How to lead your comms team during a crisis

You’ve got your crisis communication strategy in place.

You know who your spokespeople will be. And you’ve tested your crisis comms plan.

But have you thought about how to manage yourself, and lead your team through a crisis?

It was the question we explored during our latest masterclass for members of the Media Team Academy – our learning and development programme for comms and media team professionals.

James White, our CEO, was joined by Dan Boniface and Laura Bridgeman, who deliver leadership and management skills training for The BCF Group. And by Helen Robinson-Gordon, head of news and media relations at the British Medical Association.

The session began by exploring how to look after yourself and your team during the sustained pressure that crisis media management brings.

“You don’t fully know how well you will cope until you have been through it,” Dan said.

“The more you go through crises, the more confident you become about controlling them.

“But we know people often don’t look after themselves during a crisis.”

Dan believes finding ways to reduce the pressure is critical.

“At some point, we have to release the pressure,” he said. “It is about understanding your release points when you feel stressed and anxious and using them when the time is right.”

It can be as simple as going for a walk, making a cup of tea, or exercising.

 “When I’m working from home, I go for a 20-minute walk,” Dan said. “It clears my mind, and I’m more productive when I sit back at my desk.

“In a crisis, people worry about how that sort of thing is perceived. But that is not doing us any good.

“If you are not in a good frame of mind, how will you support everyone else?”

James added: “As a manager, you have to work out how your team will destress and ensure they have enough breaks during a crisis.”

But how else can you stay calm during a crisis and prevent your emotions from impacting your decision-making?

Controlling the controllable

Laura believes it is about focusing on the things you can control.

“There is a lot around mindset and the emotional state we get into during a crisis,” she said.

“There is the phrase ‘controlling the controllable’, which is about focusing on your sphere of control and influence and not worrying about the things that are not your responsibility.

“We have a limited supply of physical and emotional energy. And if you continue to try to keep up with the strain all the time, it becomes damaging,

“You must remember that you can’t influence what has already happened. You can learn from it. But you need to stay in the moment and deal with the things in front of you.

“We need to ensure we are taking responsibility for our actions and are role modelling that for our teams.

“If you have to make quick decisions and don’t get them right, admit you didn’t get it right.

“Don’t try to place blame on others or focus on what they are doing – that just becomes a big distraction.”

Resources, ‘radical acceptance’ and eating elephants

Laure believes it is also critical to focus on the resources you have rather than what you wish you had.

“Always think about the resources that you have available rather than getting caught up in ‘I wish I had’ or ‘if we had’ thoughts,” she said.

It is part of something she refers to as ‘radical acceptance’.

She said: “It is about accepting and owning what has happened, while not worrying too much about what else might happen.

“Focus on the present moment and the next step to move slightly forward, even if we can get to the crisis being fully resolved at that point.”

James added: “It reminds me of a piece of advice someone gave me years ago – how do you eat an elephant? One piece at a time.

“You can’t solve everything in one hit. You have to break it down, get your action in place and work through it step by step.”

That is advice Dan agrees with. He said: “When you are in a crisis, it feels like a huge thing and can be overwhelming. But it becomes more manageable and achievable when you break it down to the first thing you need to do.

“And then you can move on to the next action.”

Managing the emotions of others

What about the emotions of others? Can you avoid them impacting your decisions?

Dan believes emotional intelligence is vital here.

Dan: “There is lots of evidence emotional intelligence is on a par with IQ for success.

“Anytime we are dealing with humans, emotional intelligence is in play.

“It is about understanding our emotions and controlling them. And understanding other people’s emotions and helping them control them.  

“We can’t control the emotions of others. But we can seek to understand how they are feeling.

“So, in a crisis, understand the crisis and how people feel about it.

“Then ask them if they need to take a few minutes, some space to think or if they need to vent.  

“That understanding shows them someone cares and helps them move forward.”

The other crucial area here – linked to emotional intelligence - is understanding the different personalities in your team.

Developing emotional intelligence helps people manage the different personalities in a team.

There are four main personality types:

Fiery red: Strong-willed, ambitious, decisive. They want to get on with their tasks.

Sunshine yellow: Enthusiastic, persuasive and sociable. Often the centre of attention.

Earth green: Patient, stable, consistent and a good listener. Potentially more introverted. But always there to support when someone needs it.

Cool blue: Detailed, careful, meticulous. They often enjoy data analysis and critical thinking.

“It is vital to understand we are never 100 per cent one of the colours and none of the others,” Dan said.

“But if we understand our traits and why we do things a certain way, then we can see that in others in the way they speak, their actions and body language. We can pick up their type of character.

“And we can adapt our communication style to meet their different needs.

“Ideally, in a team environment, you want a balance with lots of different traits in it.”

Let’s explore this further.

Laura says that in a crisis, fiery reds will take over.

“They are the ones who will want to leap into action and take control,” she said.

“Sunshine yellows may want to discuss it a bit more and talk things through.

“The earth greens are likely to go quiet because they want to carefully think about what has happened and how to move forward. Cool blues want the facts and figures.

“So, it can feel like people are going in different directions. But it is people coming to terms with what has happened and reasoning with it in their own way. And all of these different ways are fine.

“By recognising my character traits, I can also identify if I am being a bit too fiery red or too earth green and think about how that impacts my team. And that is crucial for moving us forward in a crisis.”

How can you build your resilience?

When things go wrong, we are often told we need to be more resilient.

And in a crisis, particularly a long-running one, you will need lots of resilience.

But is it something you can learn? Can you help your team to be more resilient?

