Wednesday, February 25, 2009
How to manage communication during a crisis/hardship
A day doesn't go by where you don't hear about companies laying employees off due to the recent economic crisis. While it's never easy to cut employees, maintaining an effective communications plan during these times is vital to your company maintaining a positive image.
A few areas that need to be addressed immediately:
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A few areas that need to be addressed immediately:
1) Be open and honest. Don't hide information. Even if you don't have all the information available, report what you do know and inform your audience that once the rest of the information will be made available when it arrives.
2) Don't forget your employees. Managing internal communication is one of the most important areas you need to address. Not addressing your employees opens the door for incorrect, and possibly damaging, information out to the public. Also ensuring a high level of employee moral is going to make getting through the crisis a lot easier.
3) Know when to talk and when to be quiet. Treat each crisis/hardship individually and as they come. Opening your mouth and talking about a crisis has the potential to make the situation a lot worse than it should be. Don't hide information, but don't go rushing to every media outlet.
Anyone have any experience dealing with a crisis at their work? How is your employer handling the economic crisis we are currently experiencing?
Labels: Crisis Communication, Economic Crisis, Employee Communication, Internal Communication
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Friday, January 9, 2009
When it's too late to save face
We saw it when the Chrysler and General Motors CEOs flew to Washington on their private planes. Now, we're seeing it with Rod Blagojevich, Governor of Illinois. What is "it"? A case of a public relations nightmare. Even if the two auto executives decided to carpool on their subsequent trips to Washington, the damage was already done. The same can be said about Blagojevich.
Earlier today, the Illinois House of Representatives unanimously voted to impeach Mr. Blagojevich after allegations that he tried to sell the Senator seat left vacated when Barack Obama was elected. I'm no political expert, nor do I claim to know all the facts surrounding this accusation. However, from what I do know, it seems pretty obvious that ample evidence exists proving these accusations to be true.
I applaud Mr. Blagojevich's attempt to prove himself innocent, but when there is concrete evidence proving otherwise, a proper crisis communication plan needs to be put in place immediately. This includes admitting wrong doing, apologizing and immediately resigning. Instead, Blagojevich 's action has caused his image to be permanently tarnished. You can argue that by immediately admitting wrong doing would have tarnished his image, I think that it would have been less severe than how the public currently feels. People make mistakes and come back from it (i.e. Bill Clinton). Blagojevich doesn't have a future career in any public sector, but for the sake of his family, he should have followed basic public relations practice when it comes to crisis communication.
I think 2009 will bring plenty more public scandals, it'll be interesting to see how people handle these situations. An effective crisis communications plan is essential for companies and individuals to maintain what little image will be left.
Read more!
Earlier today, the Illinois House of Representatives unanimously voted to impeach Mr. Blagojevich after allegations that he tried to sell the Senator seat left vacated when Barack Obama was elected. I'm no political expert, nor do I claim to know all the facts surrounding this accusation. However, from what I do know, it seems pretty obvious that ample evidence exists proving these accusations to be true.
I applaud Mr. Blagojevich's attempt to prove himself innocent, but when there is concrete evidence proving otherwise, a proper crisis communication plan needs to be put in place immediately. This includes admitting wrong doing, apologizing and immediately resigning. Instead, Blagojevich 's action has caused his image to be permanently tarnished. You can argue that by immediately admitting wrong doing would have tarnished his image, I think that it would have been less severe than how the public currently feels. People make mistakes and come back from it (i.e. Bill Clinton). Blagojevich doesn't have a future career in any public sector, but for the sake of his family, he should have followed basic public relations practice when it comes to crisis communication.
I think 2009 will bring plenty more public scandals, it'll be interesting to see how people handle these situations. An effective crisis communications plan is essential for companies and individuals to maintain what little image will be left.
Labels: Blagojevich, Crisis Communication, Rod Blagojevich
Read more!
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