Are you positioned to succeed in the next five years? The next 10?
The competencies and skills required for communicating on behalf of employers or clients are not static. Not that long ago, communicators traded in press releases, media pitches, and printed employee newsletters. While these tactics have not vanished, the technologies that serve as communication channels have evolved and new ones are introduced all the time. The business environment shifts, new business models are adopted, and expectations of leaders, consumers, and other stakeholders change. In fact, we can expect the very role communication plays in organizations to undergo dramatic change.
The challenges to effective communication are due to change, as well. You deal with fake news now, for example. Are you prepared to cope with videos that purport to show your CEO doing or saying something she never said or did?
At noon EDT on Thursday, April 18, four Fellows of the International Association of Business Communicators will get together for a live online conversation about the competencies that will be required for communicators in the years ahead — both the tactics and tools used to communicate and the business acumen required to understand the problems leaders need solved that allow us to devise solutions that move the business forward.
The panel includes Mary Hills, Mary Ann McCauley, Jim Shaffer, and Angela Sinickas.
You can watch the panel on this page or on YouTube. If you can’t make it for the live broadcast, the video replay will be available shortly afterward. You can also subscribe to the Circle of Fellows podcast to get the audio for listening later (and never miss a future episode). Past episodes are also available on the Circle of Fellows podcast page.
The panel will answer questions submitted in real time via Twitter using the hashtag #COF32.
Mary Hills’ career as a marketing and communication professional has been in companies undergoing significant evolution, change and growth. She has held leadership positions with responsibility for developing plans and schemas to support long term growth and business sustainability goals. She has more than 20 years experience and expertise in designing and delivering training and development programs for companies and organizations, bringing theories, models and frameworks into everyday practice. In addition to her role at HeimannHills Marketing Group, Mary serves as Adjunct Faculty in the MS – Global Strategic Communication program at Loyola University Chicago. Mary speaks internationally and nationally on marketing, communication, standards and practices and women’s leadership topics. She is licensed in Adobe Connect and WebEx, using these to conduct virtual professional learning and education sessions.
Mary Ann McCauley is committed to ensuring people communicate more effectively about their organizations’ products and services. With a specialty practice in crisis management, Mary Ann addresses sensitive issues with timeliness, dignity, and minimal backlash. “Managing communication during a crisis requires common sense folded into a structured process,” she says.
Jim Shaffer is a business advisor, leadership coach, author, and speaker. As leader of the Jim Shaffer Group, he helps organizations accelerate results through superior strategy execution. The Jim Shaffer Group creates hard business results by translating the business strategy to the people who need to implement it, aligning systems, processes, and culture to make the gains sustainable. Jim was an architect and leading practitioner of Towers Perrin’s (now Towers Willis Watson) change management consulting practice. He designed and produced the IABC Academy Course, “Managing Change Communication to Drive Results and Value.” Some of his change management clients have included: Abbott, ConAgra Foods, FedEx, IBM, ITT, Mayo Clinic, Medtronic, Owens Corning, Pfizer, Toyota.
Angela Sinickas is the founder of Sinickas Communications, which has worked with companies, organizations and governments in 32 countries on six continents. Her clients include 25% of the Forbes Top 100 largest global companies. Before starting her own consulting firm, she held positions from editor to vice president in for-profit and government organizations, and worked as a senior consultant and practice leader at Hewitt and Mercer. She is author of a manual, How to Measure Your Communication Programs (now in its third edition),and chapters in several books. Her 50+ articles in professional journals can be found on her website,www.sinicom.com. Her work has been recognized with 20 international-level Gold Quill Awards from IABC, plus her firm was named IABC Boutique Agency of the Year in 2015. She holds a BS degree in Journalism from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MS in Leadership from Northeastern University.
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