One of the lessons businesses have learned during COVID-19 is the importance of being personal and approachable in their communications and interactions with customers, clients and stakeholders. That means no more corporate speak (thank goodness). It also means knowing why empathy is important and making sure to include it in all communications.  While this may seem obvious, it has been,…

As we continue to navigate life in a pandemic, many of us are spending more time working in crisis communications mode. Through talking with my clients, I’m finding a trend – those with strong emotional intelligence are not only weathering the storm better, but also standing out from the crowd (in a good way). Now here’s what’s interesting about emotional…

A crisis communications plan is a document many organizations know they need to have, but often procrastinate in creating or updating. Even as we navigate life in a pandemic, and all the crisis communications involved, there are lots of businesses and organizations that are still without a current or relevant crisis communications plan.  So why is that? I believe it…

The ground underneath many businesses and organizations is shifting daily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. With it comes new challenges (and opportunities) for communicating with staff, customers, stakeholders and the public. Even those of us with crisis communications experience are being thrown curveballs as social media channels are flooded, the media landscape is congested and people are suffering from information…

Floods, forest fires, tornadoes, snowstorms, and windstorms are just some of the natural disasters that make the news every day. Thanks to climate change, communities are seeing more severe weather events than ever before. This is why it’s essential that every organization has a crisis communications plan. Lately I’ve been doing a number of workshops helping organizations understand the importance…

I’ve been struggling if I should write about the efforts to rescue 12 soccer players and their coach from deep inside a cave in Thailand. As a parent, I’m concerned about being seen as exploiting a crisis situation (especially one involving children) in any way. However, there are great lessons in crisis communications to be learned from this rescue operation….