Weekly Round-Up: Top Internal Comms Trends for 2021, Science of Changing Habits, Best 2020 Insights, Putting Good First, Be a Careful Communicator

Welcome to my weekly round-up of the best-of-the-best recent leadership and communication blog posts I've seen over the past couple weeks. Given the current state of business today and how much has changed because of COVID-19 and calls for racial justice, I'm continuing to use the Weekly Round-Up as a place to share some of the best resources I'm seeing to help leaders and communicators navigate these challenges with their teams. 

This Week's Round-Up of Leadership and Communication Blogs:

• Top Internal Communication Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities for 2021 by Tim Vaughn via Poppulo (@PoppuloSays). What lessons have you learned in 2020 and what are the challenges and opportunities for 2021? Over a dozen internal comms experts weigh in.

“A year on, as we know too well, everything has changed. Not least the world of work, and how over the past 10 months employee communication has proven itself to be an invaluable trust-creator and business-critical function during a traumatic pandemic...” Read more >>

• The Science of How to Stick to New Year's Resolutions and Truly Change Your Habits by Ryan Prior (@r_prior via @CNN), CNN Health. Research by University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School doctoral student, Erika Kirgios, has found a litany of ways science can make your resolution stick this year. Here's how to proceed.

“Next year will be a crucial year for Erika Kirgios as she works to complete her doctorate, publish academic papers and try to land a faculty job at a university. Not surprisingly, one of her New Year's resolutions is to focus on her career. In order to find some delight in what could be long nights working alone, she is applying her research in the science of behavior change to pair meticulous work -- writing research articles -- with a decadent temptation -- in her case, a particular candle and cup of tea...” Read more >>

• Leaders Share Their Best of 2020 Insights: Frontline Festival via Karin Hurt and David Dye (@LetsGrowLeaders and @davidmdye), Let's Grow Leaders. Over a dozen thought leaders from around the world share their best insights from 2020.

“In this month’s Frontline Festival, top leadership experts share their Best of 2020 thoughts and posts. Thanks to Joy and Tom Guthrie of Vizwerx Group for the great pic and to all our contributors...” Read more >>

• How Leaders Can Put Good First by S. Chris Edmonds (@scedmonds via  @SmartBrief  and @SBLeaders), SmartBrief. To be competitive in the future of work, tomorrow’s best leaders must do these 5 things to ensure good comes first for their employees.

“If you’re like many leaders, the pandemic has stressed your business, your people and your customers. An opportunity lies before us. After an era of self-serving leaders, lies, misinformation and divisiveness from the highest levels, employees now expect respect, in every interaction, from their leaders and from their peers...” Read more >> 

• 4 Ways to Be a More Careful, Considerate Communicator by Robby Brumberg (@robbybrumberg via @RaganComms), Ragan Communications. The last thing communicators want right now is to cause confusion, harm or distraction due to careless wording or clumsy phrasing. Keep these ideas in mind to be a more careful communicator.

“Communicators tend to carry more corporate freight and persuasive weight during crises. Along with that heightened responsibility (and visibility) comes increased scrutiny, however. Mistakes get amplified; blunders snowball. Good intentions get misconstrued…” Read more >>

What were some of the best resources you’ve read this week?

—David Grossman

Ensure your approach to communications fits the needs of employees and your organization today with help from the Reflect, Reimagine & Reboot Your Internal Communications Plan Through the Pandemic eBook. Click image below to get your free copy.

This article originally appeared on the leadercommunicator blog.