In a global business world were a majority of the communications occurs via email, text messages,
instant messages, and posts on intranets and CRM’s, the increasing lack of phone skills is negatively impacting business acumen and business performance.

Every business leader has heard this disturbing statement at least a few times when having a “hard conversation” with a direct report:

In today’s complex business world, business leaders are faced with many challenges and are provided with even more opportunities for success.  I recently conducted a business acumen session with a group of leaders who were discussing the challenge of creating alignment and leading across generations.  The conversation specifically included the challenges faced by leaders who are trying to balance the execution of strategy and how to effectively communicate and work with both different functions and levels of experience.

Business leaders around the world go to work every day and either try to ride the “Disruption Wave” by evolving their business strategies, or are hit by it totally unaware that it was coming.  The “Blockbuster” story has now become the overused example of a company that didn’t see the digital disruption wave coming and went from being a darlings of Wall Street to bankruptcy in a blink of the eye.