Mitt Romney’s front-runner status has been thrown into question once again after his triple loss in state primaries. For professional communicators, the reason for his difficulties is obvious–he doesn’t connect, and connecting is all about communicating. And in presidential election after presidential election, however, the candidate who connects best, wins.

At the World Innovation Forum, one of the presenters was Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos. He talked a lot about happiness, what makes Zappos one of the top workplaces and, I think, a great place to buy from.

It’s been an enlightening morning at the World Innovation Forum in New York, listening to Harvard’s Clayton Christensen talk about his theory of “disruption.”

If you’ve ever had to react on the spot to a situation that was so sticky, so icky that it left you speechless, read on to see how a friend of mine handled a recent conflict.

Congress decided to “mix it up” for the State of the Union address, to sit together instead of opposite sides of the aisle. It was even referred to as “dating,” and fraught with the same social complexity and awkwardness teenagers encounter. This seemed like an empty gesture, but I was quite surprised by the outcome.

As a celebrity media trainer, I have to watch the Academy Awards. Sometimes my clients are winners and have to deliver acceptance speeches or speak to the press about how they feel about not winning, areas I have coached them on. I also like to observe acceptance speeches, whether I worked with the winners or not, and use them as examples about what works and what doesn’t in presentation and public speaking.

Our communication with each other has unacceptably coarsened.

I got a tweet from André Rieu, the well-known violinist and Johann Strauss Orchestra conductor. He was aghast at Michael Jackson’s deathand felt what many did of course. Because André is a musician and performer, however, he felt an especially profound loss. So am I and thus, so did I. Jackson was a prodigious talent and his effect on culture is permanent. As Obi-wan said, “I felt a great disturbance in The Force.”

Dubai has promoted itself as a tourist mecca (pun intended) as well as international business center. Therefore, service is the name of the game.

I have to be very careful about this because I’ve found I can get into some trouble.