Communication Archives - Next Coast Ventures

Five Actions from the Frontline of Entrepreneurial Leadership

For many entrepreneurs, the last month has been the most challenging time in their careers. Having to balance health concerns for everyone in their personal and professional vicinity, along with a crushing change in the economy, has pushed business leaders to the edge.

But it’s also a time when employees, customers, and colleagues are looking to company founders for leadership and guidance. What should you say to people who are concerned about their jobs and their future? I’ve been talking with leaders and founders at companies both large and small over the past few weeks about how to communicate in a crisis. After hearing their concerns and constraints, I’d like to offer some suggestions based on years of work with more than 500 companies.

1. Find Your North Star

One of the first things to recognize is that not everyone has this figured out. Big companies may battle with a lot of input for various business units. Meanwhile, smaller companies may struggle to establish a position of calm leadership while feeling like waves are crashing around them.

Nearly everyone’s first reaction is that more communication is better than less. Not so. The most important aspect is to be in alignment around communication at all leadership levels. Decide, “What are the things that matter for the future of our business?” Identifying those non-negotiable things that you will always stand for—ethics, values, how you treat others (both team members and customers)—as a starting point will allow you to communicate from a position of clarity, strength, and sincerity.

2. Recognize Generational Differences In Communication

The current global pandemic is an unprecedented time for everyone. Some of your team members and customers have been through deeply challenging times before: wars, recessions, the dotcom bust, and terrorism. Other team members may have just taken their first job with your company and never experienced a macro-economic event like this while in the workforce. As a leader, it’s important to be sensitive to the views, perspectives, and experiences of other generations if you want to drive trust and engagement in your communication.

“As a leader, it’s important to be sensitive to the views, perspectives, and experiences of other generations if you want to drive trust and engagement in your communication.”

At CGK, our generational research and strategy center, we call this Generational Context. Without this context, the way you approach and communicate may not line up with your audience—both younger or older. The more you can put yourself in their mindset and perspective, the better you can serve and support them.

Generational Context is especially important when communicating with your team members. We find it helpful to step back and ask yourself, “What are their fears and concerns right now?” For some, it will be that they’re going to get laid off or lose their health insurance. Some may not be sure how to pay their rent, car payment, or help out another family member.

Great leaders realize that their top priorities and the top priorities of those on their team may not be the same. In times of crisis, people often move towards what’s most important to them, both in terms of overcoming fear and providing security. It helps to understand that not everyone is aligned and moving in the same direction as the organization’s leaders, but they can be with the right communication and leadership.

3. Choose the Right Medium for Your Message and Audience

What works with one group of team members may not work well with others, yet everyone must get the message you’re sending. A Zoom video or Slack channel may be efficient, but if the information you share in that video would also be of interest to an employee’s spouse or significant other, include another way to share that information outside the organization, such as an email or post on your company intranet.

Choosing the communication method is particularly important because people are afraid and anxious right now with so much uncertainty swirling around. That makes it hard to hear a message, remember the message, and then accurately repeat it to someone else who wasn’t there. FAQ pages and other mobile-friendly resources are effective ways to reinforce messages that are delivered internally by video, chat or email.

4. Don’t Fall into The Trap That Crushes Trust

Because we’re all under stress, you may feel additional pressure to fall into the trap of reassuring people by telling them what they want to hear. Resist this temptation. If you don’t know whether everybody will keep their job, don’t go out and tell people that they’re all going to get to keep their job. Because if you end up having to do layoffs two weeks later, you’ve significantly hurt your trust and credibility with those who stay on. As a leader, you must decide the key points that you can message based on the best information you have.

When it comes to communicating with customers, there can be a sense that your product or service is just what they need right now to deal with the current pandemic. It’s critical not to come off as an opportunist and sound tone-deaf to the difficult reality facing so many people and organizations. That’s one of the fastest ways to lose trust and credibility and ultimately lose customers. People don’t want opportunistic sales pitches or marketing pitches right now.

