Greentarget

Christian Erard

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As your professional services firm continues to navigate today’s uncertain economy, it may become necessary to adjust staffing levels and/or cut expenses in other ways. And though these actions are intended to position your firm for long-term success, they can weaken your business if not done thoughtfully and with empathy for your audience.

Take MillerKnoll CEO Andi Owen as a cautionary tale. In April, she urged employees to “leave pity city” in response to complaints that they would not receive bonuses. In her video message, Owen starts off by encouraging employees to “focus on the things we can control.” But as she continues, her thinly veiled frustration starts to seep through. And before long, she raises her voice, wags her finger, and sarcastically scolds her team, saying:

Don’t ask about ‘What are we going to do if we don’t get a bonus?’ Get the damn 26 million dollars! Spend your time and your effort thinking about the $26 million we need and not thinking about what you’re going to do if you don’t get a bonus. Alright? Can I get some commitment for that? I’d appreciate that. I had an old boss who said to me one time, ‘You can visit pity city, but you can’t live there.’ So people? Leave pity city; let’s get it done. Thank you. Have a great day. 

She ends the video by making hand motions depicting an explosion, as if she’s just delivered a mind-blowing, enlightening truth bomb. But the biggest hit she delivered was to her own reputation.

Here’s the actual truth bomb: Empathy for your audience is fundamental to effective communication. And as a leader, you can’t afford to alienate your audience by delivering hard truths the wrong way.

The Business Impact of Empathetic Communication 

It’s never easy to share difficult news about things like staff reductions, bonus/salary freezes, and budget cuts. However, communicating challenging circumstances skillfully is an excellent way to establish your firm’s authority and build trust with your audience.

A communication plan rooted in empathy can:

  • Protect your firm’s reputation with internal stakeholders and the public 
  • Limit the amount of time bad news spends in the news cycle
  • Reassure stakeholders that you know what it takes for your firm to weather the storm and come out on top
  • Reinforce your brand and underscore your organizational values

Even if your firm is in good financial shape at the moment, you’ll most likely need to communicate difficult news at some point. It’s just part of running a business. And since the best way to manage a PR crisis is to avoid creating one in the first place, it’s wise to start working on your playbook now. 

5 Elements of a “Hard Times” Communications Playbook

Your firm’s financial health must guide your decision-making. But your stakeholders’ needs and expectations should be the compass that directs your communication plan. Incorporating the following five elements into your comms strategy will help you make the best of otherwise undesirable situations.

1. Exhibit Compassion

Every decision you make about your business impacts your people in some way. So when you’re communicating news about layoffs, salary freezes/reductions, and other cost-cutting measures, don’t underestimate the human toll the news will take.

Your employees may ask you difficult questions, put you on the spot, and criticize your leadership in response to hard news. Treat them with dignity anyway. You can’t walk in their shoes, but you can remain empathetic and expressgenuine concern for their welfare. 

2. Time the Announcement Carefully

You should always share bad news with employees who are directly impacted before you announce it to everyone else. However, you should also know who your secondary and tertiary audiences are and be ready to cascade your messages to them quickly.

Bear in mind, anything you say internally has the potential to be shared externally. So don’t begin communicating with employees until you’ve put together a plan for responding to questions and concerns from public stakeholders and the media.

3. Use the Right Channels to Communicate to Each Audience

It’s also important to think about how you will communicate difficult messages. Should you send an email? Schedule a video conference? Hold a town hall meeting? Personally speak to employees in small groups or one-on-one? 

There’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer here. But in general, you should do what feels most authentic to your firm’s culture and you shouldn’t simply take the easy way out. 

Firing 900 employees over Zoom won’t win you any goodwill. Again, keep empathy at the forefront when choosing how you’ll deliver the news. 

4. Be Blunt, But Kind

This might seem like counterintuitive advice. But when it comes to delivering hard truths, it’s ok to be blunt as long as the message is anchored in genuine kindness. 

In fact, it’s often better to deliver the truth in a straightforward manner rather than try to soften bad news or minimize its impact. After all, economic uncertainty causes nearly everyone to feel higher levels of fear and paranoia. So sometimes the kindest thing you can do is remove all uncertainty from the equation. 

Don’t beat around the bush or use vague, confusing language. Instead, be transparent and direct. Let your employees know exactly what’s happening and why. Share the business case for the decisions you’re making. And give as many details as you can about what will happen next. 

5. Reassure Your Stakeholders That the Future is Bright

Finally, provide your team with a clear idea of where your firm is headed so you can rally them around a shared set of goals and objectives. This is an opportunity to sharpen your value proposition, streamline operations, and align your people for the path forward.

Your stakeholders need to know that you’re making decisions based on what’s best for the company and, ultimately, what’s best for them, too. To that end, don’t share bad news without also painting a picture of a bright future you can all believe in and work toward.

