COVID-19 has sprung unprecedented situation upon the leaders of our generation. COVID-19 is akin to natural disaster of an unknown kind, mainly due to lack of definitive scientific information and degree of uncertainly involved. Noone reading this article has seen a pandemic in US like this.

Business leaders are grappling with a daunting task of balancing the welfare of their most important assets, the people, with company’s financial health and interests of its customers, partners, suppliers, and whole ecosystem of stakeholders. CXOs are trying to keep the morale and motivation of the workforce (mainly working from home) high by providing support to FTEs and their families. At the same time, many of them are faced with uncertainty and painful decisions involving furloughed workers, job cuts, business continuity, and lack of clear path to recovery. CXOs have to make decisions is just hours and days rather than weeks and months.

Under the given circumstances, leadership messages often seem to conflict in their emphasis on either transparency or positivity. Does it really have to be like this? In my opinion, CXOs need to be authentic and balance these aspects lest their messaging may be interpreted as misleading and lacking transparency. We all need hope, optimism and positivity in our life, but certainly not at the cost of transparency or hiding/underplaying bad news. I have been watching several leadership messages on LinkedIn, and other media posts or videos from CXOs/business leaders. And, have identified following as critical ingredients for leadership messaging (not in any particular order):

• Authenticity
• Transparency
• Positivity

Like any other recommendation, this is not ‘one size fits all’ panacea but it does emphasize the human-centric approach to messaging while recognizing the significance of not hiding bad news in the times of crisis. I would love to hear your thoughts and encourage you to share your experiences.

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of my current, former, or future employers.

(Photo credits: WHO)