Welcome to my weekly round-up of the best-of-the-best recent leadership and communication blog posts. 

This Week's Round-Up of Leadership and Communication Blogs:

• Unlocking a Listening Culture
  By Institute of Internal Communication Team (@IoICNews), Voice
  
  Get the considerable benefits of effective organizational listening, a few techniques for listening, and more.
  
  “Communication is about more than just pushing information out. Successful organisations become even more successful when they continually listen to what their internal audience is telling them...”
  Read more >>

Like many of you, I’m starting to prepare for holiday break (away from work!), with my family. However, unlike many people, I’ll be disconnecting from work email during that time.

By now you may be familiar with my thoughts on checking email during vacation and even my Email-Free Vacation Pledge. But have you made the commitment to yourself yet?

If you’re like a lot of leaders I know, you’re constantly looking for ideas to make your next town hall feel more exciting and inspiring for employees. And that’s a good instinct. The truth is that many companies are long overdue for a town hall makeover.

Life can sneak up on you sometimes. Luckily, we have some last minute Thanksgiving recipes (inspired by Grandma Elsie and her famous spice mix, of course) for you and your family to enjoy. Let us help with some food for thought (literally!) on some winning and all-time-favorite recipes from Grandma Elsie's collection. These recipes are sure to make your life – and your holiday season – a little easier and hopefully, a touch more delicious.

5 of Our Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

Welcome to my weekly round-up of the best-of-the-best recent leadership and communication blog posts. 

This Week's Round-Up of Leadership and Communication Blogs:

• 10 Lessons From Mr. Rogers On How To Make Yourself Heard
  By Chet Wade via Forbes (@Forbes)
  
  Communicate better, especially when times are tough and the news is bad, with these 10 lessons from Mr. Rogers.
  
  “The lessons taught by Fred (How can you refer to him as “Rogers?”) are far too many for one article, one movie, or one book. Maybe, one lifetime. Here are 10 of the most-important ones related to communicating....”
  Read more >>

I'd like to offer some strategies for engaging Millennials, who work a little differently than the workforce of ealier generations and respond better to certain types of communication.

Consider using these 5 strategies that are key to their engagement:

Starting to think about what book(s) to read over the holidays? The senior thought partners here at The Grossman Group and I shared a few of our favorite books on leadership, communication, personal development, business or just an all-around good book that resonated with us. Find out what some of us have been reading (in alphabetical order under each category) and our thoughts on each one.

Welcome to my weekly round-up of the best-of-the-best recent leadership and communication blog posts. 

This Week's Round-Up of Leadership and Communication Blogs:

• Five Tools for Communicating Vision
  By Mark Cole (@JohnMaxwellTeam via @JohnCMaxwell), John C. Maxwell
  
  Many consider Winston Churchill to be great at communicating vision, especially during World War II and in a way that unified and mobilized the British people. He developed this pattern of 5 tools.
  
  “One of my favorite lessons John Maxwell teaches is, 'A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.' The most important point is the first one—'A leader knows the way'—because if the leader doesn’t know the way it will be impossible to go the way and show the way...”
  Read more >>

Looking for a festive way to entertain during the holiday season (or anytime during the year)? Try this easy-to-make recipe that delivers just the right amount of sweetness, fresh fruit and baking spices to brighten any gathering of friends or family. It’s the addition of Grandma Elsie’s Famous Spices that gives the sangria a holiday twist. You can even make it ahead of time – adding the sparkling water and ice just before serving. For those of you who aren't familiar with our tradition and Grandma Elsie, click here.

I was humbled recently to speak at the 30^th anniversary celebration of Medill's Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications, which I helped start. I was asked to speak about how the Journal began to an audience of current grad students, alumni, faculty and staff.

What follows are my remarks about the power of curiosity, and the one question that can help you solve any problem: