A guest article by David Oates, Crisis PR and Communications Expert.
If you’re feeling the ground shifting beneath your feet, you’re not alone—today’s business landscape is in a state of constant flux. Federal policies seem to change by the hour, leaving even the most seasoned economists shrugging their shoulders as to what’s next. In turn, company execs put the brakes on all but the most essential initiatives for the first half of 2025. Don’t expect the rest of the year to go any differently.
Chaotic circumstances like the current business environment will also impact communications. Business leaders who can’t figure out what tomorrow will bring will likely say…nothing. While understandable, their silence will empower speculation, even well-intended supposition by supporters, that will gain momentum and become fact in the public domain. We live in a day and age where such comments can go viral in moments through a Slack Channel, WhatsApp group, LinkedIn community, Instagram reel, or Facebook Live event.
The longer executives remain quiet, the more the panicked and anxiety-laden theories of others begin to cement as truth in the eyes of smartphone-addicted employees, customers, business partners, and investors. Chaotic times call for leaders to step up and demonstrate their presence by communicating. Any business owner and executive can bring calm to anxious times and stave off a mass exodus of stakeholders if they follow these principles:
Get Perspective
We’ve seen this level of chaos before and in very recent times. As difficult as today can feel, we must remember that we came through other events, such as the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Great Recession of 2008-2009, and September 11, 2001. In those moments, great leaders did not shy away from showing their own feelings of uncertainty but did so with an equal public resolve to carry on despite them. This demonstration of confident vulnerability comforted us. Leaders who expressed this trait exhibited transparency, approachability, genuineness, and sincerity without giving up their authority and accountability to make decisions during stressful situations. Showing all these traits in chaotic times can rally people around an idea faster than anything else. Because of them, we felt a part of something bigger and a bit more hopeful. It gave us the courage to try without a real understanding of whether it would work out.
Get Moving
In times of chaos, employees, customers, business partners, investors, and others want to feel like they can do something – anything – to get themselves out of a sense of powerlessness. Give them that opportunity. Set up town halls in person and via Zoom. Ask for ideas and put together teams to brainstorm financial, product, sales, HR, operations, and other tactics. Make folks feel like they can help create solutions. Even if some ideas don’t hold water or are not applicable, appreciate all the input. Some of the thoughts will get you thinking about opportunities. Even others can convert it into meaningful action.
Get Communicating
As you set up initiatives and activities based on the input, update everyone on the status, especially your employees. Give random acts of gratitude to team members who develop great ideas. You’ll start to see your staff’s enthusiasm rise. Their welcomed involvement in finding solutions to today’s chaotic world will come across in their correspondence with customers and other stakeholders.
Send regular emails and live update events to customers and business partners. Continue to ask for input and suggestions from all audiences along the way. Maintain an “open door” policy as much as possible with everyone.
What’s more, keep these new initiatives up well into the future. These leadership qualities and communication approaches will help in good times and bad. You’ll uncover new market opportunities while identifying issues to address before they become a crisis. Approaching your role in a confidently vulnerable way while making yourself available, transparent, and open to input will foster dividends that you can measure in employee morale, productivity, and financial statements.
