Prepare and practice: The ways comms can ready leaders for candid employee Q&As

More organizations are putting leaders in front of employees for unscripted Q&As. Editorial pros are well placed to help, from writing the questions to getting the leader ready. Michael Rothman, former senior editor at TD Bank, told Ragan he’s been a firsthand witness to leaders who haven’t gotten their messaging right the first time.

A former colleague once came back from a layoff meeting where the proposed messaging said the organization lets people go “with our hands over our hearts.”

“No one cares how you’re laying someone off,” he said. “Yes, you want to take care of them, and you should. But I think people are pushing back more and more on language like that.”

Unscripted leadership Q&As still require plenty of preparation. Comms pros  can set them up for success by having a process of best practices in place to help leaders prepare for these types of opportunities.

Know what employees need to hear

At the outset of his prep process, Rothman sorts his questions into two buckets. The first is what employees need from a particular leader. The specifics depend on what the leader oversees, which should be carefully integrated into the questions they most need to be ready for.

When zeroing in on the most important potential questions, Rothman recommended that communicators focus their energy on making sure the leader has an answer. If they can’t share much yet, he recommends preparing leaders to talk in plain terms about what they can discuss rather than avoiding the issues.

“I’ve seen Q&As, internally and externally, that give you nothing,” he said. “If everyone’s worried about layoffs and your new boss’s boss’s boss comes in and doesn’t say anything about the future of the company or stability, it’s kind of a miss.”

Show employees the leader’s personality, not just their role

Rothman’s second bucket involves finding and leaning into a detail from the leader’s life outside work that employees can relate to. By doing some research into the tone and content of their past employee messaging, communicators can zero in on the aspects of their personalities that may resonate with an employee audience.

“I think research is big,” Rothman said. “Look at past interviews, and then look at their background to see if there’s something that stands out to you that you can bring out. That could lead to a really good question prep about who they are, and then more question prep about their management style.”

Rothman said that looking at a leader’s career history can also uncover some interesting nuggets, as he found when working on Q&A prep with a newly promoted C-suite executive.

“He had been in five states in five years, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a lot of transition,’” he said. “His dad was in hotel management, and he said, ‘Yeah, we lived in hotels and moved around every year.’ It was a really great way of getting to know this guy and where his mindset comes from.”

Share the likely questions and insist on a run-through

For internal Q&A sessions, Rothman shares the questions he’s drafted with the leader in advance. The point is to get the leader thinking about how they’re approaching the subject.

But seeing the questions isn’t the same as being ready. Make sure the leader knows the format going in, whether that’s a fireside chat, audience questions or both. Rothman then recommends scheduling a practice run-through that covers:

• The biggest question, asked the way a concerned employee would ask it.
• Follow-ups on any answers that come out vague.
• At least one surprise question to keep the leader flexible.

Rothman said the biggest key to preparing a leader for a candid Q&A is ensuring that a leader can handle it. Yet not every leader thinks they need the help.

“There’s a lot of ego from leadership where they’re like, ‘Oh, I got this,’ and they really don’t,” he said. “You’ve got to push back, and that’s the tough part, finding that balance. If the person says, ‘I got it,’ be like, ‘All right, show me.’”

Rothman said that even with years of working in comms and scripting leadership comms, little things can still throw him off. The solution is preparation.

“It’s daunting for anyone,” he said. “I don’t care who you are. I don’t know who’s great off the cuff. You need to prepare, and you need to practice.”

For more detailed insights on how communicators can prepare leaders for candid employee Q&A sessions, join Ragan’s Communications Leadership Council.

Sean Devlin is the senior internal communications editor at Ragan. You can follow him on LinkedIn here.