Great Communications on COVID-19: How Women Leaders Have Paved the Way

The seriousness of the global threat of COVID-19, and the necessity of national and international coordination in the fight against it, has placed immense demands on leaders across the globe.

Women leaders in particular have been commended for rising to the challenge — see recent articles in the Washington Post, Forbes, and The Atlantic — which has extended to both their actions and policies as well as their communications to their citizenship and the broader world.

We conducted a study to discover what has made these women so successful, in particular focusing on how their communications — whether via press briefings, national updates, social media clips, or others — are most effectively providing valuable info & updates, much-needed comfort, and clarity on what actions should be taken.

Here’s what we found:

· Clarity is key, in terms of overall communication style as well as offering precise, specific information

· Compassion and strength both have high impact, and combining both together makes for the most effective communications

· Acknowledging personal difficulties while emphasizing larger responsibility is deeply engaging and inspiring

· Addressing and including kids in a compassionate but unpatronizing way gets high marks (not just from parents)

· National pride, when invoked, can unify within as well as extend a message of solidarity to the world beyond

· Successful qualities are consistent across countries with some noteworthy variations

At the core of our study was a Lumière Channel* with 24 messages from 8 international leaders, 3 videos from each leader. Because we were interested in learning about the features of successful leadership that transcend national borders, we included English-speaking respondents from the U.S. as well as 3 international regions: the United Kingdom, Australia & New Zealand, and Southeast Asia (including Taiwan, Hong Kong, & Singapore).

After watching the videos, viewers answered several follow-up questions, including rating the leaders on various dimensions and telling us about the messaging points that were most effective overall (and why).

You can take a look at the videos we tested and the channel here, and read below to discover more of what we learned.

Clarity is the most important leadership & communications feature

Given the glut of information and messaging about COVID-19, leaders’ ability to provide clarity — about what’s going on, how to think about it, and what can be done in response — is paramount. Among the top messages, all provided either clear informational takeaways and direction or messages of compassion, solidarity, and hope (more on that below).

Further, clarity was among the top 2 most important leadership attributes among nearly all of the leaders included in the study (and all of the top 4 rated leaders).

As one citizen of the UK remarked about Germany’s Angela Merkel, “The clarity and the way she delivered the speech was extremely informative. It reminded the people of their democracy and importance. She also reiterated how transparent and honest the government will be to the people. She spoke to the people with intelligence.”

Leaders demonstrate compassion & empathy or strength & resolve — with the most effective combining both

Beyond providing clarity, these leaders are valued for their ability to empathize with their people’s struggles — acknowledging the plight of individuals, families, children, etc. with warmth — and to encourage strength and resolve in the face of the immense challenge.

The leaders rated highest overall — Jacinda Ardern, Tsai Ing-wen, Silveria Jacobs, and Angela Merkel — successfully offered a measure of both of these types of benefits.

As observed by one of her fellow countrymen, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern “…is calm in a crisis and that means a lot to parents and children. She has been amazing in our country of New Zealand and kept everyone calm and focused on the job at hand.”

Acknowledging personal struggles while emphasizing larger responsibility is a potent messaging tactic

One highly effective way that leaders combine compassion and strength is to speak directly and specifically about the challenges faced — effectively connecting to and engaging with their audience — while contextualizing these difficulties in the larger national (and global) effort to fight the pandemic.

People are highly receptive to messages that underscore their responsibility in an effort that feels bigger than themselves, as reflected in several of the most well-received moments across these messages.

Messages addressing & inclusive of kids are particularly engaging

Relatedly, many of the top moments in the communications we tested addressed kids directly, or acknowledged the unique challenges faced by kids and families. These moments resonated deeply — with parents in particular and with the broader audience as well — in their deft handling of what can be a fraught subject to discuss with kids.

In relation to Norway’s Erna Solberg, a UK resident commented, “She addressed concerns at a difficult time, easy for children to understand and for parents to explain. Not too cutesy, just simplified explanations.”

Invoking national pride can provide powerful engagement & motivation

Several messages emphasized successes achieved so far, communal values, and international relationships as a way to invoke national pride and encourage further action. In these messages, leaders are able to create a sort of ‘transference’ in which their own admirable qualities are projected onto the citizenship as a whole — allowing them to feel like shining examples in the global fight against the disease, and galvanizing them for further action.

One Australian participant noted about Sint Maarten’s Silveria Jacobs, “This clip feels very sincere. I like how she compliments the strength of her people and provides encouragement through this tough time. She also provides hope so they have something to look forward to after being so strong even when it is difficult.”

Effective leadership qualities are similar across countries, with some notable differences

As mentioned above, clarity — about infection rates, actions to be taken, transparency in government spending, etc. — was a top feature of successful messages, which held consistent across all of the countries we included in our study.

Beyond that, there were some notable distinctions in messaging importance depending on nationality, with some of the more effective points by country listed below:

· United States: emphasizing pride & success so far, highlighting challenges for children

· United Kingdom: acknowledging personal uncertainty, reassuring kids

· Australia & New Zealand: emphasizing pride & success, reassuring kids

· Southeast Asia: supporting the global fight, responsibility to ‘stay the course’

Stay tuned for further studies in our series around effective health communications during the COVID-19 pandemic, including a look at how health experts across the globe are delivering successful messages.

Want to learn more about Latitude or Lumière? Get in touch at info@latd.com — we’d love to hear from you!