Communications strategy and sustained professional development. Those are the central tenets I’ve been emphasizing throughout my quarter-century-plus as a consultant.

Why the concentration on those issues? Communications strategy is sorely lacking in too many businesses. When an issue arises, the knee-jerk reaction is to turn to tactics. You’ve probably heard ideas like these:

“Let’s issue a news release.”“Maybe we should pitch our CEO for that keynote at our association’s annual meeting.”“Th...