The Leader’s Voice
Whether conveying concern, taking a stand, or expressing support, gratitude, or outrage, knowing when and how to use your voice is an important part of your role as a leader.
As I was reflecting recently on the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, I dug out the letter that I wrote for my dean in the aftermath of that horror. I was still new to the world of higher education—having transitioned from life as a newspaper reporter earlier that year—and I had never written a letter like that. My job then was as a writer and editor for a divisional magazine at Johns Hopkins University, but in the days after Sept. 11, my boss asked me to draft a letter that could be sent from our dean to the school’s alumni. There had been few occasions for me to interact with the dean at that point, and I didn’t know his writing voice or what he might have to say about the events of that day. But I did it, and the dean was pleased with my work. That responsibility, more than any other single task, was the starting point for the next 20 years I would spend helping leaders use their voices effectively.
Re-reading the letter, I was struck by how much has changed about leadership communications over the past 20 years and, of course, by what hasn’t changed. And I have some advice to offer to leaders and those whose job is to help them communicate.
Two things jumped out at me right away about the old letter. First, it was mailed. Printed on letterhead, signed by a machine, folded in thirds, and sent via the U.S. Postal Service. I mean. Seriously. Second, note the date: September 17! It took us six days to get the letter ready for the mail.
Today, six days is an eternity for a community to wait to hear from its leadership on something so significant, and the idea of sending such a message through the mail instead of posting it on social media or emailing it is unfathomable. What’s changed is much more than the medium, though. The demand for leaders to speak up and speak out is more intense, more frequent, and more wide-ranging than ever.
Leaders of all kinds of organizations—public and private, civic and corporate—now are expected to speak to all manner of current events, issues, and policies. Today, individuals, especially younger millennials and Gen Zers, want to be part of communities whose values they share, and they need to see an organization’s leader live and speak to those values routinely. Many leaders are unprepared for this responsibility. Simply being—or hiring—a good writer is not the answer.
Effective leadership communication doesn’t start with a well-timed, well-crafted message. That message is the result of effective communication.
Communication is always, always much more about listening than speaking, because it’s through listening that we learn the most about those with whom we seek to communicate. To communicate well, you have to know your audience and understand what they need. And there are so many ways a message or public statement can go wrong. So, when you feel the pressure to make a statement, I recommend asking yourself some questions.
Do you have something to say?
Or are you reacting to pressure from others for you to say something?
If the issue is specific to your community—an incident on your campus, a crisis in your organization—you do need to be prepared to speak to it, but you also have the responsibility as the leader to determine when, if ever, it’s the right time to do so. You may have to tell your community that this isn’t something you can talk about publicly. Or you may be able to talk about the issue only in broad, generic terms or only after a situation has been resolved, scenarios that are likely to be wholly unsatisfying to much of your community.
In those cases, what you can do is invite them to talk to you. And then listen. Note: Social media platforms and large public forums are not the best places for you to demonstrate listening or to engage authentically with individuals. Choose small venues and one-on-one or small-group conversations over settings that provoke performance and where things can spin out of control. The scene in the Netflix series, “The Chair,” in which the well-meaning but problematic man-child of a professor hosts a town hall to meet directly with the students who are calling for his resignation was so real it made me cringe. You knew where it was going from the moment the words “town hall” were uttered. His half-hearted apology, followed by some defensive mansplaining and gaslighting, of course only made the situation much worse.
If an issue is bigger than your community—a racial reckoning or an insurrection at the Capitol, for instance—what do you think or feel about it? Having clarity of thought is critical, and you may need to buy some time to get it. Sometimes you won’t have the words right away, and you can be honest in saying that while expressing understanding for the outrage, grief, anxiety, fear, or confusion among your community. That might not be what everyone wants to hear, but it’s an important reminder that you, too, are human.
So, at some point you may have something you really want to say. Wait. Ask yourself (or others, if you don’t know the answers):
What does my community need from me? What are they feeling right now?
Your focus now should shift from what you want to say to how you will be heard. If you don’t know your community well, if you haven’t been listening, you won’t know how your message will land. In this case, rely on trusted advisors to help you understand what your community members are experiencing and feeling and what they want or need to hear from you (if anything). Sometimes you’ll be able to deliver on that. Sometimes you won’t. If you can’t—because you disagree with them, because they’re asking the impossible, or for any other reason—acknowledge that you’ve heard them and offer to continue the conversation if you can.
Sometimes, you may feel quite sincerely that either you are not the right person to speak to an issue or you simply don’t have anything to say that would be substantively helpful to hear. This may be controversial advice, but I recommend holding onto that conviction (if it’s real and not a cop-out, that is).
Many of the statements we see these days are purely performative, issued in moments of crisis or in a rush to join a bandwagon of other messages. Resist the cynicism of performance. Yes, “silence is violence” to some members of your community. I’d argue there’s a meaningful difference between silence and listening. To your community, “silence” is at least partly about them, not you—their feeling unseen and unheard in an urgent moment. You can validate their voices and be an active listener (and learner). Meanwhile, if you don’t have anything to say on a particular issue, sending an inauthentic message or delivering platitudes when action is needed can do more harm than good, both to your community and to its perception of you as its leader.
Speaking of action versus words, here’s another question to ask yourself:
Is there something more meaningful I can do with my position of power than issuing a statement?
Your voice is influential. Words in a single statement can be powerful, especially if amplified across social media and through news outlets, but often it’s challenging for a single leader’s words to be anything other than noise.
In some cases, what’s needed is a statement that declares specific action. That was the case with scores of messages we saw in the summer of 2020, when educational institutions, foundations and other nonprofits, and corporations made significant commitments toward anti-racism and building inclusive communities. Did they follow through? Reporting back to your community on progress and challenges is critical to building trust, improving communication, and, most importantly, effecting the change that’s needed.
Often a leader’s voice is more powerful in a chorus than a solo. College and university leaders have demonstrated this many times in recent years, uniting to pledge support for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program, to advocate for fair and equitable Title IX rules for responding to sexual misconduct, and on many other issues that directly and substantially affected the lives of their community members. They also have occasion to join forces to advocate for higher education—for public funding that would expand opportunity for students, for policy that would protect academic freedom, for support in waging the ongoing battle against COVID-19—and their voices are essential for changing the narrative about the value of higher education, to demonstrate to the public the value of higher education, not merely to individuals, but to society as a whole.
In such cases that you, as a leader, do something that goes beyond sending a single statement or letter to your community, make sure they know about it. Here, too, that’s more about them than you: Your community members want to see their institution making good on its promises, working determinedly toward shared goals, and living its values every day. And the more you can invite them into that work, to help shape it and play a role in it, the better. For some, there will be important and welcome learning about the work to make change that goes way beyond slacktivism.
Leaders have always been called upon to guide their communities through challenging times with words that comfort, lift, and strengthen. The changes we’ve seen over the past 20 years in how we communicate and in the complicated relationships between individuals and institutions have had the effect of shrinking the distance between leaders and those they lead. Communicating as a leader can feel very personal and exposing of one’s vulnerability. At the same time, it’s still easy for folks to forget that there are actual humans at the top of the org chart.
Remind them, and lead by example. Admit when you make a mistake or don’t have the answer. Apologize when you’re sorry. Share in your community’s grief and its joy. Express your love of the organization, embrace its values, and show gratitude to those who’ve joined you in advancing its mission.
