousands of consumers. Chicago-based Challenger’s…

I had the opportunity to write an article about Tim Powers, chairman and CEO of Hubbell, Inc., for NEMA’s ei Magazine recently about for their Personalities, Profiles and Progress in the Industry section. I had a front row seat nearly a decade ago when Tim helped drive the electrical industry’s eBusiness efforts when I was…

An interesting challenge I’ve been dealing with lately has been translating techie products to senior management and company leaders in feature magazine articles. The reason why this is a challenge: The magazine also reaches tech staff, so we don’t the article to be over-simplified. It’s hard to differentiate the product without covering some of the…

Since I’ve been working with my husband’s web development company for the past two years, I’ve met with many clients as they develop marketing plans and consider website improvements. Interestingly enough, it seems that many companies have it backwards… they put more emphasis on the tangible print or sales presentations and less emphasis on their…

A few years ago, I read an article in John Maxwell’s leadership newsletter where he shared a tip for staying positive when you are not in charge at work. He said that when he was in a subordinate position, he started keeping a list of “Things I’ll Do Differently When I’m In Charge.” He said…

We watched an interesting documentary show on the Sundance Channel, called Iconoclasts. This particular episode focused on Sumner Redstone, who controls media empire, Viacom, and movie producer Brian Glazer. Redstone said some things that were worthy to be quoted. So I paused the Tivo and took notes. Here’s a few words of leadership wisdom from…

I’ve been devouring my “magazines to read” pile. I came across an excellent article on trust in Associations Now magazine by Michelle and Dennis Reina. It’s critical to being a good leader, which seems to be something everyone should know if they don’t. However, one little sidebar on the article really stood out to me……

I do a lot of freelance magazine writing; while wearing my journalist’s hat, the first place I go to do research on a company is their website. Surprisingly, it often appears that the website is the last place where most companies invest their time. How do I know? On company websites of all sizes, I…

I read a very good article in Maximum Impact’s newsletter, called “7 Reasons Why Speakers Flop.” For years, I have worked with CEOs on speaking at conferences, and these are all things I worked to get across to each of them each year. As I read this article, I wanted to stand up and yell,…

This is my second post on an innovation presentation that I recently attended by Kathie Thomas of Fleishman Hillard at the PRSA St. Louis monthly luncheon. Although Thomas presented many great ideas, one of the takeaways I enjoyed most was the brainstrorming guidelines. We’ve all been a part of such ridiculous brainstorming sessions at work…

Today I accidentally deleted all the “real” comments off this site when I deleted all the spam comments. How did I do this act of stupidity? Not paying attention to detail. I could blame this website’s interface, but in reality, I just wasn’t paying attention. It’s funny how all these years, I thought I was…

I recently went to an excellent presentation on innovation hosted PRSA St. Louis. The speaker was Kathie Thomas of Fleishman Hillard (headquartered here in St. Louis). She’s their innovation guru, and this presentation was also presentated at a national PRSA conference. I thought I’d share a few bits of her presentation that I found interesting.…

We’ve all heard a lot of talk about change lately, and I’ve experienced big changes this year. But how do we really successfully manage change in our business and personal lives? I read this quote in Maximum Impact’s Leadership Wired newsletter today, and I thought it was very wise. “The most successful businessman is the…

“Gratitude is the ‘forgotten factor’ in happiness research,” according to researchers Robert Emmons (Univ. of California, Davis) and Michael McCullough (Univ. of Miami). A workplace news brief in ASAE’s Associations Now magazine, tells how these researchers are conducting a long-term study on gratitude, its causes and its effects on health and well-being. Highlights from the…

I was able to celebrate my birthday last week with the fun folks at the Public Relations Society of America – St. Louis Chapter. The monthly luncheon featured a fascinating topic by a world-renowned expert. Author and PR Exec Leslie Gaines-Ross of Weber Shandwick shared how a company’s reputation can be destroyed in seconds during…