Perception management amidst corporate or national crisis

COMPANIES have sunk and nations have paled to the bellies of bankruptcy and to the point of anarchy all because they couldn’t manage their messaging in times of crisis. In the past few weeks, I have probed the concept of leadership in terms of why one man should be trusted to lead thousands or even millions of people when he is just a man. Many times, the real test that calibrates leaders back to hu”man”ity is in how sensitive they can be to descend off their high horses and be human enough in times of local, corporate or national crisis.

Many leaders have tripped due to a prolonged stay in the cloud of dictatorship mistaken to be leadership. They further debate or clarify words that shouldn’t be uttered in the first place and even tear apart the premise of their rise to power all in the name of being insensitive or power drunk as a Chief Executive or even President. 

Today, I will be using a 2018 example for my article and it’s about the then CEO of Starbucks, Kevin Johnson. You know, when you lead a company of over 180,000 staff and 8,000 stores in the continental USA alone, you would understand that issues like “racial bias” as it occurred in its Philadelphia outlet in 2018 was inevitable. It can be from an overzealous staff or even a racially biased manager. Can or should the CEO or President be blamed for the action of his employee or member of government? That’s debatable but there are lessons we can learn from how he handled the crisis that blew into emotional protests on the streets of Philly.

1. Effective communication is a reflection of sound leadership: With the way Kevin Johnson (former Starbucks CEO) handled the racially biased arrests in his company’s (Starbucks) outlet by immediately apologising to the 2 men who were arrested and meeting them in person under 48 hours to further apologise was quite human and publicly appealing. Great communicators don’t plunge into debate or useless clarifications in times like this. They accept responsibility and sincerely communicate so.

2. Reactive communication can be made proactive with sound emotional intelligence: Even though his communication was kind of post-crisis mode but he appropriately used his persona and emotional sense to handle it and so he communicated incredibly to the black community and other communities of colour. He communicated as though it wasn’t about boycotts, protests and profits but he did it very effectively. When a CEO or President clearly mis-speaks, he should be emotionally sensitive enough to apologise and not open the books of history as to how wonderful he has been.

3. To communicate credibly you must go the extra mile: He went the extra mile of promising “racial bias trainings” for the over 180,000 Starbucks staff in the continental USA on the 29th of May 2018 – on that day all 8000 Starbucks outlet would be closed in the USA. Great communicators don’t just communicate because they have to handle it “PR-wise” but they back it up with action. Suffice it to say “putting their action where their mouth is”. We hope the men who speak on behalf of the Nigerian President understand that communicating effectively is about communicating credibly.

As I conclude, do not forget that being sensitive and sincere with your communication can improve your perception as a man of integrity and make your leadership credible because leadership without credibility would surely slide into dictatorship.

• Steven Haastrup is a Communication/Public Speaking Consultant in Abuja, Nigeria