Unlocking Potential: Join My Open Office Hours for Personal & Professional Growth
I’m trying something new this fall. Starting this Friday, I am putting two hours aside as my own open door policy and hosting office hours. You have two options:💥 Office Hours – Group Meetings – where I allow up to six seats for people who want to ask questions that are professional or personal. The […]
What is the SWOT analysis from last year’s Inner Strength i5 Communications Skills Benchmark study?
Strengths: It should be no surprise that execution is genuinely strong among practitioners. Highest average scores are in technical/digital competency and clear writing. We also see ourselves as strategic since strategic thinking is the second-most cited strength in the open comments…so we do not lack ambition or self-belief. Weaknesses: Measurement is the clearest weakness. It’s […]
The biggest mistake leaders make is assuming how their people will react to news.
After 30 years working in communication, one of the biggest mistakes I’ve often seen is leaders thinking they will know how employees will react simply based on their personal opinions without checking in. What they forget is that employees:– don’t have all of the research and analysis that helped make the decisions over months and […]
I have a theory. I think AI is about to become the world’s greatest organizational detective.
Not because it’s smarter than people, but because it’s about to uncover everything we’ve forgotten. Imagine walking into a library that’s been growing for 25 years. Some books are brand new, others haven’t been opened in a decade. There are three copies of the same story, each with a different ending. Some chapters are missing, […]
How can Internal Communication Professionals build influence one “Yes” at a time?
One of the biggest mistakes I see Internal Communication Professionals make is asking for a big investment before they’ve earned confidence in smaller ones.Influence isn’t built by making one massive request. It’s built by collecting a series of “yeses.” Think about it like climbing a staircase. Step 1: Ask for less than $100A webinar.A networking […]
Valuing Your Expertise: How to Handle ‘Pick My Brain’ Requests and Turn Conversations into Opportunities
Do you ever feel like “Can I pick your brain?” or “Let me buy you a coffee” is really a request for free consulting? It happens to me all the time. After 12 years as a consultant, I am learning to value my time and expertise more intentionally. One of the best phrases came from […]
Embracing Change: Why the Internet and AI Are Opportunities, Not Threats
“The worldwide web is a meeting place and will never be used for commerce.” I heard those words from a speaker in the late 1990s, when the internet was first becoming a thing. He explained that the internet was created for research, collaboration and conversation and people were expected to contribute. If you tried to […]
Navigating Leadership Messages: How to Ensure Your Voice Reaches the Right Shore
Why do important leadership messages get lost at sea? You can write the perfect leadership message, place it in the hands of managers and send it across the organization…..then you wait. Did it reach employees? Did it arrive at the right time? Did anyone understand what it meant for them? Too often, manager communication resembles […]
Labour Day Lessons: How Consistent Employee Communication Builds Trust and Strengthens Frontline Workforce Relationships
This Labour Day , I’ve been thinking about what the labour movement has meant for all workers. Weekends. Safer workplaces. Limits on working hours. Collective bargaining. Better wages and benefits. Maternity and parental leave protections. A stronger voice for workers. Many of the things we now consider part of a fair workplace were fought for, […]
Empowering Internal Communicators: Unlocking Strategic Impact at CACE Conference 2026
Priya Bates is pleased to be a keynote speaker at CACE Conference 2026 in Halifax, hosted by the Canadian Association of Communicators in Education. The keynote, Creating Impact: Your i5 Report Card, will explore how Internal Communication Professionals can move proactively from tactical implementation to strategic impact. After almost 30 years of building internal communication […]
Remembering 9/11: Honoring Resilience, Humanity, and Connection in Uncertain Times
25 years ago. One week before on September 4th, HP had announced that it would acquire Compaq. We were in shock and as an internal communication professional with Compaq Canada, I quickly worked with our executive team to have our president speak to our employees from his cottage to announce what he knew and what […]
What does Canada mean to me? It isn’t perfection.
It’s the quiet decision to keep trying.Canada has cracks. We always have. We haven’t always lived up to our values, and we continue to wrestle with our history, our differences, and our future. Acknowledging that isn’t unpatriotic, it’s necessary. But what keeps me hopeful is that so many Canadians still believe we can do better. […]