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Date posted: 30th June 2020

30th June 2020

How Covid-19 has changed expectations of leadership communication

How Covid-19 has changed expectations of leadership communication

In a time where you’d think leaders would only have time for issues relating to Covid-19, research is showing that leadership engagement with other significant issues such as sustainability has significantly increased in the last few months. But why?

Being in lockdown has given people time to reflect and has also shown the ability to operate in new ways that previously seemed far-fetched. Who would have thought in 2019 that such a huge percentage of organizations would move to 100% remote working worldwide?

This has meant that both employee and consumer expectations have changed. Crispin Manners has outlined the reasons why pubic opinion won’t allow leaders to communicate as they did before Covid-19.

From the Article: 

COVID-19 has made things visible that before could have been denied

Just a week after Paris went into lockdown in March, a dramatic fall in air pollution was recorded in this article in the Famagusta Gazette.

Since then, scientists have begun to detect a correlation between high air pollution and death rates associated with COVID-19. This is explored in this article on FT.com.

So, now, leaders of businesses will be expected to explain what they will do to reduce air pollution levels. Before COVID-19 they might have been able to say that there was little they could do. But the average consumer now knows from personal lockdown experience that a lot can be done by making simple changes to business behaviour. Allowing people to continue to work from home after the lockdown would be a simple change that would have a sustained impact on air pollution and the health of the average person.

Get the full article online: There’s no going back – pubic opinion won’t allow leaders to communicate as they did before Covid-19.

Make sure to explore Inspiring Workplace’s other content and insights about leadership and Covid-19.