Best Possible Outcome

CHAPTER 5COMMUNICATE WITH A STRONG, CLEAR VOICE

As a leader you must speak with a strong, clear voice if you are to adequately protect your organisation, your people and your vulnerable stakeholders.

Simple and clear information from a credible source can quickly defuse a situation and reassure stakeholders. Failing to control the narrative can quickly breed mistrust, confusion and doubt.

By the end of this chapter, you will have been presented with two very different anecdotes that reinforce the same lesson: as a leader you must speak with a strong, clear voice that is heard. If you don't, someone else will control the narrative.

CONTROLLING THE NARRATIVE

A hospital bed isn't where you would expect to have to dictate your first media release. Yet that is what happened to me when misinformation continued to circulate following the bomb attack.

It is a lesson on how simple and clear information from a credible source can quickly defuse a situation and reassure stakeholders. As a leader, it is often up to you.

I learned how simple a process this can be from my hospital bed in Germany following my evacuation from Iraq.

As the first serious Australian casualty of the Iraq War, my evacuation had been complicated. Much of this complication was caused by my own stubbornness. Also contributing was the fact that we were communicating across continents and nationalities, and between family members, diplomats, medical staff and military personnel.

To explain, Defence policy at the time ...