A leadership team faces challenges of all shapes and sizes. What’s important is how leaders handle the challenges. When COVID-19 started, leaders had to step up to the mark and deal with the unknown in the best way they knew how. So, what can leaders do to prepare for a crisis? James Burstall, Founder and CEO, Argonon, one of the UK’s largest international independent TV production groups, explains how keeping the communication lines open during a crisis is one of the most important things a leader can do.
Deloitte’s 2023 Corporate Affairs report found that since the pandemic, corporate affairs has been ‘tested to navigate a perfect storm of crises’.
I think many business leaders gained a new appreciation for our communications teams during the COVID pandemic, and going forward good external and internal comms will remain an essential tool for steering your company through crises. And let’s face it, they are coming at us so thick and fast.
During any crisis, a business leader is going to need to step up their communication when their stakeholders have a heightened need for good, honest communication that gives them information and guidance. They can also help their team adjust and cope emotionally by putting their experience into context, giving it some kind of meaning. As a leader, that’s a huge weight of expectation on your shoulders. Crises put executives under intense public scrutiny as companies are judged for the care, authenticity and the sense of purpose they demonstrate.
For over a decade at Argonon, we have relied on crisis management principles we call The Flexible Method. First developed during another existential crisis, the 2008 Credit Crunch, it has allowed our company to evolve and thrive. Not despite these global crises but because of them. Communication plays a crucial role.
During a crisis we all crave optimism but there’s no point in sugar-coating the situation. Make a point of rooting all your communication in the real world as things evolve. This doesn’t mean you have to be a pessimist but excessive confidence in such an obviously difficult situation would lose credibility.
The content of your communications will change as the crisis evolves. I find it best to tailor our communications to the likely emotional state of our stakeholders, focusing on what they needed to know most at that moment.
For example, during the first lockdown, I felt acutely concerned about the more junior members of our team. I knew they must be frightened and feel isolated. So, I decided to start writing a morning email to my entire team, across the globe. I would speak frankly and openly. It is a very personal lo-fi way of connecting with everyone on the team. In daily emails, I repeated and reinforced messages. You may get tired of repeating key messages but your stakeholders need to hear them several times.
Our communications focused on giving people necessary information while encouraging them to remain calm and stay safe. Your stakeholders will have limited attention in a breaking crisis as there is a lot going on and they can feel frightened and overwhelmed. They are not going to be in a state to be able to process complicated information, so I kept messages simple, to the point and actionable.
I felt it was important up front to state our organisation’s objectives in the emergency and commit to achieving them. I recommend sharing different strategy options you are considering when faced with the crisis. Transparency builds trust and shows respect for employees by assuming they are sufficiently intelligent and resilient to cope with this openness.
If your communications are going to be effective, your audience must trust you and what you are saying, especially in a crisis. We decided to maintain transparency and be honest about where things stood, and I was not afraid to show vulnerability. I felt it was important to show empathy. And acknowledge fear, pain and suffering.
Demonstrating vulnerability, sharing your own feelings and acknowledging emotional turmoil can help build trust, but you need to be careful not to go overboard here. BP CEO, Tony Hayward’s, remarks after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill spring to mind.
You can also communicate too frequently. Quality communications are required. You have to find the right balance of not overly communicating or alarming teams where it is not necessary.
A helpful way of offsetting bad news is to remind people of times when they overcame challenges in the past, especially during previous crises.
People also tend to pay more attention to positively framed information, so we told people what they should do rather than what they shouldn’t (dos rather than don’ts).
As a crisis evolves, you may have to help people cope emotionally with the trauma of sudden change and adjustment to the ‘new normal’. I recommend allowing employees to be able to express their concerns to management without fear of damaging their careers. Periodically reporting back with feedback and follow-up actions builds trust in your leadership – not only during this critical period but also continuing after the crisis.
As a crisis deepens you will need to build resilience in your team, foster a sense of hope and optimism to supercharge creativity and plan for the future. You can do this by celebrating the positives, even small wins. Share uplifting moments about how your people are adapting to new ways of working. Publicly thank staff, speaking to them directly or sending personal thank you notes.
As people adapt, your comms may increasingly focus on helping them to make sense of their experiences in the crisis. Encourage a sense of common social identity and belonging based on shared values of mutual support and achievement by highlighting your shared sense of purpose, how your organisation is responding and set out a clear vision for how your organisation and its people will emerge for the future, with two or three simple goals.
You must then take actions to realise those goals, because communication not only consists of words but also actions, and people will take note of what you do to follow up on your words.
You may find that communication is your most important skill as a leader.
The Flexible Method: Prepare to Prosper in the Next Global Crisis by James Burstall is out now.