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War — The Conversation You Can't Skip (A Crisis Leadership Communication Guide)

Ukrainian veteran working white collar job after serving.
Photo by Andriy Zhyhaylo/Oboz.ua/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

I belong to the 0.37%. This is the percentage of Americans who are active in the labor force and served in combat in both Afghanistan and Iraq. While my unique (?) background as a veteran may not seem like a “thing” the business community should care about, I do believe it provides a certain amount of perspective and wisdom that may help in times like these.


In the past two months, US forces have captured one nation’s leader, killed another, and we have suffered casualties as a result of these actions. As of today, the US public is being advised hostilities in Iran may continue for weeks, if not more, and to be prepared for more death.


These events feel significant — and personal — to me. The last leader the US government chose to remove was Saddam Hussein of Iraq, 23 years ago. I'm sure most people would agree that did NOT turn out with the results folks were hoping for. ($3.9 trillion in costs when you add interest from the loans we took to finance it, and over half a million US, Iraqi, and other nationality casualties.)


This is a new elephant in the room we all face in our personal and work lives. The intent of this newsletter is to address challenges B2B SaaS, healthcare, and cybersecurity professionals face in customer success, AI/ML operations, and growth strategy. But sometimes something bigger demands attention first. This is an exercise in crisis leadership communication.


The perception is that bringing outside issues into the workplace is frowned upon — but the reality is sometimes it's unavoidable. COVID may seem like the not-too-distant past, but there's a new breed of leaders emerging who didn't lead during the last US military excursion. These thoughts are for you.


People's bias and perception of business management 101 training may lead you to believe the playbook for dealing with a global geopolitical crisis is to not address it at all unless people bring it up. You may have heard this before: keep your heads down, plow through the day, and "it's not my problem."


The data shows us something much different. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, 80% of staff expect a CEO to have a voice on major societal issues, and 56% have no respect for CEOs who choose to remain silent. Even more telling, CEOs are currently trusted at a rate of 54%, which is better than Government Leaders who come in at 49%. (Fun factoid: scientists and teachers have the highest trust factors… school is cool.)


Productivity has also been shown to suffer — not sustain or improve — if the matter goes unaddressed (Gallup). Whether companies and their leadership teams like to acknowledge it or not, your team is looking to you for acknowledgement that something bigger is going on. And they are going to listen to what you say about it.


So what should leaders do?

  • Know your people – do you have veterans in your midst, those who are Reservists or in the Guard, those with children in the service, those who are immigrants from the nations of conflict or have family there, those who have families working abroad in countries with conflict? Per Businessolver's 2024 State of Workplace Empathy Study, 85% of employees said 'demonstrating that an employee's family is equally as important as their job' was a critical empathetic behavior. Yet just 35% have experienced that behavior from colleagues and supervisors. You show people you care by getting to know them beyond the stats they’re accountable to. And if your organization is too big to know everyone’s first name or snippets about what matters most to them outside the office, then build the company culture that charges anyone in a leadership position to conduct themselves in that manner.


  • Know how current events could impact your business – the facts matter, your goal is not to inflame or do additional harm with any action, but you need to stay informed and in command of how it’s impacting the business. The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance found 67% of employees prefer CEOs and their organizations not to publicly engage on political issues. The takeaway here is to keep it apolitical and focused on your team and how it’s impacting them.


  • Know that no one is asking you to solve this problem — and leverage your delegates to be a sounding board, because you can't do it all (nor should you). This is an exercise in humanity and psychological safety for you and the team. You’re bringing it up and talking about it because it’s bigger than any one team or the business and you want to make sure the team’s OK.


  • Deliver a human-centered message – Brief, clear organizational messages do best. Managers equipped with talking points do better. Open door policies and encouraged one-on-ones will differentiate. I’ve always found town halls to be a great place to deal with the elephant in the room. I liked leading with it, making sure people knew where they could direct questions, and moving on to business matters. You are there with them, you’re present in this time, and you’ve given them places to turn to in these halls if they need them. Leading.

 

Again, this was not the initial intent of this newsletter, but it felt appropriate given current events and my personal experiences. For leaders of business, there's no easy answer for when to acknowledge that something bigger than the bottom line is at play, when to address it, or what the appropriate message is. But I do firmly believe you need to do it. One of the best things I ever heard during my service was from a Ranger NCO during an advanced combat school. “When in charge, take charge.”


I hope this was helpful and motivating.

 

Cheers,


Adam

 

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