Here’s the transcript of Melissa’s message:

Hi everybody. This is Melissa Agnes. – crisis management expert – and this is a Culture Lab Audio Postcard.

 As we struggle through the challenges that COVID—19 is presenting to every single business and every single individual across the globe. I want to send out a reminder that culture is led top-down, is supported bottom-up, and is what you live and breathe every single day.

 Now, more than ever, is when all of us need to rise up and lead for the people that we have built relationships with throughout, you know, over the course of the business over the years. This is your employees are looking for leadership. Your customers and clients are looking for leadership. Your community is looking for leadership and now is the opportunity for you to live your values. Put that first. 

So I often talked about in terms of you know, one of my crisis ready tactics is stakeholder mapping. Create a list of who each one of your stakeholder groups are, who they consist of and go through and put yourself in their shoes and think through what are they feeling right now? What is are they scared about? What are they concerned for or about? What do they look to your business to your organization to your brand in support of. And focus on how you can put out communications, how you can put out campaigns, how you can put out material and resources to support them.

This is something that will raise you as a leader throughout this crisis to the people that you served. The people that you’ve built relationships with. It will also serve you over the long term once all of this is said and done one COVID-19 is over and it resumes to be business as usual. What are the relationships that you want to have strengthened and fostered throughout this time of crisis so that you can – when you resume back to normal business as usual – that you can come out of this with even stronger relationships and allow that to cater to your business strategy.

 So that’s a crisis ready tip for COVID-19. Stay strong, keep leading with light and compassion. Stay healthy, stay safe. And I wish you all the best. This is Melissa Agnes, crisis management expert and this was a CultureLab podcast.