Leading effectively during a crisis is one of the toughest tests for a CEO and a communications leader. My friend and mentor Gary Sheffer, longtime Chief Communications Officer at GE, used to say that, “Crisis is when we communicators earn our keep.”

Gary is right. Communicators work extremely hard and get lots of attention during a crisis. Sometimes accolades follow.

But communicators really earn their keep (and fewer accolades) when they prevent crisis situations. That’s why I’m a big...

OK, so the you-know-what has hit the fan.

The CEO is agitated. The General Counsel has already called the outside law firm. C-suite leaders are whispering in the hallway.

You are in the first moments of a real crisis.

As a communications leader, what do you do?

I’ve worked for many years with leaders on challenging situations like lawsuits, regulatory actions, layoffs, acquisitions, divestitures, workplace violence and the 9/11 attack.

Every crisis is unique.

There is never a...

Leaders and communicators face an extraordinary set of fast-moving challenges today. If you haven’t learned any lessons about leadership during the storms of 2020, then you’re not paying attention.

We still have a long way to go in 2020, but here are ideas to inspire and inform.

1) Be Flexible and Keep Moving – Remember all those carefully laid strategic plans for 2020? The pandemic put them on ice. The best leaders made swift decisions to move major events online, and keep employees and...

Elizabeth Shelton, the executive director of United Way of Southeast Missouri, was working from home on a Friday in late May when a nasty ghost appeared. The apparition arrived as a fake Facebook profile named Rachel Steenberg. Rachel’s post ridiculed George Floyd with a disgusting racist meme.

Rachel, the ghost, claimed to work for Elizabeth at the United Way.

Rachel wasn’t real. But the threat to United Way was very real.

“We have a small team of just six, so we know everyone,”...