Let’s play the options game while the David Petraeus affair simmers. Time, no new information, and the Hamas/Israel fight took the former CIA director’s embarrassment off the front page. But this baby’s waiting to boil when the other shoes drop on what really happened. The principals in the “scandal” have lawyered up. Some have PR […]
(Written before the 12/14/2012 Newtown shooting) As a leader, you worry that your employees can respond to a disaster, especially a mass shooting. Active shooter responses such as, in priority order, RUN – HIDE – FIGHT can save lives. But you may overlook something terribly important when it comes to planning for these rare, but awful, […]
Sometimes the best help we can get when a business crisis threatens to crush our spirit comes from our spouse. Here’s how you and your significant other can climb out of a hole together… First of all, coping with crisis stress can be brutal. An education leader was falsely accused of racism. The crosshairs […]
Crisis Management: Your Community Track Record May Be Your Best Crisis Protection: Crisis planning One of my clients emerged intact from a potentially disastrous crisis and I want to tell you about it. You will want to know about this case – not because I provided some slick silver-bullet advice (I didn’t) – but because the client created […]
Crisis Management: Worst-Case Questions – Your Secret Weapon in a Crisis: Crisis communications True story. You have just spent days – including an entire weekend – preparing to protect your reputation during coming news coverage. At zero hour the reporter ignores much of what you prepared and writes a story from a wholly unexpected, more controversial, and legitimate point […]
Crisis Management: WikiLeaks threatens – are you ready for leaks: Crisis planning Sun Microsystems co-founder Scott McNealy said, “You have zero privacy, get over it!” And that was before WikiLeaks dumped vast numbers of Pentagon and State Department secret documents into the public domain. With WikiLeaks most crisis experts believe we entered a new era of disclosure […]
Crisis Management: Whose got your back ?- The Michael Richards debacle: Crisis prevention I used to find an occasional rerun of Seinfeld a good laugh at the end of a busy day. Not now. It’s not funny since actor Michael Richards’ – aka Kramer on the show– was videotaped spewing a venomous racist rant at African Americans attending his […]
Crisis Management: When to Call All Media For Help: Crisis communications One day after two kidnapped teenagers were rescued from a man apparently about to kill them, the first thank-you by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department went to – THE NEWS MEDIA. When was the last time you heard that? Actually media thank-yous have been frequent lately […]
Crisis Management: When do you fight to protect your reputation?: Crisis response “How we fought 60 Minutes and won!” “How we beat 20/20!” These sessions headlined a crisis management conference I attended. Public relations professionals explained how their protracted, expensive, and aggressive campaigns successfully halted or modified national negative stories about their clients. As a crisis manager […]
Crisis Management: When Did You Learn About It: What Did You Do About It?: Crisis Response What did the Catholic Church, Firestone Tires, and Merck have in common? All knew of internal scandal or product defects for years and did nothing about it. The repercussions for the Church and the tire company are well-known, but Merck felt the heat […]