Author: Susan Kahn

But even with a shared proclivity toward list-making, we are a bit overwhelmed by the number and nature of year-end lists, including Literary Hub’s Ultimate Best Books of 2023, and The New York Public Library Best Books of 2023, as well as The New York Times Best TV Episodes of 2023, Rolling Stone’s 100 Best Songs of 2023, Billboard’s 50 Best Albums of 2023, TIME Magazine’s 200 Best Inventions of 2023, Entertainment Weekly’s Celebrities Who Died in 2023, Google’s List of Top Search Terms in 2023, The 16 Most Important Social Media Trends for 2024, – and amazingly, a browsable index of yearend lists of music, movies, books, poetry and podcasts. And these only skim the surface.

While lists can be an efficient way to organize and communicate a lot of information quickly, a list is most useful if it reveals a trend or a truth, helps us clarify and solve a problem, or motivates us to act. With careful consideration of these three benefits – and building on the “44 Things We’ve Learned as Accidental Consultants”– we humbly offer our Top 10 Wishes for Communication in 2024.

We hope:

1. …leaders in organizations of all sizes appreciate and prioritize effective communication as a cultural linchpin and strategic discipline.
2. …words are carefully chosen to unify, support, and inspire – not to divide.
3. …information is routinely delivered with authenticity and appropriate transparency.
4. …both audiences and messengers increasingly recognize and respect the difference between the person and their perspective.
5. …all of us learn to truly value listening as a foundational element of healthy debate and well-intentioned dialogue. To listen and offer space to be heard fulfills a basic human need that has the power to not only drive business results but deepen connection between and among us. 
6. …content in our news feeds is grounded in facts and truth, and sources are held accountable.
7. …strong organizational purpose and core values reliably drive good decision-making and active stakeholder engagement. 
8. …channels of communication (email, meetings, intranets, internets, etc.) are clear and compelling, designed with the end user in mind.
9. …new ways of communicating, like AI, are thoughtfully explored and considered before adoption. 
10. …leaders understand and show compassion to employees for the emotional impact caused by the ongoing challenges of our world. 

With intense motivation and resolve to effect positive change, these are the wishes we are working to fulfill, in partnership with clients old and new, in 2024.

Collaboration

1.    Two minds are better than one – and good collaboration makes every task more fun. (We intuitively knew this, but these past eight years have been proof positive.)

2.    Our decision, from Day One, to treat each other as trusted, 50/50 partners has delivered more benefits than ever imagined.  

3.    Staying connected to people you admire and respect buoys your spirits and sparks new ideas. Plus, they advocate for your business and may even become clients.

4.    When you ask others for help, be specific. They are almost always willing to help when they know what you need. 

5.    Every networking opportunity provides something useful if you’re open to the possibilities. 

6.    Leadership doesn’t go away when you aren’t managing a team. There are plenty of opportunities to mentor and coach – and be mentored and coached – as consultants.

7.    Engaging professionals you trust to fill in where you lack expertise allows you to focus on what you do best.

8.    Showing gratitude to the people who help you grow your business – and paying it forward by helping others – makes work more fulfilling. 

Performance

9.    Even for small consultancies, purpose, values and strategy development is foundational; it was one of the first things we did.

10. For serial list-makers and box-checkers, nothing is more satisfying – or useful – than a well-organized business plan to guide day-to-day and long-term progress. (For a little added fun, we occasionally change font colors and formatting!)

11. Setting deadlines – even for the little things – is important; it encourages, motivates, and sometimes shames us to act and get shit done!

12. Knowing how we’re spending our time allows us to understand our productivity and how to estimate future work. (Tip: Toggl time-tracking software)

13. Remembering that clients are paying for our expertise, not just our time,  helps us set the right fee structure. 

14. Things always take longer than expected!

15. Designating “free days” and “buffer days” keeps us from making every day a “work” day. 

16. The key to success is not self-promotion; it’s truly understanding the client’s need, so you can deliver the right solution. 

17. Thinking about excellence as a mindset, rather than as an outcome, drives continuous improvement. 

18. Good communication is fundamental to business success.

19. Inflexibility is a surefire way to lose business; adapting to every client’s expectations, environment and needs is consulting table stakes.

20. When you run your own business, you are the brand. No amount of marketing can gloss over character – or the quality of your products and services. 

21. Marketing can present a cobbler’s children dilemma. Client needs come first. (i.e., why it’s taken us 8 years to publish our learnings!)

22. The excitement of signing a new client and diving into research and discovery never gets old. 

23. On the flip side, working with clients over time builds trust and institutional knowledge that are mutually beneficial.

Resilience

24. Sometimes choosing the scariest path is exactly what you need to grow. 

25. When you believe you can, you avoid the wasted time and energy of worrying you can’t. 

26. By accepting that not every suggestion to a client will be a winner, you can keep offering ideas that are in their best interest.

27. Sometimes you just have to start a project, even when you’re fairly sure you have no idea what to do. 

28. Being obsessively curious about your audience and owning your space and expertise can reduce anxiety in new situations. A coach with Broadway experience once told us, “Acting is not “acting,” it’s “authentic empowerment.”

29. People don’t always respond – or follow through. C’est la vie. 

30. Knowing what clients think via periodic blind surveys helps us get better.  

31. When client feedback isn’t glowing, we learn from it, and then focus on doing more of what earned us the feedback that was glowing. 

