Stick to your guns when communicating during tenuous economic times

The state of the economy is still uncertain, but your responsibility to provide steady leadership to your workforce is never in doubt. use thee guidelines to communicate the right message to your employees.

1. Remain consistent. Don't shift direction according to the day's news, good or bad. Whether you're announcing successes or setbacks, use your message to reinforce your organizations's vision and values.
2. Be positive but honest. Don't ignore real problems when communicating to your workforce. Employees can usually sense insincerity or waffling -- they follow the news too. Give them the proper context for whatever bad news you have to shire, and trust that they can take the truth like adults.
3. Don't overact to circumstance. Thought it's difficult to stay calm when things go wrong, lashing our blindly will sink employee's confidence in your leadership. You don;t have to respond to every problem with an instant solution. Take the time to assess the situation, and choose your words and actions carefully.
4. Stay involved with your people. A crisis is the wrong time to pull back and grow detached from the lives of your workforce,. Yes, you ay be tempted to withdraw and spare yourself the pain of delivering bad news to people you care about, but they'll pick up in your reticence and may start withholding their energy and support in response.

Source: Leading for Results, Adapted from the CareerBuilder Web site