What happens within organizations around the coronavirus affects everyone in the communities around them. At the very least organizations should do their best to make sure their actions do not negatively affect members of the community, but you can also think about a crisis as a time to enhance relationships with the local communities in which you operate by:

1. Providing resources such as cleaning supplies or food for those in quarantine.
2. Providing information to the local media to help to calm the communities down and while also enhancing your organization’s credibility.
3. Providing transparency about what is happening within the company rather than going radio silent.

You can also share ways in which you’re helping your local, national, or global community in a crisis. For example, as Lauren A. Smith, co-CEO of consulting firm FSG writes, you can use your philanthropic arm to help. Cargill, for example, which has more than 50 business locations and more than 10,000 employees in China, announced a donation of 2 million Yuan to the Chinese Red Cross and sent hundreds of thousands of face masks to affected areas.

When dealing with uncertainty, leaders need to look at communication from the perspective of your audience and have empathy for them rather than fear of doing the wrong thing. This requires companies to communicate when they don’t have all of the information, to reveal as much as they can about sensitive information, and to be vigilant about correcting mistakes without worrying about the repercussions. As tennis champion Billie Jean King once said: “Champions keep playing until they get it right.”

Source:

Communicating Through the Coronavirus Crisis