Who should you put in the media spotlight when a crisis happens?
Who should explain to the media what went wrong and set out what is happening to improve the situation?
Who should say sorry to those impacted by what has happened?
These are all questions delegates often ask during our crisis communication training.
And they were raised again recently during a crisis communication masterclass for members of The Media Team Academy.
Who you choose can impact how damaging the crisis is for your organisation.
So, understandably, many organisations instinctively turn to their CEO in crisis media management incidents.
It can show visible leadership and suggest those at the top are managing the incident and the response.
But is it the right approach?
“This is a dilemma for all of us,” said Sean Ryan, a former national journalist and now the director of comms at a leading charity, who led our masterclass.
“Do you choose the most senior person - the chief executive or a senior director who is accountable for the crisis? Or do you choose the person who connects best with the audience?
“I would say the only exception to choosing the person who connects best is when the CEO or senior director are being accused publicly of doing something wrong. In that situation, it may be best for them to get out there and defend themselves.
“But in other situations, it does seem better to choose the best spokesperson.”
Who is your best crisis spokesperson?
In a crisis, you need someone who can demonstrate compassion, authority, honesty, a commitment to action and connect with your audience. They need to be believable.
They also need to be calm and have clarity of thought, finding the right words at the right time – the media spotlight in a crisis can be intense, and there is little time to collect your thoughts.
They must have a detailed understanding of the organisation and its sector. And it is essential they have previous media experience and had recent practical media training with current working journalist tutors.
There are other factors in not automatically opting for the boss.
Raising the stakes?
Putting the CEO in front of the media every time something goes wrong could send the wrong message, potentially suggesting the situation is worse than it is – inadvertently raising the stakes.
Using them too often can dilute their impact. They are the face of your organisation, and there is an argument they should be kept for the biggest announcements and worst crises. If you use them too soon, how can you escalate your response if the crisis deepens and the going gets tougher than anticipated?
Sean said: “It is also important to remember if you put the CEO forward at an early stage, every interview request that comes in will be for an interview with them and, if you are not careful, he or she will be overwhelmed, and demoralised.
“And they will be distracted from what they should be doing - sorting out the crisis.”
Additionally, constantly putting them in front of the media could mean the CEO becomes too closely associated with the crisis. Think about Paul Pester at TSB and Tony Hayward at BP.
Some CEOs will probably be relieved to read Sean’s views. Others may be unhappy and worry they could be seen as “missing in action” or "ducking their responsibility".
On our crisis communication training, we show how CEOs can be visible during a crisis without giving constant updates to the media.
Relationship
But what should comms professionals do if the CEO insists on doing the interviews during a crisis?
“It will come down to the relationship you have with them,” Sean said. “If you tell them it is not a good idea, and they trust you, you have more of a chance.
“If you don’t have that relationship - perhaps because they are new - get a third person to endorse your view that it is in the organisation’s best interest for someone else to be the spokesperson and step into the spotlight.”
Whoever you choose, make sure they have had recent crisis communication training – many organisations now renew crisis communication training every six months.
And remember, some crises will naturally require you to have more than one spokesperson.
If multiple sites have been affected or the situation is likely to last several days, one spokesperson, whether or not they are the CEO, will not be able to meet the demands of the media.
During the exclusive crisis communication masterclass for members of The Media Team Academy, Sean also discussed the steps organisations can take now to limit the reputational hit caused by a crisis.
And he looked at how you can assess the reputational damage caused by a crisis – not easy when reputational damage is often based on perception.
If you want access to these masterclasses– including more crisis communication sessions with Sean – you need to be a member of The Media Team Academy. Click on this link to find out more about it now.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with more than 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
Click here to find out more about our crisis communication training.
