Use rousing language, and affirmation to get the team spirits up. Powerful phrases like ‘I believe in each one of your capabilities and even more so in our teams’ capability, so I am sure we can do this together’ convey a sense of strength, hope and enthusiasm. Keep a moderately positive tone.

It’s important to understand your team, their individual worries, feelings and stress points. While we cannot manage everyone’s emotions, we can hear them out and minimize their fears. Keep checking in with your team on a regular basis, and provide regular reassurances.

Before any word is uttered to the employees, you need to understand your role and channel your leader 'avatar' in a time of crisis, as if preparing for a battle. Your steel nerves will be contagious(!) to your team members. You need to sound convincing, and it’s a good idea to follow the basics, ...

• The first task for a manager is to be transparent, explaining to the team exactly what is known, and what isn’t known, and not to keep any team member in the dark.

• The second task is to provide hope and a sense of possibility to the employees facing an uncertain future a...

Communication has to be early and regular with the employees. They need to know what to expect, and the frequency of which they will receive updates from the management. One idea is to have catch-up meetings with each one of the team members(virtually of course) and to understand their most press...

Constant communication with the team is crucial for a manager, and the current state of affairs, when the world is in turmoil and most employees are sitting at home, it is increasingly difficult for the manager to provide information or assurance, due to uncertainty in every aspect of the busines...

Sugarcoating bad news of layoffs or pay cut, or denying that something is happening, when you are not sure, makes you come across as a liar or someone who is clueless. Don’t let the truth come out in instalments.