Crisis Leadership Blog
Insights and perspectives on being the lighthouse during a crisis.
Trust: The Foundation of Becoming Crisis Confident
The final component of our speed, clarity, and trust architecture that will transform you into a Crisis Confident organization is trust. The simple quote from Santosh Kalwar, "Trust starts and ends with the truth," helps us think about the truth and the trust that's...
Clarity: The Foundation of Becoming Crisis Confident
Two quotes help me think about the concept of clarity and its importance in crisis response. The first is from Henry Kissinger. "If you don't know where you're going, every road will get you nowhere." And the second one is from the always quotable Yogi Berra. "If you...
Speed: The Foundation of Becoming Crisis Confident
In my last blog post, I introduced the concept of Crisis Confidence, and that confidence is born out of speed, clarity, and trust. Over the next three weeks, I want to dig in on each of those elements and give them context and specific recommendations on what you can...
Clarity, Trust, and Speed are the Building Blocks of Crisis Confidence
"The crucible of crisis doesn't develop your skill sets; it reveals them." I've said these words to many leaders over the years, and as people pause and reflect on it, it dawns on them: if they're honest with themselves, they don't think they'll like what the crucible...
Give comms a seat at the table
COVID changed so many of our lives in dramatic and also small ways. For me, one was watching TV. I’ve never been a huge TV person so I’ve been fortunate to have great programs to watch as I focused on sticking close to home. The other night I started to watch a show...
By definition, Kith means a cadre of peers who shape opinions and attitudes while instilling sophisticated habits for action. As a way to live this value, we like to share resources that are building blocks to good crisis management and can help you start the path of protecting your reputation.
More Recent Insights
Leading While Always Communicating
Critical takeaways: Strategic communicators will need to find ways to keep their CEOs leading while always communication and visible to people who matter Humility, generosity and engagement are crucial leadership characteristics in this time of COVID-19 Great strategic communicators need to think like CEOs so their CEOs will be great communicators when...
Saying Hard Things – Focus on a Bigger Picture
Critical takeaways: In a crisis, organizations should aim to be understood, not loved. Focus on a bigger picture to meet reasonable people’s expectations for a responsible organization. Spend your efforts communicating to the reasonable 80% and not over-indexing for the unreasonable 20%. Last week, and during our COVID-19 webinar series, I talked about the...
The Eggs Podcast: Bill Coletti
Kith CEO Bill Coletti joined Michael Smith and Ryan Roghaar from The Eggs Podcast to discuss current crises happening in the United States and how to manage your way through it as a company. He also talks about where to start if you want to change your company's reputation. LISTEN HERE
Saying Hard Things – Own the Disappointment
Critical takeaways: Saying hard things will inevitably disappoint people who matter. We cannot write magic words that will somehow keep people from being upset. We must own the disappointment. Our five-point Framework for Saying Hard Things can help soften the blow of difficult news. Saying hard things is inevitably going to disappoint an audience that...
Crises Are Inevitable but Learning Isn’t
Critical takeaways: Crises are inevitable, but it takes effort to learn from them and apply them to the next crisis. Create an inventory of all the decisions, policy changes and communications from the past three months, and evaluate the successes and misses. Schedule a table-top simulation for some other risk your organization faces while you’re still on...
Walking the Walk: Critical Moments
In this conversation with Jim Bouchard from Walking the Walk Podcast, Kith CEO Bill Coletti discusses how important leadership is during a crisis and how honesty, transparency, and communication are key qualities a leader must possess. LISTEN HERE
A Lot of Extra Work
Critical takeaways: Communicators will have to do a lot of extra work to tell the story of how we come back from COVID-19. Specific audiences should receive specialized messages that address their particular needs, but those need to be consistent and fit the themes of your main messaging. Ease that extra work by using tools like a Message Triangle and our...
Communicating and Defending a Mask Policy
Critical takeaways: Setting customer expectations is critical to maximizing acceptance of COVID-19 policy changes, and communicating clearly is the key. The reputation risk of mask policies should be evaluated as a balance between the strategic risk of requiring a mask and the preventable risk of someone getting COVID-19 if you do not. Do not over-index...
Along Those Lines: Co-op Communications in Times of Crisis
Stephen Bell, NRECA’s senior director for media and public relations, and Bill Coletti, CEO of the reputation management firm Kith, talk us through their advice on how to plan for, respond to and recover from events that interrupt our normal course of business. LISTEN HERE
Everyone Is Just “Over It”
Critical Takeaways Communicators do not have the luxury of being “over it.” We have to figure out what to say next. Learn to surf when you are stuck in crashing waves. Ask three questions to help create a bigger future. In the spirit of being real, let’s just start here: everyone is just over it. COVID-19 is a drag. I’ve noticed it with our clients, in...
The Kith Method
Good crisis management comes from a plan. Great crisis management comes from capability – and starts before you even smell smoke. That’s why we developed the Kith Method. We can help build and maintain a flexible capability that works for you.
Your reputation is an investment; time-consuming and costly to build and expensive to repair. Protect it.