“It doesn’t take getting into a crisis to know how we respond to smaller setbacks,” Laura said.

“We should ensure we are taking stock at any time our resilience is tested, no matter how big or small.

“And we should encourage our team to do that.

“We need that awareness of where our breaking points are and when we are getting close to them, so we know when to release the tension.

“Then you can spot this in your teams as well so you can anticipate how they might react and what level of resilience they have.”

Good crisis preparation and knowing you have plans that work also boosts resilience.

“Crisis preparation is key,” Laura added.

“Having plans and processes in place means you have something that will bolster your resilience when the tough times come up.”

James added: “Knowing your crisis plans and processes are there gives you confidence. Preparing in advance for the unexpected is vital.”

What are the most effective strategies for managing a torrent of media calls during an unexpected crisis?

When a crisis strikes, the media spotlight is intense.

Comms teams can be swamped with inquiries, phones ringing off the hook and email inboxes verging on the brink of collapse.

Is there a better way of managing that and the pressure it brings?

James said: “It is about having processes and holding statements in place before the crisis so you can buy yourself some time.

“One of the things I see when we do crisis management testing for our clients is they don’t have someone triaging those incoming calls and requests.

“This is crucial, even if it is just a simple spreadsheet. Then you can decide who you need to get back to and score them in order of priority.”

What’s the best way to ask questions to non-comms colleagues to get information without them becoming defensive about what has happened?

You will need information from different sources to shape your crisis response.

But getting information from people outside comms can be tricky. And people can be defensive.

How can you avoid this?

Dan said: “Ask ‘what’ questions rather than ‘why’ ones. If you lead with a ‘why’ question, like ‘why did the IT fail’, people get defensive.

“It feels judgemental.

“If you ask ‘what happened’, ‘what process did you follow’, ‘what were you trying to achieve’ instead, it is open and extracts information.

“You are saying, ‘I want to understand, I want to explore, I want you to tell me everything’.”

What does all this look like in the real world?

Who better to answer that than the person who has led her team through a crisis that changed everyone’s lives?

Helen Robinson-Gordon expertly guided the BMA communications team through the media attention the organisation faced during the pandemic.

While the pandemic no longer grips daily life, the BMA media team remain busy with doctors staging a series of strikes last year.

Helen said: “There’s never a dull day. It is always busy.

“I always say when we interview for new recruits to the team, ‘I hope you are prepared to work in an extremely busy newsroom and press office’.

“We have some amazing candidates, who tell us all the things they have done before.

“And without fail after a few weeks, they say, ‘You weren’t kidding, it is busy.’

“We thought that after the pandemic, it might quieten down a bit. It did for a short time. But for the past year to 16 months, we have been battling on the industrial action front.”

What was it like at the BMA during Covid?

“Covid hit with such speed and ferocity that we didn’t have time to think about it,” Helen said.

“We had a crisis communication plan like all good organisations do, and we looked at it occasionally and dusted it off, but we had no preparation for the pandemic.

“And we certainly had no preparation for the longevity. It wasn’t just something that happened, blew up and lasted a month or so – it lasted from March 2020 until the end of 2022.”

How have things changed since?

“Our team is now much bigger,” Helen said.

“When we went into covid, there was me and three people in the team. Now there is me and eight.

“That is a bit like having a motorway that gets busy – you can keep adding lanes.

“So, it is about ensuring we have the right people. And that they are supported.

“We have had a number of challenges with stress and mental health.”

How does the BMA deal with those challenges?

Helen said: “We have a daily check-in every morning, where we sit together virtually or face-to-face for an hour.

“Part of it is tactical about what is happening that day and what we need to do.

“But we also broaden it out to how we are all feeling. And I encourage my team to be honest and open.

“It is a safe and open space where they can talk about feeling tired, stressed or under pressure, and how we can support that.

“It might be that we take some work off them and give it to someone else. Or it might be I pick up something more serious and need to arrange support.”

“For me as a head of department, it is about taking time to talk to the team, listen and invite them to open up.

“Once a fortnight, I also have a one-to-one with every team member. And that is not just about objective setting and progress, it is about their time with me.

“That is particularly important when you are not in the office every day. You pick up some of those nuances in someone’s wellbeing when you are on email, Zoom or Teams.

“All these things together keep us strong as a team.”

The BMA has also changed on-call arrangements and press office opening hours to release some strain.

“When I first joined, if a team was on-call, they were on-call for the week,” Helen said.

“Generally, that was manageable, but there were only three of them, so they were on-call one week in three, which was tiring.

“We knew that could not be sustained. And during the pandemic, as we increased the size of the team, we changed the system.

“So, someone would do four nights, and someone else would do the weekend.

“That also became unsustainable because it was so busy. Now, we have a system where they do one evening a week and one weekend in eight.

“They have a day off in lieu when they do a weekend, usually a Tuesday, to stop them working over a long period.

“And we have uplifted pay significantly. Pay doesn’t compensate for being exhausted, but it does help a bit.”

The BMA has also shifted the hours of its press office with a shift system, meaning it is now open between 8am and 6.30pm.

What is the one piece of advice you would give to others about leading comms teams during a crisis?

“Be a good listener,” she said.

“Take the time to listen to what you are hearing from your team.

“And as dull and boring as it may sound, make sure you have really good processes in place. If your processes are robust for responding to journalists, stakeholders and media bids and everyone knows what they are, people are not stressing about them.

“It means you have more time to devote to doing the job and staff wellbeing.”

Don’t forget you can catch up with this masterclass, and all the previous ones, in the video library section of The Media Team Academy hub.