Jussie Smollett – Empire Crumbling Around Trust & Reputation
As more explosive news reports roll out about actor Jussie Smollett’s alleged fabrication of his racial and homophobic attack in Chicago, people are left with questions such as, “Where is the truth?” “What is the truth?” “Why did he possibly do this?” Questions that are now in the hands of the Chicago court system. I’ve been asked lately how I would go about rehabbing Jussie’s reputation as this epic story of trust and reputation unfolds. My answer is simple, “Nothing. This is not the time to be focusing on rehabbing his reputation.” Jussie is in the crucible right now. This is the period of time when his actions and words are vital. How he acts, what he says, how he reacts during the court hearings will determine how he emerges and how rehabbing his reputation could be managed. As many are quick to judge and the court of public opinion sways, we should focus on one of the key issues here – trust. If what the police allege is true, that Smollett orchestrated this attack to increase his public awareness in an effort to negotiate a raise, then this will become an epic story of betrayal of trust! “There are three things you can’t hide from – the sun, the moon, and the truth.” – Confucius We are living in an age where only 30% of Americans believe that people are trustworthy. So, while the lawyers in Chicago build their cases, let’s look closer to home and reflect on how we are building or busting trust in our daily interactions! We are all responsible for trust in every interaction we have. Here are three actionable ways that we, as leaders or individuals, can build and strengthen trust today. 1. Pursue Understanding, Not Responding – How often do we listen to others and focus on what we are going to say instead of truly listening to understand their perspective and how you got to the current state? Asking more questions will allow you to better understand the situation and collaborate on action-oriented solutions. 2. Own Your Mistakes – As leaders we set the tone and expectations for our teams. It’s too easy for us to say that we are “running fast” and “have a full plate” and therefore rationalize our mistakes to others. What example does that set for those you are leading? Remember, what they see is what they expect and, ultimately, what you get. 3. Keep Your Commitments – Following through on your commitments is critical. Commitments are promises and whether you keep them or break them, they become an underpinning component of trust. If you find that you can’t keep your commitments, then you need stop saying, “yes” so much! Perhaps you need to delegate more? Perhaps you need to better manage your time? Keeping your commitments will always build trust! Yes, we are human and make mistakes. So, these are also great strategies for rebuilding trust! Only you can change your situation! I’ll keep sharing reputation management insights and strategies as the Jussie Smollett case unfolds. In the meantime, put these three strategies into play and see […]
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Doing the Right Thing!
Doing the right thing! Often easier said than done. We have the choice, or maybe better positioned as opportunity, to do this each day but what choice do we make? Does it depend on the stakes? Does it depend on who is impacted? Does it depend on what it would take to fix the situation versus just sweeping it under the rug? I experienced this recently with my son – and it was a great life lesson (for us both). On a late Sunday evening, a moving truck drove down our street and completely ‘pancaked’ the driver’s side of the car. Literally every inch of the car, from front bumper to rear bumper and both front and rear wheels, were dented, gouged or cut down. The picture doesn’t do justice to the damage, but the entire left side of my son’s car needed to be replaced! But, I noticed a note under the windshield wiper. The person whose moving truck had ‘pancaked’ our car came back and left their contact info. What? This person actually took responsibility? Here’s the kicker – when I spoke with the person, I asked where they had moved into our neighborhood. The response? “I didn’t. I was moving from Maryland to Alabama and we stopped in Huntersville for the night. We got lost and ended up in your neighborhood.” This person had so many reasons to become vapor. Really, they could have just drove off and went about their business. I had to ask why they decided to come back … the answer, “I was taught to do the right thing no matter how big or small the situation.” Who are the people in your life doing the right thing? How are you modeling this to yourself, your family, your organization, or your team?
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Was Anyone Spotting for John Skipper?
