[Editor’s note: Thank you to our colleague Tony Jaques for allowing us to reprint this fantastic post that investigates the culture of finger-pointing in the wake of crisis] Blaming the victim is an ugly strategy which is seldom smart in the wake of a crisis The Ebola outbreak is providing endless fodder for commentators and …

There was Mary, with a goofy smile on her face, telling her audience about a serious situation they were going to be facing. They had a hard time buying it. There stood Frank, welcoming new customers to a plant tour, with a sour, grim facial expression. They didn’t feel the vibe. Do facial expressions matter? …

Helpful advice for coping with negative reviews on the popular network Yelp is the very definition of a double-edged sword. Good reviews are effective crisis management strategies that can bring in more business and allow you to charge more for the same services, while bad reviews can sink your operation. It’s perfectly natural to be …

What is Professional Development? I began this article by looking again at the differences between professional development vs training, or trainers and teachers. In A Look at the Education vs Experience Debate and in an earlier post, What’s the Difference Between Training and Teaching, I made a few comparisons. This time, I thought it might …

Should you or shouldn’t you? There is nothing like sharing a good laugh during a serious presentation. And nothing worse than humor that backfires. No wonder so many people shy away from humor altogether. Yet…you want to give it a try. OK, then, here are some guidelines to help you decide when and how to …

[Editor’s note: Tony Jaques, our friend, colleague, and frequent contributor to our blogs has just released a new book on crisis management, and we’d like to share his introduction to this in-depth work with you.] Companies which think they are crisis-prepared may in fact still be dangerously vulnerable to financial and reputational damage. That’s the …

Putting out information at the right time will help get your message across Communication is the cornerstone of all crisis management, but what good does it do if you’re putting messages out when your stakeholders aren’t around? Before you start putting information out to the public, take a look at this useful infographic from SurePayroll:

Already hurting, new scandal puts grocer in a dangerous position UK-based grocer Tesco is under the microscope of investors and regulators that results in a reputation crisis, as well as being lambasted by the public, following the revelation that some seriously shady accounting had been going on. Business Matters summed the situation up: Tesco was …

Listening is a huge part of our daily life, both at work and at home. How good a listener are you–really? Because we rarely if ever give it any special attention, we might not be as good at listening as we would like to think we are! Here are some pointers that can help you …

Yet another reminder of the need to include data breaches at your org and others’ in crisis management plans Japan Airlines has joined the data breach club, announcing that hackers had made away personal info belonging to several hundred thousand of its Frequent Flier club members. The Japan Times reports: Hackers may have stolen details …