Leadership Thoughts: Noteworthy Blog Posts – May ’25

As small business owners and leaders, you carry the responsibility for the direction and success of your business.  And while Cumulus Global provides managed cloud services and Cloud Forward IT service and support that help you thrive and grow, we understand your responsibilities are broader than just IT.  Here is a curated list of blog posts from trusted experts and thought leaders that we hope will inform and inspire.

Vision

• Deciding What You Stand for Is Easy; Standing Firm Is the Real Test
  • While increasingly expected in today’s business landscape, your desire to add purpose beyond profit is important and admirable. But while most business leaders can articulate their vision, many have a much harder time with consistent execution. It turns out that a hard part of business leadership is not defining your vision, but sticking to those values even when the chips are down.
  • Electra Govoni, The Alternative Board (TAB) Boston North West

Business and IT Strategy 

• Save or Spend? IT Decisions for Turbulent Times
  • Radical changes in government policies, along with unpredictable tariffs and trade policies, create a level of economic uncertainty that impacts our business decisions. Across all aspects of our businesses, including IT services, is it time to save or spend?
  • Allen Falcon, Cumulus Global Blog

Leadership

• Engaging Generation Z in the Workplace
  • Generation Z (Gen Z) accounts for a growing percentage of the global workforce. However, many individuals in this demographic feel disengaged or disempowered in the workplace. This article explains how engaging Gen Z is important for organizations, outlines challenges employers face in these efforts and provides tips on engaging this demographic in the workplace.
  • Chrystine Heier, Sullivan Benefits

Legal

• Sue the Bastard! … I Think
  • When it comes to reviews, businesses have a strong incentive push for 5 stars. For instance, an increase of one star on a Yelp review can lead to a 5-9% increase in business revenue, according to a Harvard Business School study. But what if the review is not a true reflection of the company? 
  • Daniel Batterman, Esq. at Lipresti Law

Human Resources

• Hiring Without Overcommitting: Know Your Numbers So You Can Move Ahead Amidst Uncertainty
  • Did you lay out big growth plans for your organization in 2025 that now feel unrealistic since it’s – somehow – almost May? You are not alone, and I hope you, too, will give yourself a little grace. Growth requires action, including investing in the right people and systems, but taking action can feel extra risky amidst economic volatility and uncertainty.
  • Amy Mosher Berry,Visions Internships

Marketing

• Marketing Through Challenging Times
  • In today’s rapidly changing world, marketing strategies that resonate on a deeper, more authentic level are crucial. As a business owner or marketer, adjusting your narrative to align with current events, while maintaining authenticity, can significantly impact both your audience engagement and your own mental well-being.
  • Kristi Mitchell, Marketing Uncomplicated

Social Media

• Should I Be Using Threads for My Business?
  • Given the immense popularity and potential of this microblog-style social media app, you might be wondering if Threads is worth exploring for promoting your organization. So today, I wanted to take a minute to outline some key highlights about the platform and offer my thoughts on how you can evaluate its suitability for your needs.
  • Nicole Porter, Monomoy Social Media

Productivity

• Gen AI Prompt Engineering
  • You don’t need to be a data scientist or a machine learning engineer – everyone can write effective gen AI prompts. This 60+ Google whitepaper goes beyond “prompting 101” and dives deep into advanced prompt engineering with Gemini AI and for large language models (LMMs) in general.
  • Cumulus Global Library, May 2025
• Slash Email Time by 50%: Must-Have AI Tools
  • Those constant incoming messages can weigh us down and make it tough to stay productive. When your inbox is overflowing, it’s hard to know where to start or what to prioritize. Plus, the urge to respond right away can pull our focus away from those bigger, long-term projects that really matter. But this can all change! With the right email management tools powered by AI, your inbox is transformed from a daily hassle to a simple task you can easily handle.
  • Mike Grossman, Mike Grossman Consulting, LLC

Wellness

• Boosting Your Mental Health Daily
  • Mental Health Awareness Month is observed every May to help break the stigma and support people living with mental health conditions. Mental health is always there; your state continually changes depending on resources and challenges. Focusing on maintaining or  improving your mental health is important, so here are five ways to boost your mental health on a daily basis.
  • Chrystine Heier, Sullivan Benefits

Cybersecurity

• Why Not Prevent AI Data Breaches?
  • To state the obvious, AI data breaches and leaks will damage your business. Even sharing sensitive or protected information internally will cause problems. Less obvious is the fact that you have already shared information that should not be shared. You should expect that private, sensitive, and protected information in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 is already accessible to your AI tools. Now is the time to prevent AI data breaches.
  • Cumulus Global Blog, May 2025

Help us keep the ideas flowing. As a thought leader, if you have any blog posts that you want to share, please let us know.