Strategy: 3 Things Anyone can Learn about Damage Control From the Brian Williams Debacle…I Rarely see Advice that Will Help People Who have Been Caught in a Temporary/Permanent Reputation Failure, Indiscretion, or Outright Lie

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I travel a lot, and that means I spend time in airport bookstores.  At these shops, a big percentage of the selling floor is occupied by racks of self-improvement books with clever, compelling titles and handsome book jackets.

Brian Williams

It’s a lucrative phenomenon in the publishing industry — a universe unto itself.

We’re actually drowning in what has become a new industry of its own — from the iconic Ann Landers advice columns of the last midcentury to the writers, speakers, and thinkers trying to gain credibility and an audience by telling you how to live your life and develop your career.

These books are selling, so they must be inspiring people. I think to myself: The world must be getting better and better with all these human beings who have become residents of the improvement zone.

Do you think if you read all these books you could make yourself into the perfect human being? The perfect leader? Could you outpace your peers?

The real question is … Will these books help you immunize yourself against the pitfalls of reputational catastrophes and personal indiscretions?

I rarely see advice that will help people who have been caught in a temporary or permanent reputation failure, indiscretion, or outright lie.

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These may be people who have been highly successful, or at least on a hard-earned upward trajectory. They could do no wrong in the eyes of their employees, industries, communities, or the general public. A sudden nose dive and loss of oxygen in a career can be unnerving, unsettling. Sometimes it’s even fatal to a career.

But reputational management companies can engineer solutions and PR firms are at the ready. And for those who hire them, rehabilitation begins the minute the indiscretion finds an audience. Damage control begins, media assessments are conducted, review committees are formed, life-lines are extended, and the salvage operation is underway.

Newscaster Brian Williams landed in his current situation with a reservoir of good will and has been generally well-liked. That is more than can be said about some people who find their integrity challenged.

But now the noise about his mistake is deafening. Everyone has an opinion about what should happen as a result of his admission that he did not really fly on a combat mission helicopter in Iraq that took enemy fire. Here’s what he should do now — and what you should do if you ever find yourself in need of damage control.

1. Be honest with yourself.

This is the first and most critical step. This is fundamental to everything that happens next. There is nothing that will ever be more important.

Get quiet. Spend some time alone. Be wary of advice — it may be mercenary. Remember everything about the episode and write it all down.

So much is riding on your clarity about what happened and your willingness to accept the truth for yourself. Explain to yourself why you did it — and be brutally candid.

Self-deception often haunts the famous and can cause irrational decisions. There could be tremendous fear of loss — loss of stature, standing, money, and future. It is that very fear that could either ennoble the person charged or conquer him.

2. Thank the people who revealed the truth.

Show an attitude of genuine appreciation that these facts have come to light. Express relief, not anger or irritation, for the airing of the correct information.

Do so completely authentically, because that is the position you have come to on your own. Then you could say, “I am glad that these folks have come forth with the plain facts. Anything incorrect has gone on too long and it’s time to put a stop to that.”

People are more apt to be exonerated in the light than in the dark. So position a floodlight over the situation. The fact that your reputation has been tarnished by revealing wrongdoing is actually going to improve you — though it might not appear so at the time. Face into the head winds and they will carry you if you embrace them.

3. Take responsibility.

People do not react well to someone placing blame on another individual, group, or system. But they tend to respect strength that comes from shouldering responsibility for one’s actions.

Man up. This is not the end of life. You will go other rounds and regain your respectability if you do not try to make excuses or cover anything up. Don’t hide, but moderate your appearances.

For example, Brian Williams must regain enough credibility to as to be taken seriously as a journalist — and especially as a newscaster who is telling his listeners what is supposedly the truth every day. This is the breach that must be mended.

Situations like this — and very often they are vastly more severe — happen to leaders at every level.

Keep this column tucked in your mental pocket and take it out and follow it if you ever find yourself in a situation where your veracity is being challenged. It will start you off with a leadership strategy that just might lead you to a positive solution.

James Rosebush was a Reagan White House official and is now the CEO and founder of GrowthStrategy.us. His leadership column appears on Business Insider every Tuesday.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-regain-trust-after-a-failure-2015-2#ixzz3RMbVVKTi