Communicate Effectively to Guide Your Firm Through Challenging Times

In decades past, CEOs and other executive leaders may have had more freedom to communicate bad news in a top-down, authoritarian way. The rules were different, and previous generations of stakeholders and employees were more willing to accept a “this is the way it is” approach to communication.

Whether you accept it or not, that style simply doesn’t cut it anymore. And if you slip into old-school patterns of communication, you can be sure it will come back to haunt you. 

Leading your firm through choppy waters starts by winning the trust of your people. And that, of course, begins with communicating effectively in good times and in bad. So if you need help evolving your executive communications playbook? Let’s talk.

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PR firms talk at length about concepts such as thought leadership and creating unique POVs that serve your audience. We tend to wax eloquent about participating skillfully in the conversations that matter most as an authority. That’s because we know that when your audience views you with trust and respect, they’re more likely to come to your firm for help in solving their toughest challenges.

Still, it’s natural for you to ask one simple question. Is our PR investment really worth it? 

It can be difficult to draw a direct line between the PR campaigns you invest in and the client engagements you secure as a result. And if you’re not able to accurately measure the ROI of your PR efforts, how can you be sure you’re allocating resources in the most impactful areas possible? 

You need to look at the right metrics at the right time. Because the truth is, authority is the ultimate ROI of an effective PR program. Assessing its full impact requires a holistic perspective and a willingness to prioritize long-term value over short-term wins.

The Value of Authority 

Our goal at Greentarget is to help clients establish and demonstrate their authority. But what does that really mean? And more specifically, what will it look like when your firm is viewed as an authority in your industry? 

First, it’s important to understand that the terms “thought leader” and “authority” are not interchangeable.

Thought Leaders Share Expertise

Thought leaders are ahead of the curve and play a key role in shaping the direction of their industry. However, they tend to share their knowledge in a one-way fashion — usually through owned media channels that don’t invite much discourse. As such, thought leaders aren’t typically concerned with how their audience receives and interprets the information they put out into the world. They simply want to reach as broad an audience as possible with the messages that are most important to their organization.

Authorities Serve Their Audience

By contrast, authorities go beyond dispensing expertise. They carefully consider how to position their knowledge in ways that matter to their audience. Yes, they are bona fide thought leaders in their own right. But true authorities express their POV to spark dialogue, solicit feedback, and test their ideas and perspectives among other experts. 

Furthermore, true authorities aren’t simply heard — they’re heeded. Unlike thought leaders who are usually more reactionary, authorities shape the conversations that matter and inspire action as a result. And they’re willing to embrace feedback, consider new viewpoints and pivot when necessary. 

To achieve this level of influence, you’ll need to:

Anyone can be a thought leader, but not everyone can be an authority. That’s why Greentarget’s approach to PR is oriented around helping firms discover and harness their authority. 

The ROI of Authority

In our highly digitized landscape, we’ve become obsessed with quantitative metrics. And there’s no shortage of data points we can analyze to measure the effectiveness of various communication tactics. 

For example, it’s common to assess your PR campaigns by tracking how often you’re cited by credible media outlets and other authorities in your field. Or, you might look at marketing metrics such as organic web traffic, time on page, click-through rates, and conversion rates to analyze how well you’re reaching your broad audience. 

But as important as these quantitative numbers are, they don’t tell the full story.

It’s About Quantity and Quality

Measuring the ROI of authority requires you to think about qualitative indicators and insights that round out the quantitative data. Instead of only asking how many people you’re reaching, you should be evaluating how effectively you’re engaging the prospects that matter to your firm the most.

After all, it’s better to have one quality conversation that leads to a high-value engagement than 100 conversions from wrong-fit prospects. But if you look at your standard KPIs in a vacuum, those 100 leads look a whole lot better than one conversation. 

To be sure you’re measuring the right indicators of authority’s ROI, ask yourself:

  • How often are our ideas sparking real dialogue among the people we’re most interested in reaching?
  • Are our POVs being iterated upon and therefore becoming sharper and smarter over time? 
  • To what extent are we challenging existing narratives or assumptions within our industry? 
  • What kind of feedback are we getting from our network when we put ourselves out there with a new or provocative point of view?

During the pandemic, Freightos, a digital booking platform for global shipping and logistics, discovered they possessed valuable data about supply chain issues. They determined they had information and a level of analysis that the industry could benefit from, and started a podcast to share their insights about shipping data, including an index of ocean container travel times. Subsequently, The New York Times ran a feature story about their impact. 

What’s interesting is that Freightos didn’t measure success based on how many people accessed and downloaded their useful, salient data. And though they were excited to be featured in The New York Times, that was not the end-all, be-all for them. What signaled success for them was hearing excitement and buzz from the friends, colleagues, and influencers in their own network. That’s when the ROI of their PR efforts was fully crystallized in their minds — when they were recognized as an authority.

