Book Excerpt: How leaders must communicate crisis in COVID times

There is no denying these are hard times. Economic growth has taken a hit, industries across sectors are making losses, some are even shutting down, people are losing jobs and livelihoods. Wherever you look there is negative news. So now even if a company is not cutting down on the workforce, it makes a good story. Even if a company is not cutting salaries, it makes a good story. And if an organisation is managing to grow and give bonus to its employees, it will make a great story. In good times these stories are in abundance and so lost in the crowd. Everyone has become fatigued with negativity all around and so they want to hear something good in the air.

Leaders must be careful about the sensitivity and empathy in the way the news is communicated. It is critical to be aware of the ecosystem and placing a positive story sensitively in a negative environment is an art that leaders have to master.

So your news needs to be placed as a sunshine story and not as a story that has a “boastful” tenor. With the latter, the story is bound to backfire. This subtle art will make more and more people interested in your organisation.

Sensitivity and empathy play a key role in communicating during a crisis. The communication can be to internal stakeholders or to external clients, stakeholders such as shareholders and media. If there is a sunshine story it needs to be shared across all segments so that the sun keeps shining on the organisation with the support of all the stakeholders. These two vital elements during a leader’s communication will make sure that there is no alienation of the organisation because of insensitivity or demonstration of lack of empathy.

A leader needs to be sensitive and empathetic to the overall ecosystem demonstratively in actions and communications. So every communication needs to showcase these two elements prominently and then to subtly include the achievement as a sunshine story generating hope for the overall industry. These are the stories that make history and a leader needs to learn the fine art of communication whether one is communicating a positive story or handling a crisis. With empathy and sensitivity even the internal stakeholders understand why extreme measures sometimes need to be taken to keep the organisation afloat.

In these tough times every bit of positive story that usually gets lost in the crowd gets prominence. And for the negative stories, it becomes a victim of the headwinds for which it is not directly responsible. So leaders need to make the best use of such crisis using the right mix of empathy and sensitivity.

 Mahul Brahma is a senior communications professional.