A Bad Thing Happened: How Founders and Executives Communicate Through Internal Crisis

Jesse Dwyer
Aug 9, 2017 · 8 min read
Illustration Credit: BBC Magazine

How do you communicate when controversial opinions hit your company fan?

By now, everyone has read the multitude of articles and opinions concerning (former) Google engineer James Damore’s “Diversity Manifesto,” published this week by Gizmodo. It’s likely people in your company are still talking about it in Slack channels, email threads, Facebook, and hallways. It’s also likely your employees have asked you, as a leader or executive, to make a statement on the issue. Or maybe you can see how an internal crisis like this could just as easily happen in your own company.

How do you respond as a leader?

Well, as anyone who works in executive communications can tell you, “It’s okay! We’ll get through this.” A clear, patient approach to your communication will work everything out in the long run. Here are some tips on how you, too, can lead effectively through internal crisis.

1. Don’t Freak Out. Leave yourself some time to listen later.

At Tiny Ideas, we’ve seen it all when it comes to internal drama. Inappropriate photos, racial slurs, rape jokes*, sudden departures, company officers being seen where they shouldn’t, and more. This is probably even more true for your head of HR, and of course your corporate counsel. They’ve seen some stuff, and this assuredly isn’t the worst. As one of the best HR professionals I’ve ever worked with often says, “Our team is here because we’re the ones who don’t lose sleep over this stuff.” And it’s true, so if you’re the CEO or founder don’t worry if this feels new or scary.

Now, take time. It’s natural as a leader to want to act immediately when your employees are upset, arguing, or feeling threatened in the workplace you’ve built. It can be heartbreaking even for us working from the outside. But it’s important to remember two things: First, this isn’t going kill the company while it’s highly likely you still have some more-pressing matters (that will) to attend to. Second, before you can formulate your response you’ll need to hear perspectives from many parts of your company — not just the first and most vocal speakers.

So try to spend your day and afternoon not being too consumed by the bubbling crisis in your Slack channels and hallways. You’ll make a statement in time, but right away is the worst possible time.

As soon as you see the problem brewing (in my experience, these things tend to make their way up to leadership by late morning), alert your HR and comms support to keep track of the issue, and then block time in your own calendar near the end of the day to get a sense of the variety of opinions and issues concerning your teams. It’s likely by then your HR partners will have heard private concerns, while more vocal workers will have posted and commented and rebutted on internal forums. Waiting to review this around 5pm, you are more efficient seeing the entirety of the discussion, which gives you an even better ability to see the breadth of perspectives and the best resolution.

*As a matter of leadership, I would recommend you’re best served by taking the perspective there’s no such thing as a rape “joke.”

2. You have to do something.

Among the many great books I recommend to our clients is my personal favorite for leaders and founders: The Hard Thing About Hard Things, by Ben Horowitz. Horowitz is a seasoned and thoughtful writer — and also a quick a read. But even if you never pick up the book, the title alone should suffice. Being a leader is pretty easy when everything is easy. When things are difficult or sensitive, that’s hard, but the fact is you’re the leader and you have to do something difficult: communicate.

In order to draft the best response, you’ll need to organize a small team. The best practice scenario is to create a chain of crisis comms development that looks like this:

  1. Comms should sit with HR to learn what you need to say. (1–4pm)
  2. Comms should sit with you to discuss what you want to say. (6pm)
  3. Comms should create a rough first draft combining those two. (8pm)
  4. HR should then make the changes and additions they see fit, checking back in with comms only for the purpose of ensuring your voice is correct or general copyedits. (9pm)
  5. Legal reviews the document (11pm)
  6. You review and edit the document — you are the boss and it’s your statement. (8am)
  7. Legal does final review (10am)
  8. Send (11am)

The logic of this chain of command does three things. One, it puts a lot of legwork on your comms people. That’s ideal, because their years’ experience have mostly just entailed thinking fast and typing faster. Second, and more importantly, it gives HR ownership and latitude. This is what they know better than anyone. The issue at hand is inherently about your most valuable resource — your people — and that’s why you have a team responsible for them. Third, it allows Legal to protect you from liability in some of the most murky and subjective areas of employment law.

