How to Communicate with Confidence During a Crisis

This is a challenging time for so many leaders grappling with unexpected challenges to their organizations. Whether the challenge is around new potential, a marked pivot, or simply the overall health of the business, everyone is looking for a little extra confidence in how they communicate these days.

Politico-turned-operator-turned VC Nairi Hourdajian, the CMO at early-stage fund Canaan, has coached public and private sector leaders over the years on communicating with confidence — particularly during crises — and recently brought her expertise to the All Raise community. She first experienced crisis communications in the world of politics and advocacy. Nairi then went on to head up global comms at Uber as the company grew from 275 employees to 12,000.

We asked Nairi for her pro tips when the whole world is upside down — as it is today — and how to keep your cool and confidence throughout. Here’s a rundown from her session.

First thing’s first: Calibrate

A crisis is not the same as an issue. Issues come up every day, while a crisis is debilitating. You will know when you are in a crisis, and Nairi’s framework looks something like this:

1. Existential threat: Whatever you’re facing will feel like an existential threat to your business — because it is one.
2. Volume: The volume of shit will be very high, Nairi says. Your press and social media will be on fire, and investors and customers will be calling — a lot, and all at once.
3. Shoes will drop: First, you have one problem, but new ones continually arise. Nairi quotes David Plouffe, Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, on what this feels like: “You’re in the barrel and you’ve got to stay there for a little while.”

So once you know what a crisis looks like, what do you do? Nairi takes us through three core principles of effective crisis management.

1. Prepare

You will never know for certain what’s coming around the corner . . .

“If anyone had a global coronavirus pandemic in your planning for 2020, kudos to you.”

But nonetheless, the first step is to imagine and plan.

Imagine and plan

What are your company’s controversial issues? Are you highly regulated? Do you have controversial executives? Safety and security issues? Think about what your core business touches — and work backwards from there. Pick a few and really imagine what crises in those areas could look like.

Build your team

Pick the key people who will help you tackle this — and of course make sure they know they’re “on the team.”

Build your war room process

How are you going to make decisions and who will be involved? You will need to make decisions quickly in a crisis, so get your process down. Decide in advance on who gives input and who decides.

Prepare your message toolbox

No, you’re not going to ship pre-written messaging. But giving yourself a starting point will allow you to move more quickly when things need to happen fast.

“When your adrenaline is pumping and you have very little time, a message toolbox will give you the benefit of starting with something other than a blank piece of paper.”

Define your audiences

Who are your key audiences? Who needs to receive your messages in order to support you or stand down from attacking you?

Identify and prepare your spokespeople and validators

This preparation can easily be done in advance. Media train your spokespeople (if you are an early-stage founder or CEO — that will likely be you, but not always) and coach them on public speaking. Make sure you’ve built those muscles long before things get rough.

Do research — on yourself

“If you had a competitor who was trying to take you out, which weaknesses would they expose? In politics, campaigns do opposition research on opponents — and on themselves. Companies should do the same.”

You need to be your own best self-researcher. Understand what your weaknesses are. Then, think about how to address them in real ways.

2. Exercise discipline

Once you’ve decided on your course of action and how you’re going to communicate it, stick to the game plan. It’s tempting to see what else is going on, but you need to stay focused, Nairi says.

Here’s how to do that.

Optimize for speed and accuracy

Let’s say you have to shut down your physical space because of COVID-19. You need to get your message out quickly and in the right tone — so optimize for speed.

At the same time, you don’t want to ship your message before deciding what it means for your team, customers, and other key audiences. Weigh all of those inputs before acting.

“At some point you might need to go out with something before you have all the information. And it’s okay to do that and say that you don’t yet know all the implications. You don’t have to pretend to have all the information all the time.”

Work with lawyers — but not for lawyers

There are three legs to a crisis, Nairi describes.

1. The business
2. The legal
3. The communications

Each leg has to give a little to get a little.

You don’t want lawyers to write your comms, says Nairi. And comms leaders shouldn’t pretend to be lawyers. If you go with a legal-first mitigation strategy, you can end up having more legal issues (and certainly brand and PR issues) on a different side.

That’s why it’s important to let each expert do their job. Debate, decide, and support the decision.

Get your message out in proportion to the crisis

If you do this part well, your comms strategy should cover it. The thing is, it’s hard to always know if you did this because it’s impossible to know everything that’s happening. So be sure to gut-check your responses with impartial folks.

Whatever you do, don’t get defensive

Getting defensive can be easy to do when your company is like a piece of you.

“I really understand that, especially when you feel like some external perception isn’t quite right. Trust me, it only gets worse if you act defensive.”

3. Know how to adapt

While Nairi’s second principle is about being disciplined, you also have to know how to adapt.

Pick a strategy, execute, and wait

This part is hard. Even if you’ve calibrated as well as possible, you’ll never quite know if you nailed it in advance. You have to execute your plan, communicate to your audiences. and wait to see how things go.

If you’ve under-corrected with your actions, things won’t abate and you’ll need to adjust. But having patience is essential because it takes a little time for things to calm down.

Course correct when you need to

You’ll know after a couple days, Nairi says. If volume stays high, you have to go bigger in both how you’re getting the messaging out but also, potentially, in what you are actually doing to address the issue.

Know when to turn the page

You’ll figure this out on your own, Nairi says. If you move on too soon, it can appear tone deaf, but if it’s too late, you might leave opportunity on the table. Keep continual tabs and baby step your way back out there.

Don’t forget: Turn off most, if not all, of your growth and brand marketing in crisis

Your marketing content was written at a time when the world was different. People can’t receive that message in the same way if they’re only thinking about you through the lens of your crisis.

Internal comms is essential in crisis

To help navigate the crisis internally, here are three things to keep in mind.

1. Showcase your leadership

Putting your leadership out there is really important to employees, customers, VCs, and whoever your key constituencies are.

“You can’t just hide behind corporate speak. It’s important to put a face on it.”

2. Treat your employees like a key constituency

Make sure your team isn’t an afterthought, says Nairi. It’s easy to forget when you have so many audiences asking for information, but don’t.

Put your team first. And that means ensuring that there’s an opportunity for two-way communication, not just top-down.

3. Bring core partners into the tent

Be proactive in bringing core audiences into the fold on what’s happening, and provide visibility and transparency into how you are handling things. One of the key elements of successful leadership is transparency, and it’s especially important during a crisis situation.

Nairi recommends that all founders should watch this video from Marriott CEO Arne Sorenson.

In the video, Sorenson explains the reduction in force to Marriott employees. He’s realistic that this was the hardest thing he had ever dealt with in his career. He gets emotional, but he’s clear, and shows his commitment. It’s a real example of courageous leadership, says Nairi.

“It all comes back to tone, timing, and making sure you’re acknowledging the elephant in the room.”

Communicating during any crisis, including a global pandemic isn’t easy. Do what you can to stay clear-eyed and focused. If you’re feeling off-track, go back to the reason why you started your company in the first place. Revisit your fundraising deck to get that reinspiration, Nairi recommends.

And remember, this is also an opportunity to show people what you’re made of.

“There’s never been a better time to showcase your leadership chops. Be upfront, proactive, realistic, and super creative. Take care of your team and their morale. That kind of leadership is the secret sauce of any organization, and it’s what stands out to investors.”