Crisis Leadership Blog
Insights and perspectives on being the lighthouse during a crisis.
Hanging in the Balance: Why and How Financial Leaders Should Prepare for the Unexpected
Any crisis comes with costs – economic costs, social costs, psychological costs – and long-term implications for your business’ bottom line, reputation, and team morale. No industry is immune to the threat of a crisis. Some sectors, including finance, face heightened...
When the Truth is Forced: Communicating when Caught off Guard
A number of companies have announced layoffs recently. One in particular had the news released because of a necessary regulatory filing. Marriott, the hotel giant based in Maryland, where it is the largest private-sector employer, is set to lay off hundreds of...
Owning the Disappointment when You Have to Say Hard Things
No one likes to say hard things, but it comes with the responsibility of being a manager, a leader or a communications director. Saying hard things inevitably disappoints people we care about, and we as humans feel badly when we disappoint people who matter to us. At...
Do it for the Algorithm: Embracing Social Media during a Crisis
“OMG, we’re blowing up on social media” I’ve been in a number of crisis management situations where the person responsible for a company’s social media will run into the room, look at their iPhone, utter those fateful words, and then disappear. As a crisis strategist,...
Very Scary Marketing Decisions
Have you ever seen a social media post or TV commercial from a well-known brand and said, “What the hell were they thinking?” Especially if it bordered on or crossed into being perceived as racist or prejudiced? That’s exactly what Bath and Body Works faced when they...
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
Don’t Stumble over Something behind You
These words are frequently attributed to the Ancient Roman stoic Seneca the Younger. They still ring true 2,000 years later. When it comes to managing a crisis, they are both a warning and a reason for leadership to move forward. Speed is the single most important difference between good and great crisis response. Anything that creates unnecessary friction...
Pump up the Volume
Every time I open up LinkedIn, PR Week, or the Wall Street Journal, I see someone writing about AI and the immense change that it is having on the communications industry -- everything from how we create to how we spot fake news to how we staff. One issue that I haven’t seen discussed much is how the mere existence of AI needs to change the VOLUME that...
Then Came the Lawyers …
I still chuckle and roll my eyes when the latest prescription drug ad says, “Don’t take Wonderdrug if you're allergic to it.” Well, duh. Welcome to the disclaimer pantheon compelling us to write “Caution: Hot” on coffee cups. “Do not attempt” accompanies any example of off-road driving a car is specifically designed and marketed to do. “Contains peanuts”...
What Makes a Successful Crisis Simulation
“Practice makes perfect,” the saying goes. When it comes to crisis management, “practice makes prepared.” Periodic crisis exercises help teams build muscle memory, remember their crisis response plans, and identify gaps in that plan, the skill set, or the people responsible for executing it. Far better to find out there’s a critical flaw in your crisis...
Litigation Threats Are Invitations for Legal and Comms to Work Together
Few words bring a C-Suite conversation to a screeching halt like, “We need to think about litigation.” Instead of killing the conversation, it should start a conversation … between the legal team and the communications team. Attorneys’ primary goal is to limit their clients’ exposure to legal liability. Communications teams’ primary goal is to limit...
The Value of Saying I’m Sorry … from a Canadian
If you’ve spoken to me for more than five minutes, you know I’m Canadian – also American – but I was Canadian first and very proud of it. Every stereotype of Canadians includes that we like to say sorry: to each other, visitors, inanimate objects, and so on. Move away for a while and you’ll quickly realize that it’s true. Canadians are by and large nice,...
Winning An Argument with Crazy
Let’s be clear. You can’t win an argument against Crazy. Once rightfully relegated to the lunatic fringe, Crazy abounds today – it is everywhere. Crazy is encouraged, fanned, inflamed, and carried to new converts by the magnifying lens that is social media. Sadly, organizations that value their reputation must now pay attention to Crazy, because Crazy can...
Lessons from Litigators for the Court of Public Opinion
Hall of Fame basketball coach Bobby Knight once said, “The key is not the will to win – everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.” Preparation is one of the key differences between people who win consistently and those who win occasionally, accidentally, or not at all. This applies in sports, in business, and in court....
Daily Harvest Needs To Be a Lesson for All Startups
Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolutions? I didn’t make any this year. Instead, I built a plan that will build on small changes throughout the year. January has been a focus on slowing down. But even with my change of thought, it was pretty hard to ignore the barrage of ads about weight loss, healthy new year, new start etc. One that has caught my eye...
Kyte Baby: How It Could Have Been Avoided
There have been some really great dissections of the #KyteBaby crisis response. Jeremy Tunis and Eleanor Hawkins to name my favorites. But for all this great analysis, I want to dive a little deeper into how this could have been prevented. I see there are three points: It’s a commonly held analysis that the first statement by the Kyte Baby CEO was tone...
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.