Circle of Fellows #55: Bosses -- True Stories of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Bosses: True Stories of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a candid and provocative new book in which communication and leadership expert Roger D’Aprix (also an IABC Fellow) asserts that many leaders are ignoring the proper selection, training, development, and ongoing support of the mid-level bosses they entrust to manage company talent.

Roger joined four IABC Fellows and moderator Shel Holtz on March 19 for a conversation about bosses, their communication role, and how organizational communicators can help improve the culture of management in their organizations.

In addition to Roger and Shel, Fellows participating in this conversation included Bish Mukherjee, Jim Shaffer, Angela Sinickas, and Stacy Wilson.

About the panel

Roger D’Aprix is an internationally known consultant, lecturer, and author who has helped scores of Fortune 500 companies develop more effective communication strategies, embrace cultural change and achieve better business results. His clients have included such organizations as Comcast, Cisco Systems, DuPont, Lucent Technologies, General Motors, Saturn Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, EDS, GE Capital Services, Marsh, Pfizer and others. Before joining ROI Communication’s Board of Advisors in 2005, Roger served as vice president and global practice leader for Towers Perrin’s human resource communication practice, and as a principal and service developer for Mercer Human Resource Consulting. Before that, he led employee communications for Xerox Corporation and held executive communication positions at General Electric and Bell and Howell. Roger has written several books on employee communication, including his best-selling Communicating for Change: Connecting the Workplace with the Marketplace and The Credible Company: Communicating with Today’s Skeptical Workforce.

Bish Mukherjee is an advisor in marketing, media, public relations, and branding. He is president of Misha Network. He did award-winning work for the Reserve Bank, BSES, Colgate-Palmolive, and Alstom. He has organized corporate events for the Queen of England, the British Prime Minister, and the French President. Bish has anchored a fortnightly TV show on Bombay TV. he was featured on Australia’s “Sixty Minutes.” Bish has taught advertising and PR. He is an executive board member of the Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce and is a PRCI Hall of Fame inductee; he also serves on the board of advisors of the Public Relations Council of India, from which he received a lifetime achievement award in 2019.

Jim Shaffer is a business adviser, leadership coach, author, and speaker. As leader of the Jim Shaffer Group, he helps organizations accelerate results through superior strategy execution. The Jim Shaffer Group creates hard business results by translating the business strategy to the people who need to implement it, aligning systems, processes, and culture to make the gains sustainable. The firm has improved quality, service, sales, safety, turnover, productivity, speed and costs with some returns exceeding more than 1,600 percent. He designed and produced the IABC Academy courses, “Managing Communication to Drive Results and Value” and “How to Add Value as a Strategic Adviser”. Some of his clients have included: Hallmark, ConAgra Foods, FedEx, IBM, Marriott, Mayo Clinic, Verizon, Owens Corning, Pfizer, and Toyota.

Angela Sinickas is the founder of Sinickas Communications, which has worked with companies, organizations, and governments in 32 countries on six continents. Her clients include 25% of the Forbes Top 100 largest global companies. Before starting her own consulting firm, she held positions from editor to vice president in for-profit and gover...