A new magazine has been on my reading shelf for a few weeks. Fast Thinking looks strikingly similar to Fast Company at first glance. This is a smart choice as it will appeal to the some of the same readership.

Overall the magazine has an interesting blend of ideas, and appears to be an original voice in our local market. Meaning Business wishes them every success. Fast Thinking is published in conjunction with the InnovationXchange Network, an organisation promoting Australian innovation.

The premier issue includes an article by Lia Timson on brand rescue – handling a crisis and managing reputations, including advice from David Donohoe, deputy president of PRIA. The changing nature of media monitoring to include blogs, podcasting and RSS is noted.

Links:
www.fastthinking.com.au
www.ixc.com.au
www.fastcompany.com

June is IABC International Conference time. This year’s event was held in Canada.

Highlights from the conference are available on the official blog, In Session. This includes a number of podcasts from presenters and other materials.

In past years IABC NSW has arranged a Best Of event in the months following. Stay tuned for details.

Meaning Business has a new website.

In soft-launch stage at present, the site will be promoted over the coming weeks as additional resources are added.

Question of the day:
What kind of resources would you like to see added to the site? Leave a comment.

John Hewson writing an opinion piece on the integrity of public leaders stated that leadership is “about action, and not just position.” He provides a greate definition that can provide leaders with a compass about how to communicate:

“its very essence is the capacity to formulate, articulate and market a vision, develop a strategy to achieve it, and turn that into reality…” [emphasis mine].

Communication is a central requirement of good leadership.

There were a number of communication events and conferences in Sydney this week. The Fin ran an article on employee communications across a number of large organisations including IBM, St George, and IAG. Common to all cases is the need for an authentic voice in order for the message – and the leader – to be trusted and valued.

As a communication advisor, there have been times when the role has been to make my words invisible and enable the client to find their own voice. This gets results. To see the moment of connection between a leader and their team that is the result of genuine human communication is exciting. Once people connect in a real way, it is much harder for misinformation or misunderstanding to hold on.
The reverse is also true; once people have engaged, there is a greater burden on the leader to maintain this level of open communication. There is a price. The leader also has a greater responsibility to follow through with consistent action or lose the trust they have built.