Clarity of language counts. Take, for instance, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who found himself at the heart of a firestorm over imprecise language. While discussing the sequestration effect on the Sunday morning talk show circuit, he said ”there are literally teachers now who are getting pink slips, who are getting notices that they can’t come back this fall.”
Some of the best teachers of communications strategy and examples of leadership communications are not found in PR and journalism programs in colleges or universities, but in the ordinary places we go every day.
It’s that time again – when we make resolutions for how we might behave, act, and become better at what we do and how we do it. As we consider changes for the New Year, I’d like to offer the following leadership communications wish list.
It’s a tough and scary job market, whether you are just starting out or a more seasoned candidate. But many job applicants make their task even more difficult because they present themselves poorly, an especially vexing problem when the job being sought is in the communications arena. Here are some thoughts on personal presentation skills.
When planning a conference, it’s always a challenge to decide whether to go for breadth or depth, especially when you only have one day. At the Mashable Media Summit last week, they went for breadth, which ultimately was a disappointment.
Happy Thanksgiving!
It’s not often you can swoop in […]
With just a few words, prominent geologist and Interim President of CUNY College of Staten Island William Fritz vividly summed up why Hurricane Sandy hit the island borough in the middle of New York Harbor so hard: “We’ve hardscaped our sponge.”
Why is it that people cannot say what they really mean? Take, for example, the HR representative who says, “We’ll keep your resume on file,” when they don’t plan to consider you at all; or the reporter who responds to a pitch by saying, “thanks, I’ll keep it in mind,” when what she plans to do with the email is hit delete. In this age of uncivil conversation, this may be one of the most uncivil conversations there is.
In a recent post, web PR and marketing guru, David Meermon Scott complained about the use of gobbledygook,which distances organizations from their customers, and urged his readers to start speaking in plain language. The biggest perpetrators of goobledygook are the people who should know better: professional communicators.
In America today, there is a writing crisis. Too many people cannot put together a coherent paragraph or a cogent email. Our digital world requires MORE writing not less. Among all of our presentation skills, writing is the most critical.
