Coaching

Crises are neither good nor bad. The true sense of the word is that it is a decision situation. Best to view it as an opportunity. When your organization becomes caught up in a crisis, you’ll need good communications skills and above all – empathy.

Three sure-fire ways to make a crisis worse is stonewalling, salami tactics and passing the parcel.

Stonewalling in times of growing media awareness will only increase the pressure for your company to come clean. Salami tactics, that is, admitting only as little as the journalists have already found out on their own, increases distrust and further blackens your image. Blameshifting, for its part, has never exactly been a hit with the public. So what is a company to do if negative news surfaces, but it isn’t clear what caused it or what can be done about it?

Above all, show some feeling for those who got hurt and convince the public of your determination to do whatever it takes to make things right.

Display empathy and acknowledge that there is indeed a crisis. This will fill in the chasm that opened up between your company and the public.

Here are some lines that can help: “As company XY we recognize the regrettable situation of...” “We understand how difficult it is to…” “No doubt the victims will…” “We do not know yet how… but we will do the utmost to help… resolve…“ “To make this happen, we…” “We will examine whether…” “We are taking these accusations seriously.”