Leadership

Unintended consequences are often the result when leaders communicate without a clear understanding of the media, the crowd and their own people. Leadership once associated and celebrated for being able to create order from chaos, will now be applauded for thriving in it, with policies, that back in February would have seemed unworkable, now the norm. Now more than ever, leaders must form a ring around a culture of trust and a very clear strategy around ‘story’.

The media diet is fuelled by processed anecdotes and messaging that lacks context, simplicity and truth. Social media confirms and reinforces bias and risks confusion when clicks are valued over context. Furthermore, when behaviour is under the spotlight, beware knee jerk reactions as these will no longer be tolerated alongside statements posted as afterthoughts.

Successful publicity must build a relationship between individuals, brands and leaders. he modern audience is not looking for a challenge to established values as a development of better ones. Not so long ago leaders and corporations could hide behind expensive public image campaigns. But the pandemic has brought a threat to the established order. Now is not the time for looking back to where we were, we must look ahead to where we might go next.