As a final point under “do something”, please resist the urge to “forward something.” It’s possible someone on your leadership team or another executive has already communicated something to their team that you think succinct enough for the whole company. It can be tempting to just amplify that for everyone with a note contextualizing it, and I see this often in tech companies. But you are the boss, and this is a hard thing. Your clear leadership in this situation will be part of the solution itself.

3. Assess, Reinforce, Resolve

There’s a fine line between a soulless corporate email and an inspiring internal statement. Fortunately, the solution is simple.

There’s never a true “crisis” in internal communication. (Our colleagues on the external side are the ones earning their stress.) That’s because no matter what is facing the company — good or bad — every time you speak to your internal teams it’s actually a chance to reinforce your values, goals, or mission. (Which, presumably, need reinforcing if something bad has happened.)

And this situation is no different. While you may dread that you have to address this topic to your teams, in the bigger picture it’s also a moment for you to shine as a leader. Here is a simple formula for your email or statement.

First, assess the situation. Describe what happened in neutral terms. Be sure to differentiate between the opinions expressed and the effects of their expression. If you choose, you can share a POV on the topic (optional, but remember, if the opinion is controversial there’s plenty of people on both sides of it working for you whether they admit it or not). Then you should focus mainly on the upset or conflict the situation has created in your workplace (that part is required). Make it very clear that words matter, but not as much as the effects of those words. The clear effect in your company has been to upset or threaten a lot of employees, and as a leader that is what concerns you. Not the content, the impact.

Next, reinforce your company values, goals, and mission while connecting your assessment of the situation to how it does or does not fit with those values. Use this communication as an opportunity to re-emphasize the ideals that matter to you all as a single company. In this and almost all of your communication, connecting your idea, project, or announcement to the mission of the business will go a long way to keeping your workforce motivated and aligned. Inspiring leaders constantly communicate their vision and values.

Finally, resolve the issue. Two of the best shifts I’ve seen evolve in tech over the years are the increasing levels of transparency in companies, and the growing role of all employees in major decisions. This is a great thing! It truly engages a work force while feeding collaboration and ideation across all disciplines. But it also means some of your teams won’t be happy with your resolution, no matter what. That’s okay. You’ve made the right choice and you can still motivate and lead people who disagree with you.

To do this, you’ll need to do more than indicate how the company is going to respond (or stop responding) to the issue; it’s also up to you to move your teams to think, feel, or act differently. This is among the most challenging aspects of leadership communication: knowing you’ll never have everyone agree with you, but inspiring all of them to follow you. In your statement, transition from your bigger-picture reinforcement of values and mission to a short term vision for the crisis.

First describe what the company’s response will be to the issue (counseling, round tables, none, etc). Be clear, but concise. Your HR and other teams can follow on with more detail. Then, very importantly, describe exactly when they will hear from you again on the issue (and stick to it). This allows time for your audiences and teams to adjust and process out of the crisis, while also ensuring it does not consume all of the company’s energy and focus in the meantime.

4. Take Some Time For Good

Chances are, if you’ve faced a situation like this, you felt like you were communicating to your teams because you “had to.” (You did! I would’ve been typing by the lake this week if you didn’t). That’s okay; there’s plenty of times where we just have to do something. But if you are a more shy CEO or quieter executive, remember that only communicating in these situations can gradually limit your ability to move audiences. Because they are only hearing from you in bad times.

So I’m officially telling you that you also have to share some positive news. You have to. Not right away, but soon enough to show balance and varied enough to show the best parts of who you really are as a leader and company. This might require more extroversion than you’re accustomed to, but your teams will thrive and everyone will work harder towards the mission you’ve set. (How do you do that? It’s an easy-to-guess twist on the above formula: assess, reinforce, and celebrate!) Set calendar reminders if you need, or task someone on your team with sourcing good news.

When an internal crisis besets you, better times are not far away.

We like to say that executives and founders never have a communication or the communication, they just have communication. Which is to say, your leadership message is ongoing and always building. Your announcements, actions, and reactions over time paint a single picture of you and your vision. And if these are good things (which I’m guessing they are), I’m certain the world will follow you.

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