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Inside The Minds
Practicing for Little League = Encouraging practice or rehearsal
Fiercely guarding the goal in street hockey = Keeping your cool during a crisis
Having the courage to dive into the deep end of the swimming pool = Trying something new and taking reasonable risks
Cleaning the garage together = Creating strong teams
Remaining calm during emergency-room visits = Being in control during a crisis
Calming an injured child = Building an emotional bond
Removing the training wheels from a bicycle = Having the courage to let go of the familiar and assume greater responsibility
My son Nicholas provided another example. One day at school, Nicholas decided to get into the garbage can and stomp around the classroom. His teacher told him not to do it and asked him why he wanted to stomp in the garbage can. Nicholas responded, “It’s a free country isn’t it?” As a result, Nicholas spent his lunch period outside the principal’s office. After learning about the event at home, my wife and I decided Nicholas needed to write a letter of
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The Art of Public Relations
apology to his teacher. His action was disrespectful to the teacher and the class.
The lesson that applies to both Nicholas and the workplace is that we all make mistakes and do stupid things; however, when we act in this way we must acknowledge our actions and move on. In the business world, mistakes are not always acknowledged, and blame is often passed around.
Another personal-life lesson relates to the year I spent in the military as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam. This experience taught me what is important. Crisis situations force people to prioritize to decide how future behavior will support these gained priorities. They also allow people to take a step back and ask challenging questions regarding their values and goals.
Although business executives and parents can play similar roles, there are key differences. First, in business there are times when you have to make absolutely objective, very tough decisions. These must be completely devoid of emotion. I don’t believe you find that in the family because you have such a strong, inherently emotional bond that exists between parents and children. The second major difference is that when you run a commercial enterprise, you have a very important responsibility to deliver growth and earnings. That becomes the driver of every decision you make. You don’t find the same thing within a family.
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Inside The Minds
There are also situations where peanut-butter-and-jelly management may not be right for a company: those situations when a company is facing radical change and when radical decisions need to be made. That doesn’t mean the situation can’t be addressed with a strong sense of values, mentoring, clarity, and explanation. But sometimes you need to act very quickly to turn around a company that’s having a difficult time. What my wife and I are suggesting takes a lot of time. It’s not quality time. It’s time. Sometimes businesses don’t have that time.
Does peanut butter and jelly management require managers to treat employees like children or assume a parental approach? Not at all. It does mean, though, that employees will benefit greatly from more personal involvement, care, attention, fair guidelines, flexibility, and understanding. It also means that this decade’s successful corporate leaders will have to be people-focused and apply to the workplace the same strategies that work so well on the home front.
Here are ten behaviors that have a proven track record:
R Be a leader first and a manager second. Manage the way you would want to be managed.
R Be attentive, listen, and invite dialogue.
R Communicate, communicate, and then communicate some more. Keep in mind communication is a two-way street.
R Create strong values, and lead by action.
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The Art of Public Relations
R Don’t ask anyone to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself.
R Learn to be flexible and patient.
R Create a team, know when to delegate, and provide the skills and tools necessary for team members to do their jobs well.
R Focus your energy on activities that are really important.
R Have confidence in yourself, and build it in others.
R Remember: You’re on center stage – and everyone is watching.
No one, regardless of experience, has all the answers to every management challenge, and clearly the home is not where all the answers can be found. But since creating successful family relationships is one of the toughest jobs – if not the toughest job – on earth, the home is a good place to start.
Crisis Management
For a public relations company, handling a crisis situation boils down to a relationship between fact and emotion. The following guidelines can help public relations professionals when providing crisis communications services:
R Ensure that when the company decides to speak, it speaks with compassion and understanding.
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Inside The Minds
R Keep communications focused and factual.
R Serve as a reliable and trusted source of information by keeping target audiences continuously informed of events in an organized manner. Communications need to properly focus people’s intellect and emotions.
R Reassure all interested parties by providing enough factual information that listeners can develop an informed perspective on the situation. This goal can be difficult to accomplish because, generally, many facts are unavailable at the early stages of a crisis. Professionals should therefore make the best use of the facts at hand.
R Ensure that crisis counsel is informed by perspective and professional insight into the situation, regardless of the amount of available information.
The events of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, have changed the definition of leadership unalterably. As much as that tragic Tuesday is a political story of hatred among peoples, it is also a business story that tests how CEOs respond to the unexpected and the unimaginable. Never before have so many CEOs confronted a catastrophe of such proportions. Never before have so many CEOs been forced to face the raw emotions of so many grief-stricken employees and families.
Chief executives’ behavior in the aftermath of a tragedy is critical to the recovery of employee productivity, loyalty, and ultimately their companies’ reputation. The following
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