The Agony of Decision author Fred Garcia is one of those amazing, extraordinary people we so rarely meet in our lives. Luckily, we met more than thirty years ago, in New York as he recruited me to teach in his Public Relations program at NYU.  It was the beginning of a career long relationship where we collaborate, associate, learn from each other, and shared or refereed clients to each other.

The only school for presidents to learn how to be president is living and working at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as president. Ironically this is also true for most CEO positions. It’s a job that, however smart you think you are, you learn on the job every single day.

Ten areas for serious personal and professional consideration and reflection. First, change your mindset and your entire philosophy of work.

Dealing with victims remains among the least well-handled of all management activities. Here’s how your institution can appropriately respond when a victim-creating incident occurs.

Wherever there is conflict, confrontation and crisis, there is contention. In today’s Twitter, blogger and bloviator dominated world, working to resolve important issues, questions and decisions often begins very contentiously and ends only after one side is beaten and leaves the field; there is a mutual withdrawal, or mostly commonly, one side wins and the other side stays angry.

The weight of public communication on public officials is enormous compared to the communication requirements in private industry, even in the non-profit sector. It would appear America is entering an era of extraordinary change in the relationship of government to people. Changes and eliminations in programs and services, the handling of public crises in general, are gaining more scrutiny from more opinionated sources.

The highest priority, greatest threat and most crucial aspect of managing crises is the victim dimension. Victims provide the explosive emotional drive that results in high visibility, high liability and high anxiety. The reality is most organizations, hospitals, schools and universities do a sloppy, insensitive or timid job of dealing with victims. This can be very costly to your reputation.

Fictional President Josiah Bartlett: It has been awhile but I thought I might jot some thoughts down about where we seem to be headed and just ask some questions about the destinations we appear to be seeking. My question about reforming taxes in America is simply this: How will America remain great if we yet again give the really rich more than those who have less or nothing?

Civility and niceness begins with each one of us. Here’s one great example of a lot of people being helpful and decent to others, and the source is surprising.

Obtaining forgiveness is a process. The power of that process is diluted when it appears obvious that the perpetrator has no particular concept of or organized intention to apologize.