IN THE EARLY MONTHS OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC, some leaders used their communications with stakeholders to exercise accountability, effect transparency and develop a tone at the top that was intended to promote trust. Some well-known CEOs spoke and wrote with candor, compassion and seemingly authentic positivity. But this pandemic made uninformed positivity — often in defiance of expert medical knowledge — a potentially compromising approach.
Many CEOs used language to set a strategic tone for their followers — variously of brutal honesty, compassion or confidence. They sought to encourage followers to have faith in their leadership. Some succeeded. Others failed. Some, it seems, were dishonest. What was clear is that no amount of confected positivity, often in defiance of medical knowledge and advice, could guarantee that followers would also adopt a similar attitude.
In many instances, an upbeat tone in language was driven by hubristic leaders who were implacably convinced that they knew better than epidemiologists and medical experts. In the case of (former) U.S. President Donald Trump, his unremittingly positive claims and musings reflected an air of ‘I know it all’. They were derided widely.
The economic and social crisis of the pandemic is distinctive. Whereas the effects of many crises in the past have been felt largely by a company entity itself (and to a greater or lesser extent by its immediate stakeholders), the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has been pervasive. The pandemic has not just had economic effects for individual business entities but has posed a serious threat to the economic and social welfare of broader society and the lives of everyone.
A distinctive feature of the oral and written communication by CEOs during the pandemic has been its change in frequency and mode of delivery. In periods of lockdown, many CEOs ramped up communication
