At Kith, we have seen CEOs rise during a crisis and we have seen others stumble. The difference often comes down to what they focus on during the crisis at hand.
As your most senior leader, a CEO can be one of the most important assets your organization can deploy when responding to a crisis. However, just because he or she may be first in command does not mean that they should handle – or feel like they must handle – all crisis communications. This is where scaling, an important skill to have in your arsenal, comes into play.
When a crisis hits, your CEO may automatically think it is entirely up to them to mitigate and manage it. But, it is in these high-pressure times when the power of delegation proves most vital – and when they may need guidance on when, where, and how to best be involved in crisis response. For example, smaller issues and tasks – such as drafting a public statement or sending an internal notification to employees – can often be better handled through delegation to and communication from others in your leadership team. This keeps your top leader out of the weeds, allowing them to focus on the top-most critical decisions and be the face of important communications.
Facing Enormity
Crises can be overwhelming. There are no two ways around that. When we’re overwhelmed, we take solace in being able to solve small problems. There is satisfaction that comes from crossing a quick fix off the to-do list. But focusing on the little things can come at the expense of ignoring, and ultimately failing to solve, the bigger issues.
In a 1979 profile of former President Jimmy Carter, his former speechwriter James Fallows portrays a chief executive who was still very much the CEO of his rural Georgia warehouses. Despite the enormity of the many issues facing the country and the amount of big-picture thinking their solutions required, Carter was distracted by something more familiar: minutiae.
“If there is any constant in the literature of presidential performance, it is that the President must husband his time. If he is distracted from the big choices by the torrent of petty details, the big choices will not get made,” Fallows wrote. “Details would have to pass by if he was to use his time well, but his preference was still to try to do it all … to act nonetheless on everything that reached his desk.”
Carter’s presidency was steeped in crises, some inherited from previous administrations and others new on his watch. He had some successes, but other priorities failed when Carter became mired in the details. Strategic communicators can keep this from happening to their CEO.
Operating a Dimmer Switch
At Kith, we often use the metaphor of a dimmer switch when discussing strategic leadership communications with businesses in crisis. It’s not about a light being on or off (overly communicating vs. succumbing to an ostrich effect). Rather, crisis response is much more about finely adjusting the lights to be brighter or dimmer to meet the day’s needs. Scaling your CEO in this regard means adjusting the dimmer switch to have them fully on when they’re most needed, and dimming it down to a lower intensity when they can “turn off” and focus on other aspects of managing the fallout from the crisis. This also helps ensure that their bulb does not burn out and they can continue to shine brightly when needed the most.
Passing the Microphone
While the CEO remains the most important voice in a crisis, scaling your CEO means surrounding them with other credible voices to support their efforts. It’s important that other leaders, core crisis team members, board members, and perhaps your general counsel hold the pen or microphone when it makes sense. You must consider the message, the intended audience, and how they will respond to it when deciding if your CEO is the right messenger. As a general rule of thumb, the bigger the issue, the more appropriate it is for the CEO to address it. Smaller, more granular issues should be handled by other credible voices within your organization.
Managing Inputs and Outputs
An additional important aspect of scaling your CEO is effectively managing inputs and outputs. We’ve stood up many crisis communications war rooms in our time to manage the flow of what data is coming in and what is streaming out. Inputs, in this regard, are information reported by various departments, press inquiries, social media, stakeholder reactions, and so on. Outputs are the messages that are shared internally with employees and externally with the public. As a collective team, we synthesize the information and share only the critical inputs and outputs with the CEO, providing necessary information they need to have, when they need to have it.
Think of the dimmer switch. The war room team has the light turned all the way up so we can see every detail. We dim the lights for the CEO so only the most important things they need to see are spotlighted.
Keeping Focus
Another must-do in scaling your CEO to stay away from the minutiae of crisis is to keep him or her squarely focused on your business’ mission and values, particularly when time and speed are of the essence. (Spoiler: in crisis, they always are.)
To help drive this salient point home, we use the Kith Method, a tried and true formula of Clarity + Trust = Speed, to help clients build and maintain a flexible capability that works for them. This is the key differentiator between good and great crisis communications. And exactly where your CEO needs to put his or her attention when a crisis occurs.
Giving your CEO the appropriate outputs to review, evaluate, and understand lets them keep the mission and values at the forefront. Through this lens, they can align their decisions and actions with what matters most from a mission and value standpoint. This also gives CEOs a clear head to make sure that the right people are involved. If your CEO becomes stuck zeroing in on the minutiae – like President Carter wanting to take on everything that crossed his desk – then speed in responding will suffer, and reputation along with it.
Remember that scaling your CEO simply comes down to the handy metaphor of the dimmer switch: reserving them for the right messages, managing the inputs and outputs for them, and directing focus to the company’s mission and values. And allowing them to get your business back to business.
Kith facilitates crisis preparedness workshops that will help your company attain the clarity, trust and speed you need to respond confidently – no dithering! – to any crisis. We’d be happy to have a conversation about how we can help your company be ready to chart an effective course to reputation protection.
