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Front and Center: Why that may not be the place for your CEO in a crisis

Written by: Aileen Pincus

Article Overview: It's a marketing axiom: The leader is the brand. What if crisis is underway---and your CEO's communication skills are not a strength--that conventional wisdom warrants a second look.

Front and Center: Why that may not be the place for your CEO in a crisis

Who is in better position to protect a company’s reputation under fire and to accept or deflect responsibility or blame for what went wrong in a crisis? The CEO of course. But if recent history is any guide, conventional wisdom may not be the best predictor of who can actually best guard a company’s brand when the worst happens.
Theoretically, CEO’s ARE in position to contain the damage, identify weak links and prevent further erosion of public confidence. But if communication skills for your chief executive are a weak link, that duty might best be passed to another. Two examples starkly illustrate just how difficult it is to rely on titles alone when determining who is the best public face for a company under siege.
Exhibit number one: Frank Blake, the plain-talking Chief Explanations Officer of the heavily-criticized Home Depot chain. When former CEO Robert Nardelli infuriated shareholders by refusing to take their questions at an annual meeting, Blake stepped in with a new tact: he held a two-hour no-holds barred session with investors and opened with a forthright apology for his predecessor’s actions. The new CEO didn’t stop there. Blake posted personal apologies to bloggers on a financial site who flooded in with stories of poor customer service at their local Home Depot stores. He told them, “We let you down. That’s unacceptable.” His willingness to ‘face the music’ was widely hailed, while his promises of better service and open customer dialogue got wide press and are being credited with at minimum, halting the decline in customer satisfaction.
Enter Exhibit B: the notoriously pugnacious Robert Murray; part owner of the ill-fated Crandall Canyon mine and a man not previously known for sophisticated communication skills. Robert Murray, CEO, took on the role of chief spokesperson when a disaster at the Utah site took the lives of 6 miners as well as 3 members of the crew sent to rescue them.
Murray stood center stage from the opening hours of the mining disaster. Unfortunately, he managed to just as quickly find a way to make an already tragic situation even worse. Rather than limit himself to the immediate concern of the safety of the trapped miners, Murray came out swinging with an ill-timed defense of the coal industry and a petulant concern for the reputation of his company and his personal reputation. Incredibly in those opening statements, he managing to downplay concerns for the miners themselves.
Reaction was swift and predictable from the miner’s families, the media, regulators and the public at large. And that chorus of condemnation came before an expose by the Salt Lake Tribune contradicted Murray’s claims of following safe and accepted mining techniques. Even others in the industry rushed to distance themselves from Robert Murray and his incomprehensible insistence on being the absolute worst spokesman for the tragedy imaginable.
So how can you determine whether your CEO is the one to fill the role of Chief Engagement Officer with the public in a time of crisis? Here are some tips to help determine whether your CEO should step up, front and center:

1.) Involve the CEO in discussions about communication roles ahead of time.
CEO’s have the title for a reason. They’re usually well aware, or have been made aware by boards of directors, of their strengths and weaknesses. If communication skills are not among your CEO’s strengths, discuss a suitable alternative. Get your CEO’s buy-in to designate a spokesperson well ahead of a crisis before passions are inflamed.
2.) Involve the CEO in strategic decisions involving your crisis plan.
If you do not have CEO support for your crisis planning ahead of time, you can bet that support will be even harder to secure once the crisis hits. Identifying potential problems ahead of time is a strength of any good CEO, regardless of communication abilities. Make sure you make full use of that capability by involving him or her in development of your strategic plan.
3.) Define your CEO’s role in a crisis
Whether or not your CEO is a potent public communicator, he or she is still a powerful leader in your brand strategy. If internal communication is more of a strength for your CEO, he or she can be on the frontline of managing employee communications. Regardless of whether your CEO’s best role is in public or in internal communications, he or she can still be a powerful factor in your company’s brand management and reputation.
4.) Public disengagement is a problem for a CEO
Not all CEO’s make the best public face of the company, but in a crisis, the CEO’s public absence will be noted. That absence from all public scrutiny during a crisis is tantamount to not taking the stand in one’s own defense in a trial. If your CEO has weak communication skills and prefers to work the crisis behind the scenes, find some avenue of communication he or she finds more comfortable. Even limited engagement, such as the release of prepared statements or videos is preferable to silence at a time of crisis.
5.) Don’t spin
Don’t try and cover up poor communication skills on the part of your CEO with spin. Trying to convince reporters they don’t want a statement or that the CEO can’t be bothered won’t accomplish your goal. Neither does a public statement followed by a refusal to take questions satiate your stake holders demands for answers. Do give thought to credible and accepted substitutes and a clear explanation of when and under what circumstances the CEO will speak out to defend or explain events.

With some planning and some candid discussion, you can determine when and whether your CEO needs to be front and center managing your company brand.

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Article Tags: executive communication, executive presence, executive speech training, presentation skills, presentation skills for executives, speech training



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