I feel for John Skipper, former ESPN chief. It’s hard not to, in some capacity, when you see someone’s life work unplugged and unravelled. But here is where my mind goes after reading his fall-from-grace story – he was not alone. I grew up watching ESPN and I know a lot of what I came to love about the ESPN brand and sports was a direct result of John’s efforts and passion. As a professional, I also had the privilege of working with ESPN on numerous occasions with NASCAR, NHRA, B.A.S.S., and other sports properties. I can tell you that the people who worked there reflected John’s attitude and vision – they were first-class people. Now, I also believe that we make and must stand by our choices. And, like John, we are not alone. In racing, we have spotters. These people have an elevated perspective of the race track and tell drivers what is happening in their blind spots and how to navigate through wrecks happening ahead of or around them. There is a remarkably high level of trust between drivers and their spotters to ensure their safety and ultimately their success – as a team. I don’t know who John’s spotters were in his years of cocaine addiction, or if they tried to help and he ignored them. But I can’t believe he was alone. Can we learn from this? Yes. Who are your spotters? Who are the small group of people in your life that are looking out for you? The ones to tell you what you need to hear and not what you want to hear. We may not like what they have to say, but if they are trusted, then we know from where their words are coming – and we need to listen. So, who are they? Can you rattle off their names right now? Do they even know that you consider them your spotters? Who are you a spotter for in your life? We are all in this journey together and need each other to have our backs when we are operating in our blind spots. Career stage does not matter. Life stage does not matter either. We all need spotters and they need to know that we need them to shoot straight with us and that we will listen! John, I have no doubt you will rebound from this and be stronger than before!
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2 Critical Components to Rebuild a Reputation
I am often asked if a person or company can recover from a reputation crisis. The simple answer is, “yes”, but the effort and discipline it takes to do so is not that simple and is solely up to the individual or the leadership of an organization to act upon two vital elements – consistency and time. While reputations are fragile, and once cracked can never quite be put exactly back together, recovery can be achieved if there is genuine and transparent acknowledgement of what was done, if there is clear and consistent behavior to make amends, and this is done (again) consistently over time. Robert Downey Jr., comes to mind when I think of a person who rose to prominence, fell, and then repaired his reputation to find success (and work in Hollywood) again. Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol brand is another example of a brand that lost confidence among consumers, but through diligent and consistent efforts, earned that trust back to regain its place as a global category leader, and a product welcomed back in people’s homes. Consistency – the key here is to recognize what actions or behaviors led to the reputation issue, make the proper amends, and then outline the ways in which you or your company will move forward in an authentic way to demonstrate your intent to regain trust and reputation – day in and day out! Downey Jr., took time to rehab his body from the addiction to drugs while also nurturing his mind and spirit to focus on what would be meaningful in his life and surrounding himself with like-minded people. People soon saw that he was consistently working to make amends and move forward in a positive manner. I’m not saying that the Iron Man franchise would not have happened without him, but there’s no question that his involvement and talent made it a blockbuster! Time – people can be skeptical as well as forgiving, so the critical element here is consistent behavior over time. Commitment to a vision of regaining reputation is what will drive the consistent behavior over time. Repetition (not only in how I ended the last two sentences) is the key to turning skeptics into supporters and from supporters to potential advocates. Tylenol’s emergence from the cyanide tampering in the 1980s is an example of not only acting quickly (another form of time – see this story for the power of time), but also how leadership focused on creating a tamper-proof solution that would continue to demonstrate trust and reliability over time. If you or your company have been caught in a reputation crisis, it does not signal the end! However, it will take deliberate planning to outline what must be done differently, clear communication to your family, friends, colleagues, customers or other key constituents as to what will be done differently moving forward, and then ‘walking the walk‘ each and every day! Easier said than done, but your future and your reputation are more than worth the work! Don’t you think?
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Crisis of Values
We have a problem. That’s right, we have a problem. It’s not someone else’s problem – it’s our problem as leaders. The floodgates have burst opened through traditional and social media channels on the subject of people in power abusing their positions by taking advantage of those further down the organizational chart. The storylines read of sexual misconduct, harassment, and greed, to name a few behavioral trends. Have these stories been told because people are fed up and are ready to name names? Is it because there are more news outlets willing to cover these stories? Perhaps it just took one brave person to step up and tell their story for others to find the courage to do the same? I believe it’s a combination of all of those and more. However, what I also know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, is that these stories shine a spotlight on the crisis of values that we see in leadership. The word values is one that we grew up hearing about and were told to reflect upon, think about, and use in our daily activities to guide us through the maze of life. What we are seeing is a significant disregard of values by people in positions of leadership and power. This chasm between values and behavior is what I’ve seen time and time again when deconstructing crisis situations over my 25-year career. Media reports make us first-hand witnesses to the void in the individual’s value in themselves, their relationships, their intentions, and their legacies. Ultimately their actions, not just from a year or two ago, but some accusations spanning decades, are all being judged in the court of public opinion delivering career-shattering verdicts. These power plays have been happening for thousands of years and are not isolated to people on the public stage. And, these behaviors are not gender based either as I think about inappropriate male student/female teacher relationships that are just as much about position and power as a senior-level executive or influential TV talking head. But in today’s world of instant information sharing and online lynch-mob trolling, the stakes are at an all-time high. In many cases, careers have been ended, families have been split, decades of work have been unravelled, and legacies forever tarnished. And this isn’t just an issue for those in the public eye. I can think of a person in my life who was a very close friend and was fired from his job of 10 years for embezzlement, which ended with jail time and a divorce. Can you think of a scenario in your life that has hit close like this? What could have stopped these missteps from occurring? Some cases may have required professional counseling, however, at the foundation of this is a lack of values – plain and simple. Our values should be at the core of who we are … or, at least they should be! Our values are not negotiable … or, at least they shouldn’t be! Our values are what make us stand up for what we believe even when not popular … or at least they […]
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“Signs, Signs, Everywhere There’s Signs!”
