How to talk about politics in the office after the Trump assassination attempt

Good morning!

After an assassination attempt on presidential candidate Donald Trump this weekend, an anxious election season has become even more frightening, and employees around the country are on edge.

There are all kinds of different ways that business leaders can respond to the latest events, and the general temperature of the country right now. There are plenty of good arguments for companies to stay out of any kind of political engagement altogether, as they weigh the risks and rewards of stepping into the fray.

But there are also reasons that company and HR leaders should engage with employees about politics right now, if only to share messages of reassurance. Global leaders have been quick to renounce any act of political violence, and some CEOs like JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon are sending internal memos encouraging workers to engage in “constructive dialogue.”

If your workplace is reeling, this might be a good time to say something as a way to settle nerves and refocus workers to get through the months ahead.

“Some employers could use it as a tool to say, ‘We need to dial back how hot our rhetoric is in this company and in the workforce,” Sam Schwartz-Fenwick, an employment lawyer at Seyfarth Shaw, told my colleague Lila MacLellan.

If you do want to engage with employees about the most recent events, there are some ideas to keep in mind.

Don’t talk, just listen. That could include creating a forum for employees to share their feelings, or sitting down in individual one-on-ones with your direct reports. “The impulse is to think ‘I’m the leader, I have to say something,’” says William Ury, author of the classic book about negotiations, Getting To Yes. “But really what a leader does is they listen first.”

Consider a formal policy. We’re still months away from the presidential election in November, so it’s good to get clear on how you want the workplace to engage with politics. Some companies like Meta and Coinbase have taken a hard line that mostly bans political discussion. But that’s not the right move for many other workplaces. The key is to be consistent.

Or let employees create their own rules. Business leaders can also empower workers to create their own rules, and therefore have buy-in with whatever the company decides. “Ask: ‘How should we do this?’” Ury says, adding it’s “a chance for the community to come together and develop a norm for something that everyone wants.”

Think about the "third side." If top company brass does weigh in, they should think about speaking from the “third side.” That means taking a stand against violence rather than supporting one political party over the other. “Leaders can stand up for the democratic system,” says Ury.

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Azure Gilman
azure.gilman@fortune.com

Today's edition was curated by Emma Burleigh.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com