Five keys to communicating in times of a pandemic

Monday, 2 november 2020 | Redacción CEU

Getting across messages is an essential tool for leaders. How else can they convey their vision, values and goals? Even so, despite its importance, this skill is often neglected. Not paying attention to this aspect may have consequences: misunderstandings, conflicts between colleagues, high staff turnover, unachieved goals, etc. Furthermore, in the pandemic context, communication becomes, if possible, even more important. In many cases, teams are geographically separated and linked only through screens. This might make it difficult to carry out an organized and coordinated job. In turn, the uncertainty scenario may bring about a climate of tension, stress and anxiety. Which is why for leaders to communicate well and have a positive impact on their environment, it is more than ever important to know how to show closeness, regardless of whether they are kilometers away from or sitting next to their subordinates. What other keys do they need to know how to communicate well in a context like this?

Before delving into these keys, it would be appropriate to talk about how leaders communicate at present, and, if possible, even try to predict how they may do it in the future. That is the work carried out by a team of researchers, psychologists, technology experts and data analysts at LLYC consultancy. Using different techniques of AI, Language Processing and Machine Learning, they studied the differences between current leaders and those of new generations.

For this study, they analyzed the communication and speech patterns of the leaders of three different generations: baby boomers, generation X and millennials. Their goal was not to compare the different generations, but to understand how the current leadership can differ from that of the future leaders. In the report, they concluded that the profile of future leaders will be marked by a tendency to action and cooperation and by a positive, passionate and emotional character. They have reached this conclusion by going over the words they use in their posts, texts, videos, etc. What words are those?

Today's leaders use the verb "say" more often than "do”. Just the opposite occurs in the case of future leaders (the youngest), who have a greater predisposition to action. The latter are also more likely to use adjectives related to the collective and the common good such as "global", "educational" or "climate". In their speeches, they resort to concepts such as "family", "team", "support" or "people" and to verbs related to cooperation such as "share" or "participate". Another characteristic of these leaders is the use of terms related to digitization. They also use 45% more emotional words in their speeches compared to current leaders.