The inevitable happens and you find yourself or your organization in a ‘crisis situation’.
If you are a politician, CEO, business owner or other higher-level manager, you will likely encounter this at some point in your career. It may be a small issue you believe is contained within your organization, or it could be something larger that originates from outside.
In most cases your logical first instinct is to seek legal advice. That makes perfect sense, a lawyer’s number one priority is to protect or defend their clients. And their advice is usually two-fold:
1. Navigate the immediate legal impact of the situation and
2. Protect the client from themselves.
Most people don’t have the capacity to communicate without bias or emotion, especially when put in a stressful situation. It’s natural as a leader to become protective when you’re put on the defensive. This becomes even more precarious when the defending party feels they are in the right.
As such, lawyers will almost always tell clients caught in a crisis to say very little, or nothing, to the public and media, and limit communication to only highly vetted written statements. This is understandable as their primary objective is to mitigate current and future liability. What they don’t take into consideration is the potential impact on your brand after the crisis has passed. It’s not their job. They are trained to protect you legally, not to preserve your reputation.
Silence or limited statements may have been a legal strategy in the past (as famous American litigator Edward Bennett Williams used to say “nothing is always a good thing to do, and almost always a brilliant thing to say”), but in the social media driven world, it can cause irreparable harm to a reputation or brand. How often in recent years have you heard of a company getting punished on social media, simply because they were slow to respond, let alone not offering a response or showing genuine concern at all during an evolving crisis (alleged or real).
A very recent example is Kyte Baby, a US based children’s clothing brand, whose social media presence promotes a mother friendly image, full of employees with their newborns and young kids at work with them.
The company and its CEO landed on mainstream news sites like CNN, when it came to light that the company denied a mother’s request to work remotely when her baby was in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
A clear case of a company not walking the talk.
In response, the CEO posted a video of herself reading a statement, which had all the hallmarks of a response written by legal counsel. It came across as cold and insincere and apologized for “how her parental leave was communicated…” The post immediately (and predictably) came under fire, causing an even greater backlash. Now in damage control, the CEO was forced to record a second statement, this time saying she was deciding to go “off script and tell you exactly what happened.” This second video was a pivot from the first, was more natural and sincere, and included “This was a terrible decision. I was insensitive and selfish…and it was a terrible mistake.” Had the company lead with this one, the backlash would have still existed, but would have been short lived, less severe and helped repave a pathway to customer loyalty. People can be very forgiving, but only with truth and honesty.
Lawyers are arguably the least equipped among professionals to manage these communications and, more importantly, recover from a public crisis.
Why?
Attorneys prioritize liability over your reputation.
Legal professionals are trained to operate within the confines of the law, not to address the unique nuances of your brand and reputation.
Lawyers tend to be overly focused on facts and rules, lacking the emotional acumen required to effectively handle crises.
So how can you protect yourself legally while also looking forward at the future impact to your reputation? You hire someone who knows how to work within the confines of a lawyer’s advice, while understanding how to best protect your brand equity and mitigate any damage. You hire a Public Relations & Communications Specialist, someone with training and experience in a crisis, who understands how to play the long game in protecting and/or rebuilding your reputation.
But be careful. Experience is important. Untested crisis communicators often struggle to strike a proper balance among disclosure, speed, and accuracy, falling into a common pitfall of being overly transparent and revealing information that could exacerbate one’s liability. Or, in their eagerness to provide a swift response, they could unintentionally provide misleading information. Recognizing these challenges, adept crisis communications teams take precautionary measures to avoid such pitfalls and ensure a more effective communication strategy.
So, let’s say you have a crisis, the most common mistakes to avoid include:
· Delayed responses.
· Lack of transparency.
· Blaming or attempting to silence others.
· Lack of empathy.
These errors can amplify the crisis and cause further damage to your brands image.
All of this underscores the importance of developing a crisis management plan BEFORE a crisis occurs.
Anticipating the unthinkable and establishing predetermined actions, roles, and responsibilities before the need arises Updating the crisis plan, to align with consumer and/or industry changes.
Regularly running crisis management training and simulations.
Engaging your media team and wider staff in diversity training to promote more representative communication.
When building your plan, here are the keys to consider:
1. Act in accordance with your governing principles and values.
2. Prioritize truth and transparency.
3. Uphold confidentiality and resist the urge to breach it under stressful circumstances.
4. Concentrate on key stakeholders and the ultimate goal.
5. Understand whether there is greater legal or communication risk, to best allocate resources.
6. Get a well-prepared team ready in advance, as time will be essential during a crisis.
7. Facilitate dialogue between legal and communication professionals to establish a shared understanding and involvement from both sides.
8. Deliberate on the advice received and develop a detailed, well-thought-out response plan.
9. Factor in the complete life cycle of risk associated with your decision, not just the short-term.
10. Don’t use lawyers and communicators who are not familiar with you and your business.
11. Follow the advice of those you trust the most.
The bottom line:
Lawyers and communicators both play important roles during a crisis, but your public relations team or a hired crisis management expert should spearhead your company's public response strategy, in concert with legal advice.
Crisis management plays a vital role in safeguarding not only your reputation but the well-being of your employees, customers, and community. A well-crafted crisis response plan prioritizes the safety and interests of everyone connected to your business.
Let your lawyers focus on the law while you and your communications team focus on your reputation and brand.