Thomas Jefferson had great advice to control anger: “When angry, count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.” During these very sensitive times many public figures are hitting the send button seemingly without a count or thoughtful review. Two recent examples: CrossFit and Brevard County, FL.
Greg Glassman, who co-founded the fitness company CrossFit, is now its former CEO. He created a short, but wholly insensitive tweet in response to the death of George Floyd. He also made inappropriate comments on a Zoom call to affiliate gyms. It’s clear he didn’t count to ten before hitting send or even think about a Zoom call going public. The company lost millions of dollars when Reebok and gyms immediately pulled their partnerships.
A Brevard County, FL sheriff’s deputy sent Facebook posts from the account of the local Fraternal Order of Police looking to recruit officers who were fired or resigned from Minneapolis, Buffalo and Atlanta. Now suspended Lt. Bert Garmin wrote “…no spineless leadership or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences.” Here’s a conversation that never happened. Lt. Garmin (to a colleague): “Hey Joe, do you think this Facebook post will help with our recruiting?” It’s hard to imagine that anyone seeing the message before it was sent would not raise an objection.
In contrast some public figures take their time before responding. The longest pause we have seen was Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau taking 22 seconds to answer a sensitive question.
We live in a “cancel” culture where customers and stakeholders can be slow to forgive insensitive behavior and preventable mistakes. Consider the following before hitting the send button or speaking:
- Seek appropriate counsel. Communicators are trained to “read the room” and offer advice on whether to hit the send button.
- Pause to reflect. While Prime Minister Trudeau took this to the extreme, we always advocate taking a beat or two before answering a challenging or unexpected question. This extra think time can prevent you from repeating a negative or speaking off message.
- Responding to serious issues requires a serious tone.
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