Bill McGowan, Founder and CEO of
Clarity Media Group, has mastered the art of communication. As a trusted media coach, part of his repertoire includes providing smart strategies for handling crisis situations. These guiding principles can benefit brands as much as execs, making his cheat sheet a must-read for everyone from marketers and publicists to event pros.
Millions and millions of dollars each year are spent on crisis management consulting, and yet time after time, executives break so many of the rules of transparency and honesty. This decision is often based on delusional thinking, that playing with the truth will help skirt the crisis. In reality, it only serves to make it much worse.
Let’s keep it simple and highlight five simple rules of the road to observe amidst crisis:
Rule #1: The truth is non-negotiable. Once your credibility is shot with supporters, all is lost. Your people will be willing to follow you into battle as long as you’re straight with them. Once they sense you’re telling them only half the story, they will feel used and exploited. When that happens, bye-bye loyalty.
Rule #2: Own your mistakes. Don’t be weasel-like when admitting you screwed up. Man/Woman up and claim it with frankness but brevity. The goal is to pivot quickly to the honest, concrete steps you’ve already taken to correct the situation.
Rule #3: Set realistic expectations as to when the situation will improve. If rectifying a big problem is going to require time and a fair amount of patience, say so.
Rule #4: Don’t scapegoat the media. As Mark Twain once famously said, “Never pick a fight with those who buy ink by the barrel.”
Rule #5: Don’t foster a culture of suspicion and secrecy. There’s no quicker way to create an “us vs. them” climate.
When scandal hits and times get tough at a company, leadership needs all hands on deck to bolster the company’s chances of making it through. To ensure this, execs need to adopt a “take care of our own first” mentality when it comes to the sharing of information, even if it’s just a matter of minutes or hours before that information is disseminated externally.
