Leadership skills for the sh*t show ahead. Also goats.

If you haven't had the pleasure of listening to the Goat Rodeo Sessions by Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile, you've been missing out one what on commenter called "Bluegrass that dropped out of high school, sneaked away to NYC and went to The Juilliard School of Music."

So what does this have to do with employee communications? Meet our guest, Mark Edgar of The Goat Rodeo Project and future foHRward. Mark is a former CHRO who now prevents organizational train wrecks, also called goat rodeos, also known as sh*t shows. And there is no greater goat rodeo on earth just now than the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mark's been researching how leaders need to start injecting some humanity into their organizations with courage, empathy and emotional intelligence. In our lively discussion, Mark discusses how purpose is not enough -- leaders need to keep on listening to track sentiment, and to check in with their people, not check out with them.

We've been talking a lot about purpose as a unifying force for trust building during uncertain times, and now is the time to starting laying down those building blocks of trust because things are not going to be "normal" for months or even years. 

The opportunity for communicators is clear, and Mark challenges us to focus on creating more communicators, not more communications. Organizations need skilled communicators at every level of the organization, not just the C-suite.

Learn more about Mark's work and how to build the communicators your organization needs for the sh*t show ahead.

Key Topics

• Goats! (1:54)
• Leadership skills for the sh*t show (3:50)
• The power of empowered collectives (7:25)
• Listening for leaders (11:50)
• Trust and more goats (16:30)
• There is no post-COVID (19:40)
• What communications teams should be doing now (23:40)
• What we’re liking (33:45)

ABC Resources Highlighted in this Episode

• Scary Global Pandemic E-book Part 2
• Executive Communications Idea Pack
• Speaking Truth to Bullsh*t Podcast

Watching

• Borgen on Netflix
• The Goat Rodeo Project on YouTube

Reading

• foHRsight 2020: unlocking human leadership through technology
•  2021 Global Talent Trends Study by Mercer
• The Chasm Companion by Paul Wiefels
• Conscious Leadership by John Mackey

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