No, Benioff’s Blurt Isn’t a Lesson to All CEOs
Just to get you up to speed: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has been known for the last three decades as a stakeholder capitalist—a progressive business guy, a big contributor to …
It’s Not AI, Sweetheart: a Stirring Defense of the Em Dash, and Human Writing
I am a retired Sergeant Major. Public Affairs. Twenty-five years of balancing truth with tact, writing for commanders who barely skimmed their own talking points, and editing the rambling nonsense …
CEOs Say the Darnedest Things
CEOs used to love to say their companies were like families and employees were their most valuable asset. Until they started laying the family members off and dumping their most …
This Isn’t Writing, It’s Mincing
Last week at the Executive Communication Summit that my company convened, I interviewed the famed Yale Management School Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who took us back to the beginning of the …
Corporate America Won’t Even Defend *Itself*
Earlier this month we invited speechwriters and executive communication professionals to share, at whatever level of confidentiality they desired, how they’re faring in the new administration: “What is going on …
Vital Speeches Editor Sez: ‘No Reading Speeches Off Your Cellular Telephone!’
My old pal Steve Crescenzo was on a Zoom call with a prospect the other day, a young woman. “About ten minutes into the 30-minute call, she appeared to wipe …
Will Leaders Dare Comfort Their Afflicted Now?
As the new administration approaches the gates, people who help institutional leaders communicate are trying to figure out which way the wind will blow (and whether it will blow hard …
What Are We Going to Do About It?
I once found myself dancing in a tavern in Bayfield, Wisconsin with a local woman whose hands were so rough that I couldn’t help asking her what she did for …
Literally Indefensible
The old joke: An Irishman walked past a bar. It could happen! Well, I feel the same about philanthropic, civic-minded billionaires. It could happen! Another one bites the dust. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, in …
Guest Post: A Bracing Rebuttal to ‘Leaders Who Dare Not Speak, Dare Not Lead’
My friendship with David Murray is almost as old as our respective adult daughters. It spans my entire career as a speechwriter and most of his second (or third) act …