32. Getting comfortable with things as they are will ultimately get uncomfortable. 

33. Knowing that some days as a consultant are frustrating and boring, and others are energizing and productive is a solid reason to just roll with it and avoid unrealistic expectations.  

Balance & Self-Care 

34. Being in business for yourself means navigating the continuous yin and yang – strategy and execution, discipline and innovation, speed and quality, data and intuition, business development and client service.

35. Acting with urgency to demonstrate value goes hand in hand with being patient and gracious. 

36. Consulting is inherently hybrid – we have come to love balancing home office time with client office time and coffee shop time.

37. Going for a walk or riding your bike can be work time, just as analyzing a client challenge can be fun.

38. Learning new sectors, industries and organizations is energizing – and a reminder that communication is essential in every environment.

39. Levity and laughter work wonders. Staying close to the ones who make us laugh is part of what has made eight years fly by!

40. When you sit at the computer without moving for too long, you might as well be smoking cigarettes. Motion is lotion for your joints. 

41. Eliminating the 9-to-5 mindset and working when you’re most productive is a luxury of being self-employed … but it only works if you balance it with discipline. 

42. Scheduling vacations and closing the virtual office around major holidays can be hard to do when revenue rests on your shoulders. But those shoulders need a break. 

43. When there are only two people to do everything required for the business (and only one of them is good at math), there is a ton of variety – and a bit of tedium. 

44. We all know what no one says on their death bed, so we’re mindful that career success is just one part of our total well-being.

We’re eagerly anticipating the next 44 lessons as we launch our 9th year as 44 Degrees North Partners!

That said, we’ve never been so humbled by a crisis as we are by COVID-19 – its global reach, the speed of its spread, and its devastating impact. While our foundational experience certainly applies to this situation – and is guiding our daily efforts to help our clients plan and communicate effectively – we feel like we are writing a new playbook for a radically different and unpredictable world, even as we execute from the existing playbook, which had not long ago seemed groundbreaking with the advent of social media’s influence.

When we deliver crisis leadership training, we always start with what we call the crisis paradox: the fact that crises are wildly destructive and positively transformational.

Right now, it’s easy to see the destructive impact of COVID-19 on every organization and individual on the planet. And that destruction is magnified by our collective uncertainty; we simply don’t know how long this will last and how much of what’s happening will become the new normal – making COVID-19 more wildly destructive than any crisis we’ve imagined.

What’s harder to see – with any clarity – is the positive transformation that will surely come from this unprecedented global pandemic. Our hope comes from the stories of ingenuity, collaboration and generosity of spirit, and the growing chorus of “We’re in this together,” which just might be a signal that COVID-19 will transform the world into a kinder, more inclusive place for all.

But before we think about the future, we need to focus on the now. As federal and state governments mandate changes by the day and positive cases of the novel coronavirus increase, organizations large and small are grappling with decisions they never expected to encounter – significant operational, economic and human resources decisions … and in some cases, decisions about their strategic survival. All of which is making clear, fact-based and frequent communication job #1.

In the face of a crisis that’s changing at a pace we’re all working hard to keep up with, here are five things we’re seeing that give us confidence that positive transformation will rise out of COVID-19’s destruction:

1. Organizational leaders are prioritizing communication with their employees, providing clear direction and support, appreciation and genuine empathy. They aren’t hesitating to talk about mental health and available resources, are quickly implementing policies to protect employees’ health and financial well-being, – and they’re being deliberate about recognizing and thanking frontline employees. These actions are especially important in the context of trust. In a recent Edelman Trust Barometer survey about the coronavirus, 51 percent of U.S. respondents said they trust that their employer is well-prepared, while 43 percent said that they trust that the country is – underscoring the importance of employers’ actions and the power of effective communication – on employee trust, now and in the future. In the same survey, 63 percent said they are looking for daily, or more frequent, updates from their employers about the virus.
2. Organizations are shifting from “business as usual” to “COVID-19” mode in rapid fashion, with thoughtfulness and by benchmarking others. They are recognizing the importance of stopping or modifying in-flight messaging to make way for communications that are relevant in a world focused on social distancing and isolation. These efforts will likely prompt improvements in organizations’ messaging and communication channels that will be of value beyond this crisis.
3. Leaders are thinking about all of their stakeholders, broadening their use of technology and channels to stay connected. Unusual times demand increased transparency, resourcefulness and humility, and leaders are rising to the occasion, pushing themselves to be more visible and engage more frequently – and in new ways – with their customers, investors and communities. Those who do this especially well – with an emphasis on listening to their many audiences – will reap lasting benefits.
4. Leaders are listening and working together to do the right thing. Much like the aftermath of 9/11, the working world seems just a bit more open, receptive and kinder now that we’re all fighting an invisible enemy together. We’re witnessing a greater willingness to consider and collaborate on new ideas and innovative solutions. Relationships are being formed through this crisis that in many cases will be enduring, creating future possibilities.
5. Leaders are recognizing the demands placed on their communications team and are looking for ways to alleviate stress. Message alignment and clarity are critical, but COVID-19 communication is too much to place on the shoulders of any single individual. Organizations are identifying back-up support from within or outside the organization and structuring response efforts in a way that allows individuals to step away and recharge. And sometimes the best role a leader can play is to help the communications team say “no” to requests coming at them from all directions. Not everything in a crisis is a crisis.

While no one knows exactly how this pandemic will change not only organizational communications but life as we know it, experts are already beginning to contemplate and forecast potential impacts, revealing the positively transformational nature of crises.