“Why didn’t I see that coming?” “How’d that happen?” “Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” I was driving the other day and while stopped at a red light I looked over at the car next to me and saw a mother in the driver’s seat showing flash cards to her teenage son. As the mom continued to show him the flash cards, he continued to stare out the passenger seat window at the sky. She began to shake them at him. Fed up and visibly frustrated, she threw the cards in the back of the car by the time the light turned green! Clearly this had been going on for a while and clearly she was angry that the boy was ignoring what she was trying to show him. What struck me about this scene was that this happens to us every day. People try to show us something, tell us something, make us aware of something – and how often do we not listen? The reality is that we more than often hear what we want to hear, or worse yet, aren’t present when the person tells us something that might just help us avert disaster – whether that is to our career, our finances, a relationship or our reputations. I’m not suggesting we take every bit of advice from every person with whom we encounter. However, I do suggest that we identify the core people in our lives whose insight and feedback matter to us. These are the people who will risk telling us what we need to hear, not what we want to hear because they truly care about us. These are the people who will show us the flash cards while we are, perhaps, looking out the passenger seat window. They may even shake them to get our attention. Ok, so here’s your sign … will you be that teenager and eventually have the flash cards thrown to the back of the car? Or, will you stop, be present and see and listen to what signs are being shown to you? As with most things in life, the choice is yours! For some additional thoughts on the power of being present, click here to read one of my favorite stories about my experience with Lenny Kravitz!
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3 Steps Adidas Must Take in Wake of College Bribery Scandal
Adidas is the latest example of the risk that all brands are subject to because reputations rest upon the shoulders of those employees wearing its logo. Jim Gatto, head of marketing for Adidas’ basketball division, is one of 10 people who are at the center of an FBI investigation centered on a high school athlete/college sports bribery scandal that is rocking the college sports industry. Business Insider writer, Dennis Green, put it very well in his Sept. 27 article on the topic, “Part of the reason for Adidas’ newfound success is its evolved reputation. It has courted fashion trendsetters and lifestyle gurus to help turn it into a “cool” brand. If the scandal grows, it’s not hard to see how that reputation could vanish.” It takes both time and consistent effort to build, shape and protect a reputation. As Warren Buffett once said, “it takes 20 years to build a strong reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.” Beyond the damaged public perception and tarnished image, Adidas also suffered a direct financial foul after the scandal hit headlines and saw its U.S. stock value dropped by 3% in one day. This type of reputation scenario as well as the financial and public fallout happens every day at varying levels to large and small organizations. While the court of public opinion has yet to deliver its verdict, below are three steps that Adidas – and any company – must take in the wake of a public scandal to not lose its business stride and come out stronger in public perception! 3 Steps Adidas must take in the wake of college basketball bribery scandal Commit to Action & Communicate – You can’t control where the investigation goes or what life it takes on as this scandal unravels. However, Adidas can control how it processes the information it learns through its own internal investigation, the development of its action plan, and then how it is shared to its stakeholders, employees, and customers to demonstrate its commitment to doing the right thing. Demonstrate Transparency – What did you learn through the investigation? It might be tough to look at and even scarier to share, but understand that in this age of instant information, it will eventually come out. It’s always best to ‘own’ the message versus it come from a third-party source. The actions of an individual certainly don’t always reflect that of the organization. This is the time to acknowledge breakdowns in the system and emphasize that this is not how business is done at Adidas. Outline Change – This is the proverbial ‘Tylenol moment’ and the stamp in time that will either propel a brand forward or anchor it down after the crisis. In every crisis there is opportunity to use a negative situation to create positive industry-wide change. This is exactly what Tylenol did back in 1982 after seven people died of cyanide poisoning due to Tylenol bottle tampering. Tylenol went on to create revolutionary bottle safety measures that helped re-establish the brand as an industry leader committed to safety. Bribery is not new […]
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3 Steps to Increase Reputation Influence During Times of Uncertainty
