The Journey To Business Mastery: Entry 9

Realizing as a business manager that crisis is inevitable, will save you stress and help you plan around it. Because while we cannot avoid facing crisis, we can still find ways to handle it effectively through communication. And that is the bit of my MBA journey which we will be embarking on, how to handle a crisis. So yes, it is inevitable to face a crisis, but how you handle that crisis is what can make or break your company’s reputation. For example, your company gets thrown in a bad light and is facing backlash from the public. Something you should never do is go silent on the issue or use the words “no comment” as your official reply. Bad idea but I digress. Let’s get into crisis communication.

When it comes to crisis communication, there are three stages:

Pre-crisis,

During crisis and

Post-crisis.

Here’s what you need to do before a crisis. First, you need to consider the likely and unlikely scenarios. How could the crisis start? How bad can it get? Now, once you’ve figured that out, reach out to and form connections with external contacts who can give you a heads up when there’s trouble brewing. Next, you develop a team and create a plan. Let’s focus on that plan; it needs to be a good one and that means it must address certain points:

Who is the audience? Your audience can be internal or external. Could be customers or staff.

What is the message that needs to be put across? Is it an apology or an explanation that needs to be given on a previous action or series of actions. The message itself must be tailored to the audience in question and it needs to reflect compassion and responsibility.

How would the message be communicated? What method of communication will be used? Will it be a social media post, or will it be a press release? What techniques will be used? All of this must be figured out ahead of time.

To craft and deliver this message, a crisis team must be created and ideally that team must be made up of senior management, communications staff and also others who are appropriate to the situation at hand. It is also essential for there to be a spokesperson for the team. One person has to speak for the team and ultimately the company.

Now we’ve made all the preparations and have now been met with a crisis. Do not panic, you’ve prepared for this. Yes, a crisis can be high paced and very “in your face” but it is essential that you maintain control when addressing your audience. You must also show and have concern for the one who has been offended. And remember that your credibility is at stake. Ultimately, the values and belief systems that exist at a company will definitely affect the creation of all crisis strategies and how effective they will end up being. Again, a crisis is inevitable but it is not unexpected and shouldn’t be treated like it is. That doesn’t end well.

Till my next knowledge dump, adios.