We’re witnessing a particularly dramatic time in our nation’s history, as we battle to the death (hopefully not literally) over the great healthcare debate. I read a recent article stating that we are a country on the verge of a nervous breakdown, with a level of anxiety that has not been seen in several years.
Nothing creates anxiety faster than the fear of the unknown, and unknowns are caused by — you guessed it — lack of communication. We desperately need our leaders on both sides of the debate to boil it all down to the things we can relate to and tell us exactly what their positions are on this topic that is so near and dear to us, called healthcare.
As a lifelong communications professional, it is frustrating to see how many important leaders are fairly inept at slicing and dicing a critical issue into bite-sized pieces that we can all understand. It is through this lens that the raucous town hall meetings we have been witnessing lately have found traction. People are downright scared, and they are begging for their elected officials to “tell it like it is.”
We counsel our clients to hone their messages into the key points that matter to their audiences and that add value to the conversation. Whether it’s a business challenge, a personal issue, or the debate over how to reform healthcare, constituents and customers alike deserve to have a clear line of communications with their leaders. Those leaders should feel obligated to communicate in the most concise, understandable language possible and to do it often and consistently.
They say the mark of a good leader (our latest newsletter, posted on this website, is dedicated to the art of leadership, by the way) is the ability to take people where they didn’t know they need to go. Let us hope that those we depend upon to change our lives for the better will let us know when and how they intend to do it.