“It’s critical not to come off as an opportunist and sound tone-deaf to the difficult reality facing so many people and organizations. That’s one of the fastest ways to lose trust and credibility and ultimately lose customers.”

Instead, people want a resource they can trust and want to know that you have their back. Let them know that you’re there for them, working on their behalf, and ready to jump on the phone or on Zoom to talk. You understand it’s tough, and you’re there to help.

People will remember if you took the time to reach out and check on them—even if it’s just to say hello and that you’re thinking of them. You don’t have to mention your brand, product, or the latest sales pitch. They know where you work, and they’ve received 87 sales pitches in the last week, all with COVID-19 in the email subject line—so be different and connect with them as a human. If you have resources that might be helpful, make them easy and free to access. We’re all in this together. The more you show you are there for them, the more they’ll buy when they’re ready because they know they can count on you.

5. Deliver Bad News With Empathy

Even if you do everything right, circumstances may still force you to deliver bad news. Layoffs, furloughs, and unfulfilled commitments are in the headlines every day and will likely stay there for a while.

Keep in mind that when you deliver bad news, it’s not the only bad news your audience has received in the past few weeks. That makes it more critical than ever that you deliver the news with empathy and candor, and remain available to answer any questions. How you deliver bad news not only impacts those you are delivering the news to, but also word will travel to everyone else about how you handled the situation.

The worst thing you can do for company culture, trust, and buy-in right now is to deliver bad news in a generic email because that makes people feel like you don’t care about them. I would go so far as to say that if you have the choice of sharing bad news by email or Zoom, share it by Zoom. Show people you took the time to talk with them personally whenever possible. Hiding behind a mass email makes it easier for them to have a very negative response versus actually seeing you, talking with you, and getting treated with dignity.

Most of All—Remember That We’re All In This Together

It’s okay if your communication isn’t perfect. People are more forgiving right now, whether for a child walking into the background of a Zoom meeting or memos that are not grammatically perfect. We all are in this health and economic tornado together. When in doubt, lean on your own humanity, candor, and desire to get your message across quickly, honestly, and clearly.

Last but not least, it’s always good to remember that effective communication is two-way, so avoid making your message one-directional. Let them know who they can talk to, whether that is you, their direct leader, HR, or another person who can answer their question or respond to their comment. People appreciate being in conversation, not just being told what is going to happen and what to do.

Remember, in times of crisis, often the most effective message is not just what you say, write, or send, but what you do that shows your humanity, integrity, and that we’re all in this together.

Jason Dorsey is a member of the Next Coast Ventures’ Entrepreneur Council. He is president of The Center for Generational Kinetics, a Gen Z and Millennial research and strategy firm. Dorsey has served on the board of directors of both public and private technology companies and is passionate about helping leaders scale companies.

Matt Cain is the CEO of Couchbase, a data management platform based in Mountain View, California. He read Michael Smerklo’s E2E post on time management and used it to construct an exercise for his leadership team during his company’s most recent offsite. Michael’s piece focused on using an Eisenhower Matrix to help CEOs learn to manage their time more wisely. Matt walks us through how he turned this thought leadership piece into actual company change.

How do you approach thought leadership exercises with your team?

I am constantly in pursuit of new approaches that can help us get better as a team and as a company. The timing of this particular exercise worked well because we were in the midst of our annual planning process – tackling important issues and building a new multi-year plan. I’m a big fan of multi-day leadership offsites because they give us the time and space to attack important issues in a meaningful way and go deep. We wanted to ensure that we were aligned on what really mattered to us, and how best we could achieve success. We are fortunate to be growing and scaling very rapidly, but ensuring we are tackling priorities in an aligned and efficient way is crucial. Michael’s framework was a simple, but creative way to start that exercise – exploring my personal priorities, initiatives, strengths and weaknesses. It was a really convenient way to allow me to personally demonstrate and model vulnerability while discussing what we want to accomplish as a group.

Matt Cain, CEO of Couchbase. Learn more about Matt below.

How did you use Michael’s thought leadership piece to create an actual team-building exercise?

