I have always had a bone to pick with Indians(which includes myself).
Indians are some of the best mathematicians, scientist, engineers and coders. But when you think of the best communicators in the world, we cannot be considered to be up there with the best of the lot. This is despite the richness of our heritage and literature.
Sometimes I wonder if this has to do with the fact that when it comes to business we communicate in a colonial language(of course, the same language that you are reading in at the moment) and not our native ones.
I have had the opportunity to interact with some great native Indian language speakers, and at least in my experience, it does not seem like they perform much better than their English speaking counterparts. Of course, we have great poets, youtubers, tweeters and tik-tokers. And yes I admit many of them are really good.
But in my general observation, Indians talk too much and say too little. Neither are we in the habit of preparing and practising for communication.
If you do not believe me, just attend any non-business event in India, and have the courage to sit through the chief guest’s speech. I dare you.
Corporate India was expected to be better, but they are only slightly better in my personal opinion.
With the big reset happening, everyone down from the top dogs of India inc to the line managers has been found wanting, both in communication and action. I am far from being an active part of corporate India, but trust me you get a better view from the sidelines.
It is worth noting that since the pandemic started, most corporate leaders and their underlings have not been able to play the role of facilitators and reassure, let alone inspire, their teams and customers.
Well, the situation is unprecedented(apologies for using the most over-used word of the year), and no one has it easy. So I am not hating on anyone, but merely making an observation that could have been made even before the pandemic arrived.
I looked for examples of communication by India inc for this article but could not find many noteworthy ones. Maybe that’s because India inc believes staying silent means staying safe. Or even when they communicate, it is laced with so much jargon and marketing-speak that it is difficult to have any real takeaway from it.
On the contrary, corporate leaders in the US seem to have risen up to the occasion. It shows us that communication is action too and it needs to be done right. The country has seen more than its fair share of flashpoints in the past few months. Interestingly enough, two of the men leading corporate America are Indian-Americans.
Let us start with Satya Nadella. The CEO of Microsoft needs to be lauded for his communication and using the power of storytelling for good during this period.
He is reported to have clearly said that he does not see WFH as a viable alternative to offices as cultures are developed in offices and when people work together in a physical space.
But more laudable was his clear stance after the death of George Lloyd and opening up Microsoft’s official twitter account for African-American employees to share their stories was a masterstroke in collective catharsis.
He also sent a letter to employees with clear steps the company will be taking to eliminate racism within the company and the communities it works in.
Sundar Pichai is no less of a master storyteller. His youtube talk to the class of 2020 went viral for the right reasons. As expected it was his personal story that connected the most.
‘My father had to spend his entire year’s income to buy me a ticket to the United States’.
The rest, as they say, is history.
If there was a better example using a story to instil hope in the face of adversity, then I do not know of it.
Same holds true for Tim Cook through his communication to employees at Apple which communications expert Carmine Gallo says was a masterclass in Empathy.
Of course, there have been bad apples in the US too.
The best(or rather the worst) case is Greg Glassman, co-founder and now ex-CEO of CrossFit. His email response was ‘you are delusional’ when an affiliate gym owner asked CrossFit to take a stand in support of #BlackLivesMatter. This was, of course, in the wake of George Llyod’s death and the inappropriate email response went viral for all the wrong reasons.
Affiliate gyms and even well-known brands like Reebok gave up their partnership with CrossFit and Glassman had to step down as CEO of the company. Latest is that the incoming CEO Eric Roza has signed a contract to buy 100% of the company from Glassman. This means Glassman will soon have no ownership or control whatsoever of the brand he built from scratch.
A clear case that empathy is good for business too. Or better still that lack of it can be bad for business.
Well, it is not like things back home have been totally dismal on the communication front. There are some examples of good use of communication by India inc as this article by Ameer Ismail points out.
It notes the use of traditional PR and social media by the likes of Anand Mahindra, who is anyway known for his exceptional hold on content and mediums of communication.
There are examples of other companies supporting and contributing to the fight against covid. However, I feel those initiatives though appreciable cannot be considered exceptional.
The one statement that stuck during the period was by Suresh Narayanan, Nestle India lead, who said something to this effect during an interview, “you don’t run a business during a crisis, you serve a family.”
So what is it that we can learn about communication during a crisis?
First thing, is action. Action is the most important form of communication. So focus and figure out how to do the right thing.
Secondly, be clear and compelling in your communication.
Carmine Gallo in his article for HBR notes Governor Cuomo’s tweet for it directness – ‘Stay Home. Stop the Spread. Save Lives.’
Clarity and simplicity is a virtue, a lot of the bureaucratic and corporate communication in India seems to believe that ‘complicated is intelligent’. It is time we break out of that mould.
Last thing, being empathetic does not mean being neither here nor there, but rather to stand with the underprivileged and the ones who have it more worse than us.
And that needs to be our intent, action and of course our communication as well.
If our people like Pichai and Nadella can lead the best companies in the world and be considered to be the gold standard for communication, nothing stops India inc either.
We need to learn that simplicity works even in communication. But being simple and clear in communication needs more work than we would like to believe.
