4 tips to cut the corporate speak and connect

“Authentic communication” is more than a buzz phrase. It’s a prerequisite if you want to establish trust at a time when employees and customers are struggling with uncertainty.

Here’s how to revitalize your writing, messages and even speeches with more empathy, humility and humanity when it’s needed most:

1. Remember Abraham Maslow.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is more top of mind these days. Many employees, for example, are focused on masks, social distancing and new WFH realities (safety needs), as well as their job satisfaction and sense of purpose at work (self-actualization needs).

“Put yourself in their shoes,” says Joanne Callahan, speechwriter and communications advisor at Con Edison. “Think about their personal experience and what they’re going through before you write a single word.”

It’s a principle Con Edison communicators practiced long before COVID-19.

“We’ve always kept three fundamental employee interests in mind in all our communications,” she says. “They are: my job, my money and my family. But since March, we’ve added: my immediate health and safety. Safety is always the number one focus in everything we do at Con Edison. But it’s taken on a whole new meaning with COVID-19.”