How do you communicate when you have a crisis in your business or personal life? How do you manage others when they are in crisis?
Does your chest get tighter, and your voice gets louder? Do you focus on just the problem in front of you? Does it feel like everything has to be resolved this second?
If that’s how you communicate in a crisis, you are experiencing an amygdala hijack. Your amygdala is a small, almond-shaped region in the temporal lobe of your brain that is responsible for the emotions of fear, aggression, and defensive behavior.
When you feel triggered, that’s because of all the cortisol rushing into your system. Commonly referred to as the fight-or-flight response, the sudden influx of cortisol in your brain limits choices to the most basic. Good or bad. Attack or run away.
While this is a great system to have in place if you live in a cave and are being attacked by a wild animal, it’s not a great system if you’re in a modern-day crisis.
As a USC law and media professor, I study and teach how to communicate in crisis and high-stakes situations. I have found from personal experience and extensive research that if you want to be able to handle a crisis at home, with a client, or in your business, it all comes down to how you communicate.
Too often, responses in crisis management are hasty. There’s a difference between hasty and prompt. When communications are hasty, they can be sloppy and not strategic. What you want to do is have a timely and prepared response.
Here are a few tips.
1. Stop and seek information.
Even if you are moving quickly, take a moment to pause. Often, you are acting on incomplete information and seeing events as threats. Take a moment to give yourself perspective and time to ask questions.
Think things through and bring in trusted collaborators. Don’t wait too long to involve people smarter than you who might be able to see what you can’t see.
(Learn more about how to handle pressure situations using the S-O-S method I learned from my friend, J.P. Pawliw-Fry, the bestselling author of Performing Under Pressure). Simply follow his three steps: Stop, oxygenate (breathe), and seek to understand.
2. Don’t lie.
Strive to be transparent about what is happening with the crisis. While you can’t always reveal details about everything, at the very least, don’t lie.
Lies will come back to haunt you, damage your credibility when you need it most, and impair your ability to get through the crisis. You need trust in a crisis–do not erode or break it.
3. Communicate with one voice.
When speaking with your stakeholders, clients, colleagues, and company employees, have one message. Inconsistent messaging creates mistrust and confusion. And cleaning up all the inconsistent messaging will cost you valuable time.
4. Monitor social channels.
It’s not just communication within the company that needs to be consistent. You need to address concerns and rumors on all your social channels.
Remember to respond authentically. Engage with your critics without getting defensive. State the facts and describe the situation without pointing fingers.
5. Show empathy.
Remember, life and business are all about people. When things go bad, people can be hurt.
Acknowledge the impact of the crisis and express genuine concern. Highlight actions taken to mitigate the situation and prevent recurrences.
If you would like to learn more tips on how to handle a crisis, check out my article on handling turbulence in business with the A-C-E method.
This article was originally published by Inc. Apr 19, 2024.