From the Lionesses of Africa Operations Department
In the world of entrepreneurship, the founder of the business is the most trusted of all social messengers when it comes to effective communication – beating business in general, government, media and NGOs by 20-point margins. When the founder speaks, people listen, in particular employees — and the tone, accuracy and relevance of employers’ advice can make all the difference between calm and panic in this current, unsettling crisis situation.
Here are a 8 practical steps to getting your employee communication right during these challenging times:
Share your plan with employees and explain what human resources policies, workplace and leave flexibilities, and pay and benefits will be available to them.
Ensure the plan you design is flexible and involve your employees in developing and reviewing your plan. Such an inclusion always helps alleviate fear in humans, if we are part of the process, we ‘own’ it.
Anticipate employee fear, anxiety, rumours, and misinformation, and plan communications accordingly. Remember communication can be both a strength and a weakness. Ensure that it is a strength in such times as these and use it. Employees may well have Whatsapp groups where rumours and fear spreads fast. Find a good way to communicate with your employees during this time. There is no point in joining your employees’ Whatsapp group as they will simply create a new one without you, but that does not mean to say you cannot create two - one for your management group and one for all of your employees including the management group. That way there is still a communication link.
Although your middle management will continue to play an essential role, flatten the communication pyramid. Now is not the time for you to hide. We are not saying you have to answer all questions nor answer them immediately (make sure this is understood on any Whatsapp Group you set up), but someone in your senior management team should respond in their area of expertise.
It’s ok to say “I don’t know right now”, but then come back quickly with a solution. Your employees will need your strategic superpower now more than ever before.
Be prepared to listen to stuff you don’t want to hear, it will come, but these are real problems that your employees are struggling with such as “Joe coughed and I want him out of here…”. In the UK the so called ‘super-spreader’ received death threats - yet there was absolutely no way he could have known he was spreading the virus, this kind of issue was never taught in the Harvard leadership module!
You as a Lioness need to be vocal and most important, visual. No chance of your hiding away in your office, get out there with your team.
Leave No One Behind: In a crisis, leaders must connect with, motivate, and inspire others, and show genuine compassion. A poster simply saying “Be Kind” in your office/factory will be very valuable at this time.
There are some excellent posters for your office and warehouse from the WHO that can be downloaded here:
https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public
These bring awareness to your workers and visitors.
So much of great leadership is through great communication and that, more than ever will be needed now.
Stay safe and healthy.
Photo by Christina Morillo