Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

This morning I watched a CEO share quarterly financials with her full team, and explain what they meant for everyone there, short-term and long-term. I explained to her team that not every CEO does that, but they should. Because in the absence of information, people make things up, especially in uncertain times. And, whatever they make up is always worse than reality. 

And, when people start to make things up, they tell other people, and drive up anxiety across the organization. And, that's never, ever good. 

Flash back to many years ago when I was leading workforce development efforts in Tulsa, and a large company was laying off 30+ folks. I reached out to arrange meetings with the people who were being laid off, so we could get them re-employed quickly.

The company explained they were not interested, because they were keeping information about the layoff internal and keeping it out of the news. Of course, it hit the news the next day, because people were already talking, which is how I found out to begin with. And, they could not manage the narrative, because that horse had already left the barn.

That damaged their reputation with existing and future employees, which was completely unnecessary and likely would not have happened if they had communicated properly with employees and the larger community to begin with. 

Lastly, communication with your team has to happen multiple times. As a leader, about the time you feel that you have communicated something to an absurd degree is when your team actually gets it. So, communicate, communicate, communicate. The time you spend up proactively communicating will save you drama and dysfunction down the line.