Leading vs. Lagging Indicators of PR Success

It’s also important to understand that many of the standard KPIs used to evaluate the effectiveness of PR are lagging indicators of success. But your authority is a leading indicator of future results. In other words, the qualitative measures of impact we discussed earlier are both results in their own right and assurance that you’re headed in the right direction. 

The initial evidence (i.e. leading indicators) that your firm’s authority is yielding ROI can be found in the quality of the conversations you’re having and the anecdotal affirmations of your influence in your network. 

Then, over time, you’ll see additional lagging indicators of your authority’s ROI, such as:

  • Revenue. Your revenue is growing over time, and you’re reaching desired growth targets. 
  • Geography. You consistently see media coverage in the markets that matter the most to you.
  • Talent. Your firm is an employer of choice and you succeed in attracting and retaining top talent as a result.
  • Profitability. Because your authority yields more right-fit conversations, you’re able to focus on the engagements that lead to the greatest profit.
  • Capabilities. You continually identify new services and offerings that evolve with your clients’ changing needs.

In other words, realizing the full ROI of your authority requires you to take the long view.

Invest In PR to See the ROI of Your Firm’s Authority

Although establishing your firm’s authority is a process that requires patience and perseverance, you’ll never see the ROI you’re after without taking the first step. That means you can’t afford to put it off or hope for the best. You need to work with a partner who knows how to build your authority and leverage it in ways that contribute to your firm’s immediate and long-term success.

Greentarget clients have seen a significant return on their PR investment, both in terms of the authority they earn and the business engagements they secure as a result.

We can help your firm, too — but only if you make establishing your authority the priority it needs to be. 

It’s time for you to seize the mantle. So let’s talk.

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Scenario planning doesn’t need to be complicated, even in the toughest, unexpected moments

For business leaders and communications professionals working through the COVID-19 crisis, scenario planning has never been more important. But it’s also not all that difficult.

Adapted from military intelligence, the original scenario-planning method recognizes that many factors can combine in complex ways to create surprising outcomes. This often includes things that can be extremely difficult to predict, and such thinking is meant to help organizations prepare for otherwise unforeseen but profound shifts in the social, political or economic landscape.

If that sounds complicated, it doesn’t need to be. And for the less sweeping, but still consequential, crises that are likely to come your way, you can’t afford it to be.

Even if you’ve been through sophisticated scenario planning, unexpected events can still challenge your business and require you to think through and communicate decisions that you had not previously contemplated. Customers, employees and other stakeholders will turn to you, as a leader in your organization, in these pivotal moments for reassuring guidance, useful information, or a deserved explanation.

What would you say if an internal investigation uncovers malfeasance, or if it doesn’t? How do we announce the outcome of a lawsuit, whichever way it goes? How do we communicate the loss of operations or revenue resulting from the current pandemic? And most significantly, how would you communicate the loss of an employee’s life?

Issues like these need your hands-on management even while you are doing everything else that is part of your day-to-day job. That’s another reason why this process can’t be complicated. You need a fast, efficient method for thinking through the problem at hand and how you will respond to it. You need the comfort of knowing that you’ll have something to say when all eyes turn to you, even if you don’t have all the information or are waiting for another shoe to drop.

By asking the following questions, you and your management team should emerge after a few quick hours with a solid, proactive framework to address any of the possible outcomes of your looming crisis, preventing you from scrambling to catch up when it does finally hit.

  • Objective – How do you want your organization to be perceived once the situation is resolved?
  • Messages – What three things are most important for your audience to hear regardless of the outcome?
  • Outcomes – What are all the possible outcomes of the crisis you are contemplating?
  • Audience – Who will be impacted by these outcomes, and how? And who might be interested in these outcomes, but not impacted?
  • Statement – What must we say to these audiences to achieve our objective?

There are some other things that should be considered during scenario planning:

  • The best spokesperson is the person who has the best relationship with your audience, and you may need more than one if you are addressing multiple audiences.
  • The best channel for your spokesperson – a press release, letter, a phone call, an email or tweet, etc. – is the one your audience expects you to use most often or is required by your regulator, if you have one.
  • Murphy’s Law dictates that the members of your team who need to greenlight any statement before it is issued are usually the ones who can’t be reached. Identify alternate parties who can conduct the necessary reviews in a pinch.
  • There may be third parties who will stand up and support your statement, so think about who they may be.
  • Finally, when you’ve communicated your initial decision or response to the crisis, you may have to work through a separate scenario plan if the crisis continues to unfold.

This process works. We’ve used it a lot and know from experience that business leaders who can pause and think though the several possible outcomes of a pivotal moment and how it impacts their key stakeholders will be in a much stronger position to achieve their business objectives. 

