Communications has a bad rap. Long (and wrongly) suffering a “soft skill” or lower priority taint, it – at the same time - is considered a key leadership strength. What? The disconnect has harmed the practice, and even seeing it as a “practice” or separate role has harmed the integration of communication into EVERYONE’s job. [...]
Who would have thought: that marijuana would one day be a legitimate business with energy efficiency issues that demanded resolving;* that a study would show how biking and urban transportation issues connect with societal good; or, that company culture and employee engagement around sustainability could really matter in home building.** In just the first hours [...]
Who are the leaders in corporate sustainability? When you hear that question, do you think of an individual or a brand name? The average business-aware person would likely spout brand names like Unilever or Coca Cola, given the coverage they get for various sustainability related practices. But, does knowing that these corporations “lead” mean they [...]
The definition of business leadership has changed, a lot, since the 1950s. The fact that there are many more women in leadership positions these days is rightly getting plenty of coverage now. But, beyond celebrating that women are bringing "it" to the table, what "it" is has yet to be been given its full due. [...]
If we knew what kept people from making values-based decisions in business situations in the first place, we could surely create the conditions that support increasing corporate social responsibility. So, what's stopping us? A recent NPR story about UC Berkeley-Haas School of Business research conducted by Professor Laura Kray (studying behavior of MBA students) showed [...]
In the past few years, we’ve seen a lot more attention paid to women in CSR and sustainability. Needless to say, I’m all for it, but perhaps not for the obvious reasons. While I do have a deep marketing to women background (I co-authored a book on the topic), it isn’t so much that I [...]
Knowing that social media integration is crucial for your company and knowing how much can be gained when individual leaders learn to comfortably engage with it are two different things. I’ve only recently come to understand the distinction, and particularly in relation to business-to-business (B2B) purposes. Social media engagement - as professional development - [...]
What keeps people, especially those in the business-to-business (B2B) world, from using Twitter? Being on a mission to identify those barriers for senior level corporate leaders especially, I see the biggest obstacle as the discomfort in reaching OUT first. The vulnerable truth is that it may take a few months of actively sharing the wisdom [...]
The following article first published January 9, 2014 in CSRWire. Sustainability can be a complex topic for any corporation or brand to communicate; yet to persuade the range of stakeholders to “buy” it, the “whys” and “hows” must be whittled down to their simplest form. Add to that already steep challenge the findings of the [...]
Nothing is new about the fact that business leaders must evolve with changing demands. By also prioritizing sustainability integration, those usual demands and responsibilities grow exponentially. So, we shouldn't be surprised that some business leaders have jumped in feet first to practice empathy, grow their communication skills, and think long term, while others (most?) have [...]
The following article first published October 23, 2013 in The Guardian. (The response was so positive that I plan to write more on this topic.) When the Weinreb Group's "Pioneers of Sustainability" report came out last month, it highlighted the top trailblazers that sustainability professionals had nominated and selected in a vote. All six chosen [...]
Originally published in CSRWire, December 21, 2012. You don’t have to be an octogenarian, especially in the ever-evolving business world, to sit back in amazement and think “Wow, how things have changed.” In even the past few years, we’ve gone from seeing a majority of corporations embedded in an opaque and competitive culture to [...]
