As you know, companies are spending lots of money to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) among their workforce and in their company culture. There’s been a lot of talk about the need for fundamental cultural shifts in corporate America and deep soul-searching among executives. This is all absolutely worthwhile—if it’s done right and is...
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In other blog posts, we’ve been talking about hybrid meetings: how to lead them successfully, how to practice good participation behaviors, and even how to dress and set up your space to look professional on Zoom. This led us to think about what an organization’s leaders can do to ensure an efficient, effective, and equitable...
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In our first post on hybrid meetings, we talked about best practices for managing focus when leading meetings with some people in the room and others participating remotely. But even if you’re not in the leadership role, you contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the hybrid meetings you attend. If you don’t make these...
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One of the many interesting observations from the pandemic is the evolution of people’s Zoom backgrounds. Initially, everyone was excited to play with the virtual backgrounds available online. I saw people log in from virtual versions of a dive bar, Versailles, and the bridge of the Starship Enterprise. Eventually, talking to colleagues who were literally...
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Do you have that friend or family member who offers you a ride and then doesn’t look at a map or set their GPS app because they’re so sure they know how to get to where they’re going? They may be confident that they know where they’re headed, but unless you already trust them—a lot—you...
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One thing the pandemic has shown is that people can work efficiently from home. A lot of major corporations, including Salesforce, Google, and Amazon, are working on a “hybrid” model that combines working in the office with working at home—either on a fixed schedule or as determined by the workload and need for in-person collaboration. The number of...
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If your organization is like many others, you’re worried about the spread of Coronavirus and what it means to your people and your business. It’s an uncertain, disquieting time for everyone. As we are already seeing, many organizations are making commonsense decisions to reduce travel and asking employees to work remotely. What that means, of...
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Whenever you’re delivering a presentation or running a meeting, one of your primary responsibilities is to facilitate the discussion that takes place during it. After all, if your meetings or presentations were simply about the delivery of information without discussion of it, an email will do the job. As we all know, sometimes that doesn’t...
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Praise for All the Leader You Can Be: The Science of Achieving Extraordinary Executive Presence There is no doubt that communication is a skill that must be developed by everyone who wants to move into leadership roles. It’s no surprise then that my colleagues and I have been working with business leaders to improve their communication...
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One of the most important things for business communicators to understand is the distinction between a speech and a presentation. They are not the same. The problem is not that people struggle to articulate the difference between the two or have a hard time distinguishing one from the other as an audience member. The problem...
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