There is a time and place for corporate spin. Now is neither the time nor the place.
Clear and concise corporate communications have never been more important as they are today during this Covid-19 pandemic, both for internal and external audiences. You are dealing with peoples’ lives. This is no time for corporate speak or fluff.
From an internal perspective, you are communicating directly with your employees - your colleagues - who rely on the executive to make the right decisions. They want to know that their business is prepared, and they want the reassurance. In turn, it is an implicit part of the executives’ role, to not only to be responsible for their employees, but to also provide guidance.
Continue to talk to your employees. It is imperative that they do not feel isolated. Walk around the floor and gauge the mood. If 90% of employees want to work from home, but are still in the office, then seriously consider a change of policy.
Provide a regular flow of communications, through email, through Teams, or by other mediums. Some firms are sending daily emails, others weekly. I do not believe you can over-communicate in these times. If you are already working from home, then daily emails I think are a good idea.
Say it as it is - do not mislead. Provide guidance, but at the same time never be too proud to change direction. Probably for the first time ever, every point that you make in your communications will be broken down and analysed. It is therefore all the more important to make each point clear and concise.
This is a fast-moving fluid situation. From an operational point of view, there needs to be points of contact throughout the firm and given the nature of this pandemic, it needs to be more than a single person.
For clients, you must be open. They understand that this is a very bad situation. It is not the time to tell them that the business has had a good year; instead clients want to know about the state of play and understand how you will continue to run your business.
Whole industries are shutting down. Communications are not easy and many of the messages you do not want to communicate are required. Transparency has never been more important than it is today.
Hide, or batten down the hatches, and you will not easily be forgiven. Trust you earn, but you can also lose it very easily. Now is not the time to play your cards close to your chest.