Mastering Emotional Resonance In Crisis Communication

Your words — your communication — have power. As a crisis communication professional and crisis leader, the following is a question that should be a part of every step when developing your crisis response strategy:

How do you want people to FEEL about your crisis response?

The more conscious you are about emotional awareness and emotional intelligence, the higher your crisis response success rate.

Done poorly, your crisis communications can exacerbate negative emotions, escalating feelings from anger to rage, or from fear to hopelessness, and increasing your Crisis Response Penalties (CRP).

On the other hand, when done well, your crisis communications can help people move through their emotions, achieving levels of:

? Contentment: which happens when they feel that their needs are being satisfied;

? Relief: feeling that the worst is over and they are safe; and

? Trust: firmly believing in the reliability, truth, ability, and/or strength of someone or something.

Achieving Emotional Resonance

One of our most popular Crisis Ready? Rules is:

You cannot beat emotion with logic.

This means that, in the midst of powerful emotions, simply providing facts and reason won’t enable you to connect on a deeper level.

To lead people through a crisis and build trust, you must resonate emotionally.

How to Communicate Emotionally

The first step is to lean into emotions instead of shying away from them.

Too often, crisis responses lack true sentiment, sticking only to facts and missing the emotional mark. We need to change this pattern with awareness and courage.

1- Awareness

There are two levels of awareness needed here:

Self-awareness: Ignoring your own emotions gives them more power over you. If you don’t want your emotions to drive your crisis response, acknowledge them and learn to quickly and properly work through them.

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Stakeholder awareness: Consciously attune to, and recognize the emotions of, those you’re communicating with. Hold the space required to help them feel heard, seen, understood, and related to.

Helpful tips: Stakeholder mapping exercises help here, as does the Crisis Ready? Formula for Responding to Emotional Escalation.

2- Courage

We live in a world where the majority of us have been taught to suppress or avoid our emotions in order to be “professional,” because emotion has been regarded as “weakness,” especially in the boardroom.

However, avoiding emotions is easy. True strength lies in leaning into the discomfort of meeting people where they are emotionally. It takes great courage to step beyond the feelings of vulnerability and to go against much of our societal programming.

The Challenge

Adopting this level of awareness and courage is easier said than done. It requires unlearning ingrained habits, developing a deep understanding of emotions, and committing to strengthening skills in compassion, empathy, connection, and language.

The Reward

Being open to this and pushing yourself to adopt deeper levels of awareness and courage into your leadership and crisis communication is a challenge that’s worth the journey.

It changes the game, empowers you and your organization, and enables powerful connections with those you lead. It can be revolutionary for both your professional and personal life.

When you embrace this responsibility as a crisis communicator and leader, your impact becomes profound.

We teach how to do this in our Crisis Ready Course.

If you’re looking to deepen your skills, consider joining our upcoming 10-week crisis communication course that dives deep into mastering this incredible art-form and superpower. This course is designed to provide you with the tools and knowledge to excel, fostering both personal and professional growth.

This article was originally published via Crisis Ready Institute.