One of the best pieces of business advice my father gave me was to be someone who makes decisions. He pointed out that you have a 50/50 chance of being right – and most people are not willing to take those odds. A recent article in Fortune about the best lessons Steve Jobs taught Tim Cook brought this to mind. Per the piece on leadership by Natalie McCormick, “Among the key management skills he learned from Jobs was [...]

Stress happens along a spectrum. There is positive stress in our lives like starting a new job. The next category is tolerable stress, and that can be falling and spraining your ankle. With a little bit of support and time you get over it. But then comes toxic stress. Toxic stress can happen with prolonged, severe or repeated exposure to adversity or uncertainty. Trauma is the impact that toxic stress leaves behind, and right now, [...]

As CommsCollectiv marks its first anniversary, we find ourselves at the intersection of two significant milestones: our company’s journey and the emergence of a transformative trend in corporate communications: the rise of fractional communications. Growth Through Flexibility When we launched CommsCollectiv last year, we recognized a crucial gap in the market: businesses needed access to senior communications expertise without the overhead of full-time executive salaries. Our timing was impeccable. According to research cited in the [...]

While this podcast, The Growing Trend of Part-Time Executives from HBR IdeaCast, doesn’t focus exclusively on communications, it offers valuable validation for the work we do at CommsCollectiv. Fractional leadership — a concept we champion — has become a game-changer for organizations that need senior-level expertise but lack the budget or resources for full-time hires. In this episode, Tomoko Yokoi, a researcher at IMD Business School’s TONOMUS Global Center for Digital and AI Transformation, and Amy Bonsall, a [...]

As many of us know, the way we consume and engage with information has dramatically transformed in recent years. Traditional media, once the cornerstone of public discourse and news dissemination, is steadily being overshadowed by digital platforms. This shift is not just about convenience but represents a fundamental change in how audiences seek, trust, and interact with content. From the rapid rise of social media platforms as primary news sources to the increasing influence of [...]

To stay competitive, agility and innovation are essential. Leveraging fractional leaders offers a flexible and cost-effective solution, blending deep expertise with a fresh, external perspective. Companies embracing this approach recognize that access to on-demand expertise can be a game-changer in reaching their goals. Case in point: Buffer, a social media management company known for its open company culture and progressive management, worked with a fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to support its growth strategy. Teaming [...]