Congress wants to 'inflict pain’ on Mark Zuckerberg. Is he ready for it?; Guardian, April 10, 2018

Olivia Solon, Guardian; Congress wants to 'inflict pain’ on Mark Zuckerberg. Is he ready for it?

"Taking the stand will be a major test for Zuckerberg’s communication skills. Unlike when he deals with the media, his public relations team won’t be there to cherry-pick questions from friendly parties. And Congress wants its pound of flesh.

“Congress is theatre. More than what they are going to want to learn [about the data lapses], they are going to want to inflict pain. They are going to want to be seen as being responsive to public disgruntlement with how Facebook handled the issue,” said Ari Ratner, founder of communications consultancy Inside Revolution and former Obama administration official...

Zuckerberg will want to come across as authentic and apologetic, and will, according to his testimony published on Monday, highlight the sweeping changes that the company has announced already to its privacy tools and to the way third parties can access data on the platform as well as a verification process for political advertisers and page administrators. He will probably also want to talk about Facebook’s global compliance with General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), a broad set of privacy protections being introduced in the European Union in May."

Cracking the Code That Stalls People of Color; Harvard Business Review, 1/22/14

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Harvard Business Review; Cracking the Code That Stalls People of Color:

"It’s a topic which corporations once routinely ignored, then dismissed, and are only now beginning to discuss: the dearth of professionals of color in senior positions. Professionals of color hold only 11% of executive posts in corporate America. Among Fortune 500 CEOs, only six are black, eight are Asian, and eight are Hispanic.

Performance, hard work, and sponsors get top talent recognized and promoted, but “leadership potential” isn’t enough to lever men and women into the executive suite. Top jobs are given to those who also look and act the part, who manifest “executive presence” (EP). According to new CTI research (PDF), EP constitutes 26% of what senior leaders say it takes to get the next promotion. Yet because senior leaders are overwhelmingly Caucasian, professionals of color (African-American, Asian, and Hispanic individuals) find themselves at an immediate disadvantage in trying to look, sound, and act like a leader. And the feedback that might help them do so is markedly absent at all levels of management.

EP rests on three pillars: gravitas (the core characteristic, according to 67% of the 268 senior executives surveyed), an amalgam of behaviors that convey confidence, inspire trust, and bolster credibility; communication skills (according to 28%); and appearance, the filter through which communication skills and gravitas become more apparent. While they are aware of the importance of executive presence, men and women of color are nonetheless hard-pressed to interpret and embody aspects of a code written by and for white men."

Wetenhall's tenure as Carnegie Museums president wasn't smooth sailing; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 10/17/22

Marylynne Pitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Wetenhall's tenure as Carnegie Museums president wasn't smooth sailing: "I've been really very busy and engaged with our museum trustees, directors and boards working on our strategic plan, which I'm very pleased with," he said about the five-year plan that he plans to present to the 60-member museum board in November. "I think from this effort our museums have developed their own strategic plans that are, in my judgment, very well aligned to help aim our museums toward a successful future."... One local arts leader concluded that Mr. Wetenhall's tenure would be brief after meeting him for the first time. "There was a lack of self-awareness, a lack of inquisitiveness about this new place he found himself in. He would talk, but he wasn't really listening," the individual said... About nine months ago, Mr. Foster suggested to executive committee members of the main Carnegie board that 360-degree assessments be done of all senior management staff to develop their managerial skills."