I spent time ahead of the session preparing what I thought were our most important priorities, and then filled out the 2×2 matrix as Michael suggested in his article. At our offsite, I walked my team through the priority and matrix concept (pictured right). I then asked each of them to fill it out on my behalf and made it clear they would do so without seeing my draft. I explained we would then compare their versions to mine. Some people had worked with me for a long time, while others had not, but regardless the exercise established a trusting environment where we could have this conversation. Getting a level of vulnerability in the corporate arena where you can say: “Here’s something that I ‘suck’ at and here are some things I think I’m good at,” is not commonplace. Asking others you work with to tell you what they think you might be good at or “suck” at is even more rare. You can only enforce that type of dialogue by demonstrating a true willingness to take feedback and get better.

The Eisenhower Matrix from Michael's article.

Read michael's thought leadership content here

What was something that surprised you about the exercise?

What really jumped out at me was the nuance behind the areas of perceived disconnect. As an example, during our initial review, several members told me that they thought I was good at networking, where I had it on my dislike list. I strive to build and maintain authentic relationships and connect with and help people, but do not enjoy networking for networking’s sake. My team assumed I enjoyed it because they perceived me to be good at it. In another example, one member of my team said to me that he thought I was really good at micromanaging, which he thought was an important skill, but yet another thing I don’t particularly enjoy. Even the term initially bothered me. We realized that I can be effective at diving into a function or issue in the organization and quickly get at the detail that matters to drive to resolution, which I agree is important. But we also realized I need to be encouraged to do so by my team because it isn’t the my first impulse. My natural instinct might not be aligned to what’s needed in a particular situation, so I have to rely on my team for help. But they need to first understand what those natural instincts are. No one can fix problems they don’t know about. We went on to explore triggers, histories, personality traits, and several other factors that brought us closer together.

What was something both you and members of your team agreed you struggled with?

Process and process creation. We now commonly refer to that as “lower left” activities for me and we have fun with that (them more than me sometimes!). Fortunately, we have process experts and operators within the team that take responsibility in these areas. It’s incredibly empowering to drive people to their “zones of genius” and remove things and are better done by others. Self-awareness emerges, but so too does insight into how leaders throughout the organization need to think about building diverse teams: thinking, experiences, perspectives, strengths, etc.

“You can only enforce that type of dialogue by demonstrating a true willingness to take feedback and get better.”

How do you make these findings actionable in the office?

After we filled out and discussed our findings of the matrix, we labeled each line item as either green or red. Green meant I or the team should allocate more time to these activities. Red meant we want to spend less time. In addition, we intend to use the matrix for all of my leaders, allowing them to go through the exercise and understand how they are over or underexposed in their roles. This will help them be their most effective selves and build the best teams they can.

What advice would you give rising CEOs about interesting thought leadership content they come across or advice they receive?

I’ve been studying leadership and team dynamics – and managing self-awareness for constant improvement – for as long as I can remember. Rooms in my house are covered in leadership and culture books from people I admire. My feedback on leadership is to follow your passion and to constantly be in pursuit of self-improvement. The best performers in the world, regardless of their profession (music, sports, business, etc.) tend to have the most coaches and are the ones that are always looking to get better. The way I pick up resources to help with self-improvement varies a lot over time: sometimes I’m into a book, sometimes I’m into retreats, other times I’m on a long-haul flight and get some direct insights just from being unplugged for hours. There’s no one model; do what works for you, just like working out. Find your recipe, stay committed, and follow your passion.

“My feedback on leadership is to follow your passion and to constantly be in pursuit of self-improvement.”

About Matt Cain

Matt has nearly two decades of experience leading global organizations, he is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of data management platform Couchbase. Prior to Couchbase, Matt was President of Worldwide Field Operations for Veritas Technologies LLC after serving as Chief Product Officer for Veritas’ $2.5B business. During his tenure, he revitalized the company strategy, increased operational efficiency, delivered growth across the portfolio, and was instrumental in the separation of Veritas from Symantec. Matt previously held a variety of senior leadership positions at Symantec Corporation and Cisco Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.