[Stacie Watson] Hi, Alicia.

[Alicia Davis] Hey Stacie.

[Stacie Watson] So I was talking to a leader the other day, and they had come through a pretty challenging situation. And one of the things that she reflected to me, kind of looking back and thinking about it, was that she wasn’t quite sure what to say in the moment. And I think it was because there was a lot that wasn’t known, and they were sort of ‘real time’ trying to kind of work through an emergent situation. And it really made me think about leadership presence, you know, how do we bring presence and sort of being in the moment to these moments when there’s a lot of uncertainty, and people are really looking to us for answers, and we might not have them?

[Alicia Davis] That’s right. You know, and in our, in our last video – in part three of four – we talked about, you know, how do we just connect in a little bit with ourselves in those moments of crisis? Now, right, in this last part of the four-part series, we really want to explore for a few moments, what are some of the ways that you can communicate effectively. And it’s not so much about what to say, exactly, it’s more about when, in some ways, sometimes how you are being while you are communicating, right? Because, because it’s really about how we, as leaders can model that we’re there too, to share some perhaps clarity or insight when there’s all kinds of confusion that we can, you know, what we’re doing when we’re communicating, is we are helping people feel secure. When they’re anxious, when they’re upset, you know. They’re,  sometimes if they’re unclear, or if there’s something that has happened. I was with a group the other day, and they had some history of leadership that hadn’t been completely honest with them in the past. And so they’re trying to recreate, a new way of being together, in honest, transparent ways. Because when that’s not happening, you know, the mind just makes up all kinds of stories and staff can come up with all kinds of things that just aren’t true.

[Stacie Watson] Right.

[Alicia Davis] So we want to just share a couple of ideas about how you might approach communicating to really support your team during crisis. And this comes from Peter Meyers and Shann Nix’s book, As We Speak. And we just really love this.

[Stacie Watson] Oh, my goodness, absolutely. You know, what I love about this is that it feels very logical. And sometimes the most helpful things for me are things that actually do make a lot of sense. And they really give just a simple formula. You don’t have to answer all of these questions, but it certainly is a framework to be able to really think about, what do we absolutely know, and what are we not sure about. Right? So we need to say both of those things. And here’s what I as the leader think, or this is what you know, I believe we should be doing next. And here’s what you can do. And Alicia I think sometimes when people are feeling like we’re in a crisis, it’s really helpful for someone to say, this is what you could do in this moment.

[Alicia Davis] For sure. Because we, we don’t always know…

[Stacie Watson] That’s right.

[Alicia Davis] And we want to help, you know, and especially because we work with a lot of nonprofit leaders, you know, that impulse or that need, desire to care for other people. Like that’s the knee-jerk reaction, right? So what can I do and what’s really going to be helpful? Right, so what can I do? And you know, as a leader, it’s also really helpful for your team to know, well, here’s what you can count on from me Here’s how I’m going to show up for you. And then it’s also you know, I mean, I think this we witness this through, of course, the entire pandemic. And, you know, when you’re in the middle of crisis, and people are needing to be focused, they also sometimes need to be inspired in the sense of, you know, if something has gone on for a long period of time, like, why does this matter? You know, why are we doing what we’re doing? And so to kind of bring it back to, yeah, this is why we need to take this action because it really matters to, you know, the people that we’re providing care support to, for example.

[Stacie Watson] Absolutely.

[Alicia Davis] Right. So it’s really kind of looking at kind of the whole message and saying, Here’s what I can do, here’s what you can do, and here’s why it matters.

[Stacie Watson] Absolutely. Yeah, I think being able to just give that insight and give a little bit of guidance in those moments when things feel very out of control or chaotic. It doesn’t take a lot to go a really long way to help people feel a little bit calmer and a little bit more present so they can do what needs to be done.

[Alicia Davis] That’s right. That’s right. So we would love to hear from you. I’m Alicia Davis.

[Stacie Watson] I’m Stacie Watson.

[Alicia Davis] And we are the co-owners of Transformative Leadership Strategies and we love to support you as leaders in supporting your teams. So you can email us info@TLStransforms.com. Thank you so much.

[Stacie Watson] Thank you.