Momentum - Business to Business Online Magazine MOMENTUM Summer 2018 | Page 31

5 Communication Strategies For Leading During Crisis By: Bonnie Benkula, BSHCA, MBA Certified Coach, Speaker, Trainer The John Maxwell TEAM The Leaven Exchange [email protected] Communities and companies alike will face crisis. Good communication can unite all and poor communication can make a bad situation worse. Many leaders struggle in finding the right words during a crisis when planning the message is not feasible. An experienced leader with the right message taking immediate action can create a sense of calmness, create unity and build a sense of hope. Here are 5 Strategies to get the conversation started: 1. Don’t: Delay communication. Initial reaction may be to wait and gather all the facts, don’t do that. Remember, the crisis along with the rumors and half-truths will spread whether you say a word or not. Delaying communication could lead to devastating repercussions for companies and community leaders and create more damage. Do: Take immediate action and communicate broadly. As soon as a leader is aware of their crisis, they must take immediate action. Communicate that you are aware of the crisis, you are investigating, and you will keep all stakeholders apprised of information as it comes available. 2. Don’t: Assume or Speculate. Don’t assume, give “your opinion” or speculate in your communication. Saying the wrong thing, is still the wrong thing. Do: Be empathetic, reassuring and follow through. Be real. Speak from your heart with empathy. Wait for the facts. Follow through with communication of appropriate facts as soon as possible. 3. Don’t: Justify or point blame. Emotions and fear may be high, now is not the time to justify why something happened. Don’t speculate who is to blame. Playing the blame game is ugly. Stick to the facts Jack. Do: Assure there will be resolution. As you communicate, make sure you communicate that you are taking the issue seriously and there will be a resolution and/or explanation. Assure that those who are responsible 30 MOMENTUM / Summer 2018 will be held accountable. Apologize if appropriate. 4. Don’t: Step back. Leaders, have you ever felt like hiding during a crisis? Now is not the time to step back but a time to step up. Delegating communication in a crisis is a bad idea. Do: Lead from the front. The top leader needs to lead the communication from the front during a crisis. All involved expect the top leader to answer questions during this time. 5. Don’t: Sing the positive message too soon. Singing a positive message too early can feel fake and make those still in the crisis feel dismissed. Do: Evaluate, Improve and Prevent. Stay Optimistic First, lead to assure the current crisis does not get worse. Stop the crisis. Quickly begin to work on building unity. After the initial crisis, leaders can focus on planning to prevent future crisis. Crisis leadership should be about getting everyone back to the new normal as soon as possible. Leaders who have this unique skill are invaluable. Discontent, anger and fear arise during crisis and these can bring down the morale of a company or halt a community. These strategies are simple guidelines that any leader can follow during a crisis. If a leader is not careful, the stress of a crisis can bring them down too. After the immediate needs are handled, leaders must seek out a positive outlet for their stress or maintain an executive coach to keep their own mental and physical health in check. Like many, I am very proud of our community leaders and the sense of support I’ve witnessed recently. The extensive leadership has shown we are blessed to have talented, dedicated and strong leadership in and around us here in our community. God bless our community. Thank you to all of you who lead.