3 Crisis Communication Tips For Leaders
Updated: May 14, 2024
Written by: Sara Mueller, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
In work (and life), adversity is a given. Perhaps our most important responsibility when leading through hardship is to communicate effectively. Here are three crisis communication tips that will move your team and stakeholders toward a positive outcome, growth, and resilience.
1. Be brutal honesty during catastrophe
Brutal honesty is necessary during any catastrophe. It ensures you maintain trust with your team and stakeholders so you can rally them forward. Be sure to tell the truth as it develops. Your team doesn’t want to read about it in the newspaper or on social media. They want to hear it from you first. In addition, research shows that employees prefer to hear bad news from their immediate supervisor, not their CEO or head of human resources.
2. Share logical reasons for hope
Hope is a necessary ingredient for resilience. It’s also necessary to inspire the hearts and minds of your team to move forward through difficulty. Your job when leading through a crisis, then, is to identify legitimate reasons to have hope and take action. What perspective can you offer? What positive outcome can come of this? What’s already being done, that is moving your team’s efforts forward? Regularly identify and communicate the rational basis for hope.
3. Create a communication plan
Whether you have a communications department or not, it will benefit you to spend some time developing a communication strategy for the situation. First, identify the likely needs, questions, and concerns of both your internal and external audiences so you can craft your message.
Then, determine who is best suited to deliver the message and which communication method will be most impactful. Aim for 80 percent person-to-person and 20 percent other media like email or your organization’s intranet.
Next, establish the timing for communicating with each audience, being sure to address those most affected by the crisis first. Lastly, decide how you will gather feedback from each audience and address any lingering concerns.
Many people say great leaders are built in crisis. With these three communication tips in your toolbox, you’ll handle adversity with more ease and positive impact on your organization, family, and community.
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Sara Mueller, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine Sara Mueller believes we CAN have it all. She helps leaders develop emotional intelligence, resilience, and high performance so they can balance an impactful career AND a meaningful family life. After being burnt out in her career and hitting rock bottom in her marriage, Sara realized that her limiting beliefs and unproductive patterns were blocking joy and success in all areas of her life. So, she underwent an intense journey of self-discovery, learning how to own her authentic power, presence, and purpose. She now teaches the key learnings of her transformation in her Self-Mastery Method coaching and leadership programs. Prior to becoming a Success Mentor, Sara spent nearly two decades developing optimization training programs for Fortune Global 500 executives while also teaching mindfulness and yoga to people from all walks of life. She’s a certified Conscious Parenting Coach and is regularly regarded as “life-changing,” “eye-opening,” and “one of the most engaging facilitators I’ve ever seen” by her beloved clients.
