Whether in responding to a crisis or building a brand’s reputation, an organization’s strategic messaging matters. Today’s communication leaders can no longer rely on a single act, like releasing a press release, to shape public opinion. Effective organizational communication relies on trust, transparency and human connection.
University at Albany Department of Communication lecturer Dawn Sohns brings both academic insight and professional experience in strategic communication to the classroom. As a marketing and communication professional during the COVID-19 pandemic, Sohns learned firsthand how an organization’s leadership and messaging can affect the outcomes of a prolonged crisis.
Sohns is now using her expertise in leadership communication and crisis communication to help prepare UAlbany students to thrive in complex work environments where communication skills are at the core of building trust in leadership.
Sohns believes that students and emerging professionals need to “understand that it’s through communication that meaning is created. It’s also through communication that leaders emerge and are identified. So communication becomes the foundation of who you are and what you want to become. Your communication can truly shape how other people view you.”
Establishing Trust in Leadership Communication
Students in Sohns’ leadership communication and strategic communication courses learn that succeeding in any organization requires building trust with those you work with. After serving as a vice president of marketing and communications at SUNY Delhi at the start of the pandemic, Sohns shifted her focus toward her PhD dissertation. Her research into organizational leaders’ communications during the pandemic showed how people responded more positively to leaders who admitted their uncertainty, yet stayed present and engaged.
Credibility, as she found, is created through communication that is candid and consistent.
“One of the most important communication traits is to build trust. And how do you do that? Being honest and transparent, being real and humanizing who you are,” Sohns says.
An annual global survey conducted by Edelman — one of the world’s largest public relations and communications firms — found that people believe their own employer more than the government, the media or nongovernmental organizations by a significant margin. Sohns teaches her students that maintaining that level of confidence requires leaders to communicate with authenticity and strive to make human connections.
How to Handle a Communication Crisis
Professor Sohns’ research during the pandemic revealed just how unprepared many organizations were for communicating during a prolonged crisis. Traditional handbooks offered step-by-step plans for addressing short-term events, but few organizations had any blueprint for how to handle months and years of messaging under continuously shifting conditions. This led Sohns to ask: “From a leadership communication standpoint, how do you overcome these communication struggles when that information is so important to get across?”
Sohns’ interviews with individuals in leadership roles during the pandemic found that messaging fatigue and oversaturation created challenges to keeping audiences engaged, and required employing creativity and novel approaches to get important messages out. She noted, for example, that some universities used mascots to deliver public health messages to make them feel more accessible and therefore make them more effective at reaching younger audiences.
Companies and organizations face serious crises on a regular basis. While these emergencies may not rise to the level of a worldwide pandemic, how team members handle crisis communication can greatly frame the narrative about what did or did not happen and how a company is viewed in light of those perceptions by the general public.
For example, a sudden data breach or product recall may require a rapid and honest update for both the public and employees, while an internal leadership controversy may call for a more measured approach that is internally focused.
Sohns’ advice for organizations facing a crisis today is to act quickly and avoid silence. Even when all the facts are not yet available, establishing the organization’s message early helps prevent misinformation from filling the gap.
“From a PR perspective, I say you have to be the first voice out there, first and always,” Sohns says. “Even if you don’t have all of the information.”
Building Trust in a Remote World
Remote work and online learning have reshaped how people connect. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 22.8% of workers reported doing remote work for some or all of their job duties in August 2024.
Sohns’ research and teaching show that technology, while efficient, can make individuals feel isolated and disengaged if used only for task management. She emphasizes that leaders must find ways to humanize digital interactions and create space for meaningful relationships.
“What we do see is that engagement and motivation are at an all-time low. And some of that has to do with the personal disconnect that technology has created,” she says. “The technology that we have is amazing and allows us to achieve incredible efficiencies. But we have to go back to humanizing what we do. We have to go back to making personal connections with each other, especially with those working remotely.”
This is why Sohns focuses on teaching her students the importance of establishing relationships with others and building trust. She also works to create strong connections with the students in her remote classes, learning about their unique situations and motivations while also sharing insights about herself.
One of the most important communication traits someone can have, Sohns says, is the ability to communicate with others in a truly authentic and personable way. Leaders need to do this while also being decisive and inspiring.
Let UAlbany Prepare You for an Exciting Career in Communication
At the University at Albany, students in the Bachelor of Arts in Communication program learn how to craft clear, strategic messages that matter. The comprehensive, faculty-led program can be completed fully online or on campus, giving students the flexibility to finish the robust program in about four years of full-time study.
Courses in the program explore topics such as strategic communication, organizational communication, persuasion, digital and social media, as well as numerous other areas. The program helps students prepare for careers in public relations, corporate communications, government and beyond. Esteemed UAlbany faculty like Dawn Sohns bring real-world perspectives into the classroom as they prepare future communication professionals with the skills needed to become trustworthy leaders in their professional roles.
Take the next step in your career. Apply today to UAlbany’s BA in Communication program, and start building the skills that set leaders apart.
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