Leaders Communicating With Humanity During COVID-19 Cultivate Organizational Trust And Agility
Written by: Sean Elias, Gwen Gulick, Brandon ChungThe COVID-19 crisis offers both opportunities and dangers for leaders.
The urgency of a crisis can cause us to react too quickly out of fear or panic. This can harm the culture and ultimately, limit avenues for growth. Yet a crisis also creates the conditions for organizations to strengthen their high trust and higher ambition cultures.
Companies that pay close attention to authentic, two-way communications with their employees and other stakeholders will build the trust and agility that will make it possible to transform and innovate across the business during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond.
The Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance recently hosted a conversation with Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus Michael Beer and senior corporate executives, including stories and practices from AmerisourceBergen EVP and Group President Bob Mauch and BD Chairman and former CEO Vince Forlenza. Here are three key themes that emerged from the conversation:
Honest Two Way Dialogue and a Willingness to be Vulnerable are the Foundation for Trust and Commitment
Harvard Business School Professor Emeritus and Higher Ambition Leadership Alliance Board Chair, Mike Beer
Mike Beer: Creating a trust-based high commitment relationship with people is particularly needed in this time of crisis. At the core, what is required is honest conversation. We define this as honest, two-way transparent communication. Both parties must make themselves vulnerable.
As we face the challenges of COVID-19, this could mean communicating that you don’t have all the answers. By showing vulnerability, leaders invite others to be open and honest. They are essentially saying to others, “I trust you. I expect you not to take advantage of my vulnerability. I expect you to be equally vulnerable so we can have a mutually productive conversation.” We have found that establishing this mutual vulnerability leads to greater openness and more effective teamwork.
Transparency, consistency and empathy provide a rock solid foundation for Higher ambition leaders to engage their stakeholders.
AmerisourceBergen EVP and Group President, Bob Mauch
Bob Mauch: Our commitment to our purpose at AmerisourceBergen drives all of our decision making and this has never been more evident than in our response to COVID-19. We were able to use our purpose, “we are united in our responsibility to create healthier futures”, to get focused very, very quickly.
At the start of the pandemic, we communicated to associates that we were focused on two fundamental efforts: one is to keep our associates safe and second, we have to make sure that we maintain the integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain which is providing life-saving and life-preserving medications to healthcare providers. If we don’t do both of these things we would actually be in opposition to our responsibility and impact healthier futures negatively.
That effort started by moving our entire workforce who could work from home, more than 13,000 associates, to work from home within two weeks. This included teams who use complex telephony technology, require special hardware, and many other unique needs.
We also immediately implemented a multi-stakeholder communication approach that was underpinned by three primary principles: transparency, consistency, and empathy. Whether we are talking to investors, customers, suppliers, government agencies, or our associates, we make sure that we are committed to all three of these at all times. This is not a time for high-level business talk: We really need to get information quickly and communicate it clearly.
The feedback that we're getting from associates, and from our external partners around communication has been excellent. In many cases, we are distinguishing ourselves because of our approach. For example, we have biweekly webinars with our customer base in different segments. They have a lot of questions about the current and future state of the pharmaceutical supply chain and we're very open and honest with them. We also have established an expected frequency of communications with our associates through web conferences, newsletters, mobile platform, and our intranet. We increased the frequency of communications dramatically and I think this is probably the biggest business process change that we implemented, and it was really important in terms of agility.
We also simplified decision-making and took the hierarchy of the organization out of it. We implemented a COVID-19 task force immediately made up of people who were close enough to the decision making, but not necessarily the most senior people. We empowered this small group to make decisions. They met at the beginning and end of every day, and this allowed us to move quickly. It also allowed us to build trust in the organization because everyone knew that this group was working with purpose in mind and working very quickly.
According to the Porter Novelli COVID-19 Tracker survey issued in April, when employees hear of their companies’ COVID-19 specific responses, they report they are “Proud” (78%), “Inspired” (74%), and “More Loyal” (73%).
This is a moment of truth for higher ambition leaders—and they are rising to the challenge.
BD Chair and former CEO, Vince Forlenza
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Vince Forlenza: This is a time when our actions as leaders will reinforce our purpose and prove our engagement. Or else they're going to be seen as reinforcing the cynics view of us as leaders. We're being very clear about our principles and our priorities. We find as an organization that if people understand where we're going and what the priorities are, we can empower them in a way that they can get a tremendous amount done, more than we would ever expect.
I am encouraged by the actions we see leaders taking. I see them taking pay cuts at senior levels. I see them making sacrifices to preserve jobs, create furloughs instead of firings, ensuring that employee healthcare continues, even during the furloughs. All of these are steps in the right direction. They are big indications that we are in this together.
At BD, we are aggressively sharing stories of exceptional efforts within the organization. We have some great award programs. The question is how do we take them, modify them, and use them in this environment and make sure that the folks are getting the recognition and we're sharing that among each other. Our awards that are nominated by the organization, not the management team really reinforce the two-way dialogue.
Our organization expects us to act as leaders going beyond the company, working with the administration, working with the industry to set policy in these difficult times. And we have many people across the company, around the globe, doing that kind of work.
We’re also empowering folks locally to get involved locally. I'm the chairman of one of our local hospitals. At three o'clock today we'll have a caravan of BD corporate headquarters employees who are working from home. They will drive around the hospital with signs and honking their horns to express their thanks.
Mike Beer: Leaders need to really take the time to listen to employees. We’ve heard about town hall meetings that take hours and go late in the night to allow everyone to get their questions answered to give employees a chance to respond in the moment. It’s important to listen to people's emotions and see how they're feeling, give them the space to do that, and that finally, with respect and when it's appropriate, it's okay to use humor some of the time.
This kind of communication has to start with the leader. In any setting, leaders have to be clear and direct about where they want to take the organization. And leaders must communicate in a way that shows their own readiness to be vulnerable.
Organizations are moving through the immediate communications needs related to how we deal with the crisis right now and what we need to do at a tactical level. But along the way, we're beginning to discover what the new normal might look like.
How can higher ambition leaders continue to inspire and build trust and stay connected with their employees in the days ahead?
We welcome your thoughts.