In the HBO Game of Thrones series a manipulative character named Petyr Baelish, better known as Littlefinger, said, “Chaos isn’t a pit. Chaos is a ladder.” Our current world, nation, states, and communities have their share of uncertainty, some may call chaos. But how we approach and frame up this uncertainty can actually increase our reputation influence. Now, Littlefinger looked at life and chaos through the lens of how can I climb this ladder for my benefit, even at the expense of others? For this he ultimately met his fate on his knees with a knife at his throat. What can we learn from Littlefinger’s mindset and approach to uncertainty? It’s simple – in times of uncertainty take your focus off of you. There are ways for you to benefit from this that not only helps your reputation, but more importantly helps others. That is the frame through which we should look –how can I help others during this time of uncertainty? Below are three steps that you can personalize and strategically use to benefit your family, friends, business, community, team, colleagues, customers and, yes, your reputation. I want to stress – let’s learn from Littlefinger – this should not be done with a manipulative mindset. People will see through that and you will end up doing more harm than good to your reputation (as well as your business and those around you!). Three Steps for building reputation influence during times of uncertainty: Understand the Impact of the Situation -Uncertainty happens on Main Street as well as Wall Street, so your focus may not be on a national or global scale. Some of the most positive personal demonstrations of support and kindness have started at the grassroots level. Being in touch with local or regional issues and understanding the impact is the most critical step in this process. Start by answering some simple questions to gauge the scope, impact and your personal connection to the uncertainty. What could the impact of (insert uncertainty) be to my business industry? To my city? In my community? Within my neighborhood? Why does this matter to me? My customers? My community? My friends? Become a Conduit of Information – The old adage that ‘knowledge is power’ is quite valid in times of uncertainty. This is the first step in providing value to those around you. Resources and conduits of information in times of uncertainty are highly regarded. This could be as simple as writing an email to a core group of people or posting hyperlinks with key and reputable sources on your social media channels where people can get informed. Yes, you will need to ensure these are credible sources. Simply put, you send out credible information, it increases your credibility. Conversely, if you send people resources that are sketchy – well, you get the point and how it reflects upon you! Do your homework! Share Channels of Action – Now that you’ve identified the areas of potential impact and you found sourced information, can you provide avenues for people to engage and act? This could be as simple as coordinating a conference call to discuss an uncertainty […]
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Are You Involved or Are You Committed?
I was eating a bacon and egg breakfast the other morning and was reminded of a conversation I had with NASCAR Hall of Famer Junior Johnson several years ago around the question of involvement versus commitment. At the time, I was running the PR campaign for NASCAR’s 50th Anniversary where I had the great fortune and opportunity to meet and work with some of the legends of the sport, including Junior. During one encounter with the former moonshiner, whose life story was put on the big screen in the 1973 movie The Last American Hero, we were talking about what it took to be successful in this sport. He smiled and said in his low voice and Southern drawl, “Well, let me ask you a question. Are you involved or are you committed?” I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, so I naively asked him, “involved or committed in what way?” Junior went on to explain his point. “You see, success comes down to being committed not involved,” he said. “It’s like a bacon and egg breakfast – it took two animals to make that meal and one was committed and one was involved. “Now, that hog gave you everything it had – everything – while that chicken gave you something it could make plenty more of. It wasn’t that big of a deal.” I never looked at a bacon and egg breakfast the same after that chat. So, I’ll ask you the same question as you look at your business growth or perhaps how you are leading your team or organization – are you involved or are you committed? Better yet, do you know if your team is just involved or are they fully committed? Are they committed to your company’s goals, culture and priorities? That is a vital question to consider when a study by Gallup found that more than 70% of employees feel disengaged at the office. What’s worse is that an Allegis Group Services study found that more than 84% percent of employees would leave their current place of employment for a company with a better reputation (Aug. 2012). Can it get worse? Yup! A study by Glassdoor Data Labs found that less than 50% of employees would even recommend their employer to a friend (Dec. 2015)! Your team will become a reflection of you. So, when it comes to leadership and the type of team and business you are building, do you want an office full of chickens? Nope … bring on the hogs!
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