How To Avoid CEO Communications Gaffes: 3 Pro Tips

If you’re a communications advisor to a chief executive officer, you cringe when you see someone else’s CEO say something during a town hall that you know was not part of the plan. In today’s media environment, it’s way too easy for a video clip from a town hall to go viral to the detriment of your organization’s reputation.

Some of these issues come from CEOs who are clearly out of touch. Others stem from well-intended people who simply did not think things through, or ignored the advice of professionals whose job is navigate the complexities of reputation management.

If you’re a CEO, here are some things that your communications advisor might suggest you do to avoid those hits to your reputation as a leader:

Embrace empathy

Corporations spend hefty sums to understand the audiences who are going to buy their widget or hire their service. Today leaders also need to understand various employee audiences, and on a deeper level than in the days before the pandemic. The new way of work has shown a light on challenges that were not as apparent before. The great reframe means that the former command-and-control approach needs to transform to one that’s more collaborative. Flex your empathy muscles and think like a working parent, or the person who relocated to care for elderly family members. Your employees want meaningful work, and leaders who appreciate their contributions will demonstrate that they understand how that work fits into other important life priorities.

Have a home base strategy

A former agency colleague told me about an executive who was an articulate speaker but tended to wander without a clear thread leading to his conclusion. An advance plan will help you here. When you go into a potentially tenuous situation, you’ll need a clear strategy for where you want to go rather than just show up to answer questions. Know the key messages you want to bridge back to – think of these messages as your home base. That game plan can save you when questions come up that might fragment or distract from your message.

Prepare for tough questions

When I conduct media training to prep an executive to appear on national television, we spend time thinking about the questions we hope never be asked in an interview. These are the questions that will inevitably come up when a reporter, or in this case a town hall audience, is smart and engaged. Be prepared with thoughtful answers that consider how various audiences will understand your answers, and test those answers to see how they might be interpreted.

The appropriate answers might not come immediately, and good answers require thoughtful consideration. Be sure you make time to consider how an audience might respond to your remarks, and remember that your employees will think differently from your board of directors. I’ve had clients who pride themselves on never needing rehearsal time for speeches and recording videos in one take. When the stakes are higher, such as when you have difficult news to deliver, you’ll want to set aside that mentality and carve out sufficient time to prepare well.

Being an authentic and influential leader is not just telling people what you think they want to hear, or dismissing concerns because they are inconvenient. Being a leader means inspiring teams to face challenges with grit. CEOs who approach these opportunities to communicate effectively with empathy, strategy and preparation will be much further along win delivering tough news to employees in a way that will bring them on board for future success.