Manage the Room, Not the Contest

Six in 10 American workers said in 2024 that it was important or very important for their employer to address civil discourse at work. Another survey from 2023 found that only 19 percent of Americans wanted businesses to take public positions on political candidates. Put those findings together, and the assignment for leaders heading into November 3 becomes clear: employees want their employer to manage the room without becoming part of the contest.

For CCOs, that makes election season a test of whether the communications function is built to anticipate a pressure point early enough to prepare leaders, managers and employees before it arrives. Here are some things they should be thinking about:

What should be settled before Election Day

The first job is to make standards explicit before tension rises. A chief communications officer told me a few weeks ago that his company wasn’t writing anything new for the election. His team was going back to the code of conduct and sending it out again. People don’t need new rules in a tense moment, he said. They need to be reminded of the ones they already have. A company without a clear document that spells out what respect looks like and where to go when something crosses the line should close that gap before Election Day.

The second is manager readiness. Managers are the people employees trust most and the ones most likely to freeze when a conversation becomes uncomfortable. A one-page guide, a short briefing, a clear escalation path and a lighter meeting calendar on Election Day cover most of what they will need. The point is not to script every conversation; it is to keep managers from improvising the company’s position in real time.

Employees also need permission to opt out. Ragan’s 2024 post-election guidance highlighted the value of telling employees plainly that they could step away from political discussion at work, especially in the days after the vote. That simple permission can take pressure off people who do not want the workplace to become another venue for political argument.

Lastly, employees deserve honesty about what the result means for the business. Employees will want to know what it means for regulation, hiring, and their jobs, and leaders won’t have answers yet. The honest move is to say what you know, what you don’t know, and what you’re working to find out. The CCO should decide in advance who will answer those questions, what can be said immediately and when employees will hear from leadership again.

What happens when communications enters late

During the last presidential cycle, I sat in a planning meeting where a senior executive made a crack about one of the candidates. He didn’t use a name, but everyone knew which side he was on. The room went quiet until somebody changed the subject. I kept thinking about his direct reports and whether they’d speak up the next time he asked for their opinion.

Silence creates a different risk. Employees fill in the blank, and they usually conclude that leadership either does not care or does not know how to talk about what is happening. Research my firm conducted with The Harris Poll found a wide gap between merely “good” leadership and exceptional leadership on whether employees feel heard, valued and supported. Election week puts that gap under pressure.

There is also financial risk. SHRM’s Q4 2024 Civility Index recorded the highest level of workplace incivility measured that year, and SHRM estimated that reduced productivity and absenteeism tied to incivility were costing U.S. organizations more than $2.7 billion a day.

And leaders risk being caught flat-footed. Before the 2024 presidential election, research found that only 36 percent of executives had conducted scenario planning for a protracted result even though 76 percent said they felt prepared to manage election-related concerns. Only 53 percent of employees believed their employers were prepared.

Where the line sits

The tension is real. Leaders want employees to talk to each other like adults, and they don’t want the workplace to become a debate stage. The ideal company position speaks about what happens to its people and its operations, and stays silent on who should win. That is the line, and it holds up under pressure. For CCOs, the important part is deciding where that line sits before pressure arrives.

A ballot measure that changes paid leave rules for your workforce gets addressed. Violence in a city where you have a major site gets addressed, because employee safety is the issue. Harassment of an employee over their politics gets addressed, because that’s a conduct problem whatever the politics. The candidates, the result, and the CEO’s personal views do not meet the bar.

Listening is never off-limits. The script I give managers for the morning after the election is short: I’m checking in with everyone individually, as I’ve done when we’ve faced hard times before. If it’s helpful, I’m here to listen. If you’d rather not talk about it, that’s fine too. The purpose of that conversation is to listen. It is the moment leaders most want to share their own view and most need to hold it.

Election season is a live test of whether the function behind the CCO is built to anticipate. If communications enters when someone asks for the morning-after memo, it has entered too late. The work is to identify the pressure point early enough to prepare leaders, managers and employees before it arrives. That is what using the seat at the table looks like.

David Grossman is founder and CEO of The Grossman Group, a Chicago-based leadership and communications consultancy, and author of The Heart Work of Modern Leadership.