How we interact with others has changed dramatically since the onset of Covid-19. Holiday gatherings are occurring on Zoom, weddings and graduations are limited to immediate family only, and texting has replaced dinners out with our best friends. On the work front, for most employees, there are no in-person team meetings, town halls or catch ups in the hallways. Days are now filled with virtual sessions facilitated by Zoom, Microsoft Teams and WebEx and collaboration tools like Slack, InVision, GitHub and others. Instead of being stuck in conference rooms, we’re glued to the computer.

Tough though the pandemic's social isolation has been, it has provided an opportunity to catch up on some of the TV that has eluded me over the last couple of years of entrepreneurialism and fast-paced strategy and communications. 

At this time of year, we’re bombarded with news of friends who have decided they’ll be running a 5K by February or are going to start a weekly podcast about crafting. Resolutions generally come to a sorry end shortly after the metaphorical ink has dried. For businesses though, it’s time to think of revolutions not resolutions as you enter a critical year for the organization. Here’s a few things to consider ahead of the return to work:

Someway, somehow the Human SARS coronavirus (aka Covid-19) will eventually take its place on the ash heap of history. Maybe it will be through modified behaviors, a scientific miracle, or some astonishing intervention by Nature, but we will prevail – and we will all have changed as a result. As we mend grieving lives, as society returns to more normal rhythms, and as we get back to work to restore a devastated global economy, how leaders lead and how they communicate will need to change as well.

Former Tennessee Valley Authority and NCR communications leader joins leading strategy and communications practice.

Boldsquare, one of the Southeast’s leading strategy and communications practices, announced today that Janet Brewer has joined its senior team to further enhance its service offering to CEOs and C-suite leaders across the world.

I’ve worked in many different sectors through the course of my career, but none of them has given me a greater ability to navigate crisis and complex issues than my time in the music industry. The many years I spent working at the intersection of business and popular music were better than any degree I could have studied for, and provided me with knowledge and real-life experience that I still use every single day in my professional life.

One of the most powerful ways to connect is through listening. It’s a lesson I learned from my parents who ran a bakery where the customer was king. “Listen to what they like by what they actually buy,” Mom used to say as customers admired the delicate pastries but went for the chocolate chip cookies. Smart businesswoman, my Mom.

As Father’s Day approaches, it’s naturally a time to think about family. Relationships with families can be tricky at the best of times, but even more so when you add in wealth, fame and power. Whether you’re Mars, Comcast, or any number of large or small business dynasties, balancing the needs and expectations of generations of descendants from the original founder isn’t easy.

James Brett, J. Crew Group, Inc.; Michael Mauler, Gamestop; Tom Hayes, Tyson Foods; and, John Flannery, GE, all have something in common. They abruptly ended their tenure as CEOs of major public companies in less than two years. Mauler exited after only three months. Such is the C-suite environment in today’s public companies.

While connecting digitally to employee audiences is an essential component of how to communicate with today’s workforce, there’s an “old-school” management concept that should also be considered as part of an integrated, multi-channel approach with an objective to engage and activate employees.