Let’s Be Clear is Bluestone’s blog devoted to topics related to media training, presentation and speech coaching, better investor and analyst calls and virtual presentations.
One of the most important roles of a leader is to communicate effectively during difficult moments. After all, there is no time that customers, investors, and employees will be more focused on the message from the top than when proverbial sirens are blaring, and smoke is in the air. How and what leaders communicate during challenging times can define the legacy of not only the leader but the entire organization. So, leaders, in this moment, tread carefully but do communicate.
Here are five keys to communicating in challenging times:
“There’s not an employee at the company who doesn’t love him,” she said, “Which is why it’s so hard to watch.”
The HR leader was calling about her company’s beloved CEO, a talented executive who had risen through the organization’s own ranks to land the top job, only to underwhelm in high stakes moments.
A while back, some longtime clients asked me to sit in as a salesman made his pitch to them. His firm had just launched an innovative new program and my clients were eager to learn how it might improve outcomes for their company.
As the salesman organized himself at the front of the room, a good-sized audience settled in and anticipation grew. As the host introduced the speaker, the room hushed. We were ready to be wowed.
“I didn’t want to act too confident because our group president was in the room.”
That was the explanation a mid-career professional offered recently when he confessed to a lackluster performance during a high-stakes presentation in front of his supervisor and the entire leadership team.
He’d prepared for weeks and knew his content inside and out. But when it came time to deliver, he downplayed his authority on key points out of deference to the VIP watching from the back.
Clients often ask us to review major presentations at the eleventh hour, hoping we can make the tweaks that will take their material from good to great. In the best cases, our job is to put icing on the cake and who doesn’t love to do that? But sometimes, the cake isn’t ready for icing. In fact, in some cases, everyone is still scrambling around, trying to find the ingredients. Often those frantic, final meetings are spent searching for photos, fretting over font sizes, adjusting bullets and reordering slides ad nauseam.
You had them on the edge of their seats the whole talk. They nodded at your insights and laughed at your jokes. But suddenly, when you announce you’ll take questions….crickets. What seemed to be a soaring success suddenly feels more like a flop. Though it’s hard not to feel the audience is using its silence to give you the hook, don’t dash off just yet.
As we enjoy these last days of summer, we know you and your team are already looking (and budgeting) for opportunities to achieve even greater success in the coming year.
At Bluestone, we share in that mission! That’s why we’re releasing our 2025 Offerings. Click the button below to see what we’ve got planned for the new year.
That was the email that came in -- complete with five exclamation points -- from an excited client last month, after his team took first place in his company’s global pitch contest, an internal competition designed to spark innovation and rally enthusiasm across the organization.
We all know that when delivering a speech it’s always best to learn the material cold and deliver it from the heart. But let’s face it: For busy executives with frequent trips to the podium and little time to prepare, that’s not always an option.
If there’s a recent college graduate on your holiday list, stop googling fancy pens and leather-bound portfolios. Instead, give that eager job seeker something that will set him or her up for success in the coming months and well beyond: our Nail the Job Interview for New Grads Course from Bluestone On-Demand. This intensive, high-impact video course offers the rock solid secrets for identifying one’s most marketable skills, answering questions with confidence, and outclassing the competition.
I laugh when I remember my first corporate job interview, just a few weeks after I decided to leave TV news. Despite more than a decade in the work force and strong academic credentials, I worried I wouldn’t be taken seriously.
Now that we’ve made it through the season of gifting and getting, eating, and drinking, and hosting and toasting, it’s time to get down to work, folks, making 2024 the best year yet.
Whether you’re a CEO striving to become a more impactful leader or a rising star trying to raise your own profile, resolve to become a better communicator in 2024. After all, no matter your role, age, or industry–engaging, inspiring, and influencing stakeholders is always an essential skill.
Here are four surefire communications resolutions to help you drive results in 2024:
Just in time for the holidays, re-posting our all-time most popular blog with a few updates for 2023. Happy holidays everyone!
Ah, the office holiday party. It conjures punchlines of poor wardrobe choices and over-served sales reps. But in reality, it’s one of the more dignified traditions to survive the modern work world.
And for bosses, it’s a moment that calls for reminding everyone why they’re drinking (or at least eating) on the company tab. Rather than viewing this speech as an obligation, bosses should embrace it as an opportunity to set the tone for the coming year with remarks that make them feel both appreciated and appreciative.
It’s hard to believe that the clock is already ticking down on 2023! For many, that means time is running out to spend dollars allocated for the 2023 training budget.
If you still have unspent funds in your 2023 training and development budget, don’t let those resources go unused because time is short. Instead, consider investing in communications training and coaching that will benefit the team in the new year.
Here are three easy ways to leverage those 2023 resources to ensure your team is at its best in 2024.
Talk to anyone in PR, marketing, or corporate communications these days and within minutes the conversation will almost certainly make its way around to Artificial Intelligence.
As anyone who is using or even experimenting with ChatGPT, Bard or any of the large language model-based chatbots knows, AI is revolutionizing the communications professions.
But for all their potential, these tools are only as powerful as the professionals who learn to deploy them in strategic, impactful, and ethical ways.
In any industry, “disruption” can bring exciting changes—and often drastic job cuts. Rather than being scared, we’re advising clients to be prepared! And great way to start is with our free, downloadable “Disruption Readiness Plan.”
As communication coaches, it’s our job to challenge clients with tough questions so they’re ready to face the scrutiny of the media, the Board or other high-stakes audiences.
But we notice that often it’s not the hard questions, rather the easy ones that catch clients off-guard. In fact, there is one in particular that at least half seem to fumble. What is it?
