Three Tips for Communicating in Uncertain Times
We are in uncertain times. Your customers, employees, partners, the media and other important constituents are looking to you for helpful information. Unfortunately, a lot of the communication shared in uncertain times ends up confusing and frustrating these groups even more.
As we witness the stock market lows, travel bans, event cancellations and more businesses asking employees to work from home, here are three tips to help guide your communication.
Tip #1: Stick with what you know — be direct and don’t share hunches and guestimates.
Tip #2: Show up with your Emotional Intelligence (EI) so you can respond thoughtfully and not react to challenging communication.
Tip #3: Appreciate the feedback you receive — it’s a gift — even the negative feedback helps you to learn and grow.
Here’s my video discussing these tips in more detail and how they can help you.
It’s time to FEEL First in your communication. I’ve been working on my passion project, the FEEL Model, gathering research about the type of communication that builds relationships and creates stronger bonds. In uncertain times, FEEL (facing Fears, engaging with Empathy, Using Ethics and unleashing Love) can make a difference. As the Coronavirus spreads and new cases are reported in the U.S. and globally, effective, meaningful and valuable communication requires a FEEL First approach.
Check out the tips and please share yours too. Together, we can lead with compassion and understanding, and offer helpful and accurate information to the people who matter the most to us professionally and personally in our lives.
Featured Image Photo Credit: Green Chameleon on Unsplash
March 13, 2020 @ 3:12 pm
Great post, Deirdre. Very valuable. I think it’s important that we never look at feedback as negative. Look at ALL feedback as a gift. Do with it what you want. Make the changes you want. “Take what you need and leave the rest”. If we see all feedback this way, if we’re open to it, guess who benefits? Us? (And sometimes our teams, our peers, our bosses, our clients…) kj
March 13, 2020 @ 4:04 pm
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Ken! I remember several years ago when a new LinkedIn acquaintance messaged me about a course I had recently launched and he had watched. He gave me some feedback about my hand gestures and body language. At the time, I was could have dismissed the comments. However, I chose to go back, review the course and realized that I could do a much better job. To your point, it was a gift. Making the suggested changes really helped me as a presenter and as an LI Instructor.