Return to COVID-19 Resources for Communicators

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Has Donald Trump ushered in an era of hyper-authenticity in public communications? And if so, should business communicators emulate his off-the-cuff style?

We think the answer to both questions is no.

There’s no question that Trump’s perceived authenticity and penchant for spontaneity – which have trickled down to the rest of his administration – are huge parts of what got him to the White House. During the presidential campaign, millions of Americans were drawn to his seat-of-the-pants bombast, fed up with what they saw as an insincere, overly scripted political class.

But will that shoot-first-explain-later-if-ever style be as effective for President Trump? Two recent events make us wonder whether his approach is already interfering with his efforts to govern effectively.

We expect that, if Trump doesn’t change his insult-and-evade tactics soon, his troubles will only multiply. That’s because in a campaign, you’re only selling yourself – for better or worse, we elect presidents on their personalities more than the policies they’re stumping for. Governing is more complicated. Presidents must contend with other branches of government, an opposition party, entrenched bureaucrats, foreign leaders, and on and on. Force of personality doesn’t get them nearly as far.

Put more simply, campaigning is about who you are. Governing is much more about what you do.

Business communicators need to remember that. Because selling a service or product, through thought leadership or otherwise, is a lot more like governing than campaigning. If customers find you charming or authentic, you might get a meeting because of who you are. But they won’t spend their money unless you convince them that what you do has value.

Trump’s Busy First Few Weeks

The trouble with Trump’s off-the-cufflink style was on full display when he made comments that made it sound as if Frederick Douglass were still alive (Douglass died more than a century ago). The next day, Kellyanne Conway, one of Trump’s closest advisors – in a sign that his off-the-cuff style goes beyond the president – made reference to a terrorist attack that never happened (only to later correct herself).

There are also examples of the Trump administration allegedly spreading falsehoods intentionally, including Trump’s repeated claims that the murder rate in the United States in 2016 was the highest it’s been in nearly 50 years. But for the sake of this blog post, we’re more interested in the mistakes the administration has apparently made unintentionally.

So far, they’ve arguably been more damaging; opponents pummeled Trump over the Douglass flub and Conway has been excoriated in the media nationally and locally and on social media. It’s worth noting that some of Trump’s controversial but subjective comments have also created waves, with his own Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch calling the president’s remarks about the judiciary regarding the controversial travel ban “demoralizing.”

It’s an open question as to whether we’re seeing early cracks in the Trump administration stemming from its communication strategy. But there are reports already that Trump is frustrated and considering a shakeup in the White House communications apparatus. Meanwhile, Trump’s own comments are being used as legal attacks on his immigration ban, leaving government lawyers to argue, as the Washington Post reported, that the president’s rhetoric should be treated “as inadmissible and irrelevant.”

Trump’s Tactics – and Everyone Else’s

Time will tell whether these are merely bumps in the road or the first signs that Trump’s gun-and-run approach is fundamentally inadequate for governing. Maybe he will win the day, again. Trump has, quite frankly, an unparalleled ability to garner attention. And he now possesses the world’s largest megaphone – so his opportunities to retract and recover are quite different from anyone else’s.

But regardless of Trump’s success or failure, we’re not going to start telling our clients to emulate him in business communications. Instead, we’ll keep telling them what we strongly believe is the best way for business leaders to build their reputations through interactions with media and key audiences:

Be Prepared: Go into conversations with reporters or in public knowing exactly what you want to say. Gather your facts, stay positive and enthusiastic.

Develop Messages that Matter: Effective, distinctive, strong messaging that keeps you on point is critical. The best messages balance delivery of the information reporters are seeking and what you want to convey.

Flip the Pyramid: Instead of ending with conclusions, start the conversation that way – the first thing said is most often what we remember – and then make your supporting points.

Flag Your Most Important Points: Use language like, “Here’s what I want you to remember about this,” and “This is a very important point to remember.” Any person – especially a reporter on deadline who is likely dealing with multiple stories in a day – will perk up and pay special attention when you use that kind of language.

Of course, authenticity is a part of what we advise our clients, too. It’s vital to developing a rapport with a reporter or any audience you’re addressing. Coming across as overly rehearsed or formal never helped anyone get their message across. But while saying whatever pops into your head, or whatever you think your listeners want to hear, may help endear you to them personally, if you want them to buy from you, you have to impress them with your ideas, experience and expertise.

Trump’s candor and demeanor have been significant factors in how he’s gotten this far. But less than three weeks into his administration, there’s already talk of the president and his staff rethinking their tactics. Other administrations have recovered from rough starts. But even if that happens here, we wouldn’t recommend Trump’s particular brand of messaging.

February 13, 2017 Update: The New York Times over the weekend reported another example of Trump’s off-the-cufflink style. The newspaper said that National Security Council staff members “get up in the morning, read President Trump’s Twitter posts and struggle to make policy to fit them.”

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