Corporate Leadership: Overcoming Communication Fear

By Mike Lantzy, Charlotte Otter, and Simon Tyrrell

Don’t break up with your significant other in a text message. Don’t lay off employees in an email.

We all know we shouldn’t behave like that – sensitive messages require face-to-face interaction. But fear is one of the most powerful human motivators, and many people fear genuine communication.

What does it mean to fear communication? We all know what it means to fear public speaking – the sweaty palms, the dry mouth, and the mind that goes blank. Fearing communication is more than just a fear of public speaking; it’s a fear that comes from making ourselves uncomfortable or vulnerable.

Fears Around Communication

Not everyone has the same source of anxiety when it comes to communication. Scientists have identified four main types of anxiety around communication.

Innate Nature: Some people simply have more anxiety about communication regardless of the message’s form or content. For these people, practice can help increase their comfort even if they never fully enjoy communication.

Context: These people have specific communication triggers for their anxiety. Public speaking is probably the largest source of context-related fears. For many people, content creates anxiety – many people are fine communicating information but fear giving bad news.

Audience: Who you are speaking with matters. For example, some people are fine talking to their peers but fear speaking to authority.

Situation: Sometimes, the situation itself – the mix of time, place, and audience – creates fear in people. These people are not typically nervous communicators, but a specific situation may pose issues.

When it comes to corporate communication, we would add another cause of anxiety to the list – the lack of control over the outcomes. Executives want to have evidence about expected outcomes before they take action. Other areas, such as sales, finance, and even marketing, have measurements and numbers that make leaders feel confident.

Communication does not come with guaranteed outcomes. Employees may not receive an announcement how leaders want them to perceive it. The media may not write a favorable article, and analysts may react poorly to a message. 

Email as a Crutch

All communication comes with risk, but running from it means we fail the people on the other side of our words. To reduce their anxiety, leaders try to communicate in ways that protect themselves from risk. And in doing so, they cloud the humanity in their message.

In corporate leadership, these fears lead to executives who rely on email as a crutch. It‘s easy to draft an email, send it through an approval process, and send it out. 

The difficulty is that email is a one-way communication that doesn’t foster engagement. In most companies, employees have overflowing inboxes filled with unread emails. People don’t have the time to read their messages nor the attention span to truly engage with all incoming emails.

There are many methods to help people lessen the anxiety that comes with communication. There are stress management techniques, training programs, desensitization exercises, and more for those who take the time to address their fears.

Towards Genuine Communication

While their methods may vary, successful executives find ways to push through the fear that comes with genuine communication. They find ways to move from announcements to dialogue. They keep their messages simple and short.

They choose communication methods that allow the recipients of their message to sense their authenticity. Then, they truly listen to the response – both to understand the recipient’s needs and to better hone their delivery for the future.

People look to their leaders to show them how to feel about a message. Executives set the tone when they choose not just their words but their communication methods. A mature executive models the response they hope to see in the messaging they use.

High-performing companies share a few characteristics in how their leaders communicate. They understand the top-down communication model does not lead to effective engagement.

Savvy executives are honest and authentic. They communicate multiple consistent messages using various methods. They listen to feedback, and when they make a mistake – because everybody will eventually make a mistake – they admit it. These elements make people feel like grown-ups are in charge of a company and they build the trust that is needed to lead businesses successfully.

About the Authors:

Mike Lantzy is the founder of Soundbite.AI, an innovative technology platform for inclusive corporate communications. 

Charlotte Otter runs Otter Advisory, a consultancy focused on executive communications and helping leaders tell breakthrough stories. 

Simon Tyrrell has provided product strategy and leadership in employee experience and engagement software companies for the last 15 years.