TONE AND LEADERSHIP

Tone and Leadership — A leader's communication style sets what's important by aligning objectives, creates organizational culture, and determines whether people surface difficult truths in time to act.

As I argue in The Authentic Leader, authenticity is not mood or mystique -- it's observable behavior: human language, owned responsibility, and promises kept. When combined, ethics and tone go a long way in deciding how your company allocates power and earns (or erodes) consent.

Your people are listening and cataloging how you speak and communicate in Town Halls, one-on-one meetings, to others, and in media outlets. Thus, tone...like power...is a topic that leader's should constantly be thinking about across settings.

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PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY THROUGH THE EAT MODEL: A LEADER'S ROADMAP

In my recent conversation with Donald Thompson for WRAL TechWire, we explored the profound role of psychological safety in today’s workplace. For me, the discussion reinforced just how vital this idea is—not just as a feel-good concept, but as a business imperative. In the EAT Model—Engage, Adapt, Transform—psychological safety is not an afterthought. It is a core driver of how leaders create resilient, innovative, and high-performing cultures.

Donald noted that, in a time when trust in institutions has eroded, employees often trust their employers more than they trust media or government. That’s a remarkable shift—and a responsibility. Leaders have become stewards of trust, which means our ability to create a safe environment for ideas, questions, and even dissent is directly tied to business performance.

That’s Engage—the first pillar of the EAT Model. Engagement here is more than “communication” in the corporate sense. Rather, it is focused on creating authentic, human connections that give employees permission to share their perspective without fear of retribution. Without that foundation, psychological safety can’t take root.

But psychological safety isn’t static. This is where Adapt comes into play. Too often, adaptation is seen as something purely external—adjusting to market shifts, competitive pressures, or new technologies. In the EAT Model, adaptation is both external and internal. Leaders must continuously recalibrate their own behaviors, language, and even emotional intelligence to reinforce safety.

But how do leaders operationalize this idea?

  • Responding constructively to mistakes

  • Actively seeking feedback on how safe people feel

  • Making visible changes in response

Don’t forget, though, the organization’s role in creating psychological safety. Organizations must evolve policies and practices to reflect new realities, thereby shifting from one-way communication to genuine dialogue, for example, or embedding inclusive decision-making into daily routines.

When leaders commit to engagement and adaptation over time, transformation occurs. This is the third pillar of the EAT Model: cultural change that becomes part of an organization’s DNA. In practice, transformation looks like higher retention, more innovation, and stronger collaboration. But at a deeper level, it’s about creating an enduring culture of trust and learning. Then, psychological safety becomes a cultural safety net when the organization needs resilience, like weathering economic downturns, facing competitive disruption, or even experiences societal crises. As Donald pointed out, psychological safety is not only the right thing to do, it’s a competitive advantage.

From my perspective, applying the EAT Model to psychological safety gives leaders a clear roadmap:

  1. Engage with empathy and authenticity

  2. Adapt with both structural and personal change

  3. Transform by embedding safety into the culture

The result is a workplace where people feel safe to speak up and are motivated to contribute their best thinking. This is an important outcome. In an era where the quality of ideas can determine the survival of an organization, that’s more than a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity.

The Leadership Value Proposition

The beauty of applying the EAT Model to psychological safety is its scalability. It works in small teams, global corporations, and even cross-cultural contexts where trust and open dialogue are harder to build. For leaders in marketing, communications, and digital industries—where creativity, speed, and collaboration are paramount—the EAT Model offers a lens for diagnosing cultural barriers and a roadmap for removing them. The return on investment is tangible: stronger employee retention, better decision-making, and a workforce that innovates faster than the competition.

Leaders who want to operationalize psychological safety—and reap its competitive benefits—should explore how the EAT Model can be integrated into their leadership practice. By focusing on engagement, adaptation, and transformation, you don’t just create safer workplaces—you create stronger, more resilient organizations.

BOB BATCHELOR LAUNCHES NEW PUBLISHING VENTURE: TUDOR CITY BOOKS

International bestselling author Bob Batchelor, renowned for his expertise in cultural history and biography, has launched Tudor City Books, a new publishing company headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina. Specializing in a range of subjects, including crime fiction, entertainment and pop culture history, memoir, and biography, Tudor City Books aims to bring exceptional works to a broader audience.

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Crisis Communications Basics -- 5 "Different" Messaging Strategies During the Coronavirus Crisis

A famous Warren Buffett quote claims that it takes 20 years to build a reputation and 5 minutes to ruin it. Importantly, Buffett explains, “If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

“It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

    -- Warren Buffett

“Differently” during a crisis is a challenge—exactly the right move, but countered by the fact that people hate change. Crises are centered on change and uncertainty. Most leaders are not going to want to respond differently when they don’t have a clear indication of what is happening now, let alone later.

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 What COVID-19 is proving by the minute is that communications is more important now than ever before, even though up until a week or so ago (at least in the US), most people probably assumed that we had more communications than ever before in human history.

Having all the communications channels in the world doesn’t matter if no one is paying attention to the message.

 5 things to do “differently” during this crisis:

  • Be compassionate – Real people (including you) are facing unprecedented transformation.

  • Be authentically empathetic – Given the uncertainty, be authentic in representing the situation and its consequences for your organization, business, community, and society.

  • Be direct – No time for sugarcoating or platitudes. Tell your communities—and your employees—what you know and what they need to know as new information becomes available.

  • Be flexible – All we know for certain is that the scope is extraordinary. Rethink what you assumed and try to keep the first point in mind, these are human beings you’re communicating with.

  • Be attentive – In the recent past, record numbers of people have rallied to charitable causes in times of crisis. Look for (safe) ways to help. What is the opposite of hoarding toilet paper? Do that…

Organizations spend an incredible amount of time, effort, and person hours creating relationships with all their stakeholders. It is paramount to create “different” communications and marketing efforts now as the world truly begins an era that may call for the complete overhaul of humankind’s foundational principles and beliefs.