Crisis Leadership

An organization's leadership plays a huge role in crisis management. We saw this first hand with the BP oil spill, a mess that only got worse as CEO Tony Hayward continued to deliver damaging quotes to the press. In an article for our Crisis Manager newsletter, Spanish PR pro Carlos Victor Costa describes the challenges that face BP's new leader, Bob Dudley. A quote:

• Overcoming the "disaster of communication" (term used by a company employee interviewed by The Financial Times) that constituted the public relations activities of BP during this crisis. What could be positioned as a genuine effort to repair the damage in a very adverse operational environment, comparable to conducting brain surgery in the dark, ended as an assault to the company´s  reputation, a reason for scorn and dark humor directed at BP. After the Deepwater Horizon crisis, the newly appointed BP CEO will have to give a new face to a company with its brand image tarnished by the incompetence and lack of credibility fostered by his predecessor.

Whether you like it or not, in a major crisis your leadership becomes the public face of the company. To your stakeholders, any careless words or action from leadership is taken as the official position of the organization, making it extremely dangerous to have an unprepared CEO.

The BCM Blogging Team
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement.com/