In the wake of the Penn State news about Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse allegations, Syracuse University suffered a similar news story this week regarding Bernie Fine. There is a great ongoing discussion on the role of a Social Media Communicator’s duty during a crisis at www.chrisbrogan.com.

To read about it, including comments from Kate Brodock who is Syracuse University’s Social Media Director, click here.

This is an important discussion that organizations should take note of, especially those in the political world as we’ve seen campaigns do a poor job of crisis management in every way possible. You’d think they would learn after a while.

If you have any thoughts on this feel free to weigh in or drop me a line.

Smokin' Joe: The Autobiography of a Heavyweight Champion of the World, Smokin' Joe Frazier

This week the world of boxing, no the world period, lost a true legend. Smokin’ Joe Frazier lost his final fight, this time with cancer. I grew up watching boxing when it was dominated by Smokin’ Joe, George Foreman, and Muhammad Ali.

I won’t go into a lot of detail about Foreman’s life or accomplishments, you should read this in his autobiography, Smokin’ Joe: The Autobiography of a Heavyweight Champion of the World, Joe Frazier (affiliate link). But what I want to point out is that both Frazier and Ali, even though they beat each other half to death, admitted that those fights boosted their careers.

There is a story that during their third fight on October 1, 1975, while battling it out in the ring the two were also throwing verbal jabs.

“Old Joe Frazier, they told me you were washed up,” whispered Ali.

“They lied, pretty boy,” hissed Frazier.

But at the end of the fourteenth round Frazier’s face was so battered and both eyes were all but swollen shut. Frazier’s trainer Eddie Futch stopped the fight telling Frazer,  ”It’s all over, no one will ever forget what you did here today.” Almost immediately afterward, Ali collapsed in the ring. He said later that it was the closest to death he had ever been.

Sometimes, no matter if we win or lose, no matter how bad we get beat, we emerge better, stronger, more determined, and hopefully wiser.  This week, in honor of Smokin’ Joe Frazier, look at your competition as making you stronger. Take on a challenge that is a stretch for you. And if you get knocked down or you get beat, at least you will know you gave it everything.

On one of my favorite blogs, Zenhabits, Leo Babauta wrote about running into a friend of his and scheduling a meeting to have tea. He says she did something that is rare in today’s world of smart phones and tablet computers, she pulled out a paper calendar and was prepared to make a date on the spot.

Leo goes on to write about the benefits of dealing with something once. Something I needed to be reminded of:

 

Deal with something once. Do it now. Then it’s off your mind, and you can fully focus on the next matter.

Do most of us do this? We might read a bunch of emails, and say, “I’ll reply to those later. I’ll decide later.” We might see a bill or other piece of mail, and put it aside for later.

We put off small decisions and tasks for later, and they pile up, weighing on us at the back of our minds, pulling on us until we collapse under the weight of “later”.

Try dealing with it immediately.

In the past when I did this I found my productivity went up, my stress went down, and my life simplified.

If you’d like to read more of Leo’s post, you do it here.