Ardern and Cuomo lead the way on crisis communications

Business leaders would do well to emulate New Zealand’s prime minister and the New York governor by testing their crisis messaging against three checklists.

Image: Alexandros Michailidis/Shutterstock
A leader’s key weapon in battling any crisis is exceptional communication. The Mandarin word for crisis, "Wei Ji", combines two characters (危 机): danger and opportunity. How a business leader manages and communicates will determine which character takes prominence.
Exceptional communication is crucial to survive, stabilise and surge towards post-crisis opportunities. Covid-19 is the biggest crisis of our lifetimes—and leaders must provide quality communications to secure their lines of effective engagement right now.
I’ve watched hundreds of global leaders talk about this crisis. In particular, two stand out as role models in
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