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282 PART 4: THE LEADER AS A RELATIONSHIP BUILDER
leadership.” To be prepared, leaders can develop four skills for communicat-
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ing in a crisis. 76
1. Stay calm; listen harder. A leader’s emotions are contagious, so leaders
have to stay calm and focused. Perhaps the most important part
Action Memo
of a leader’s job in a crisis situation is to absorb people’s fears
and uncertainties, which means listening is more important
than ever. Leaders also tailor their messages to reflect hope
As a leader, you can learn to be an effective
crisis communicator. By remaining calm
and optimism at the same time they acknowledge the danger
and difficulties, thus giving comfort, inspiration, and hope
and focused, you can acknowledge people’s
concerns and fears, provide accurate and
to others. “You do not pass uncertainty down to your team
a better tomorrow.
members,” said Eugene Kranz, the NASA flight director charged
up-to-date information, and help people see
with returning the crippled Apollo 13 spacecraft safely to earth
in 1970. “No matter what is going on around you, you have to
be cooler than cool.” 77
2. Be visible. When people’s worlds have become ambiguous and uncertain,
they need to feel that someone is in control. Many leaders underestimate
just how important their presence is during a crisis. They have a
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tendency to want to hide, gather information, think things through, deal
with their own emotions, and develop a strategy for tackling the problem.
However, being a leader means stepping out immediately, both to reassure
followers and respond to public concerns. Face-to-face communication
with followers during difficult times is crucial for good leadership. People
want to know that their leaders care about them and what they’re going
through. After Hurricane Katrina destroyed Valero’s St. Charles oil
refinery near New Orleans, CEO Bill Greehey got special permission to
fly into New Orleans’ closed airport so he could visit the facility and talk
face-to-face with employees about their experiences and what they needed
from the company. 79
3. Tell the truth. Leaders gather as much information from as many diverse
sources as they can, do their best to determine the facts, and then “get the
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awful truth out” to employees and the public as soon as possible. Rumor
control is critical. Consider what happened at Duke University Hospital
after doctors there made one of the worst mistakes in modern medical
history—transplanting the wrong heart and lungs into 17-year-old Jesica
Santillan, who later died. Although the story was already out, it took nine
days for Duke leaders to fully admit the hospital’s mistake. By that time, the
organization’s image was severely damaged, and rumors of unauthorized
medical experiments and doctors pulling the plug against the family’s
wishes were rampant. To counteract the damage, Duke’s health chief and
the surgeons involved in the transplant went on CBS’s 60 Minutes to tell
the whole story and offer a mournful public apology. 81
4. Communicate a vision for the future. Although leaders should first deal
with the physical and emotional needs of people, they also need to get back
to work as soon as possible. The group, organization, or community has to
keep going, and most people want to be a part of the rebuilding process,
to feel that they have something to look forward to. Moments of crisis
present excellent opportunities for leaders to communicate a vision for the
future that taps into people’s emotions and desires for something better.
The following example illustrates how a new CEO effectively applied these
crisis communication skills to lead a turnaround at Xerox.