Everyone says the wrong things sometimes. The real trouble happens when you try to dig yourself out of the hole—and mess that part up, too.
The biggest mistake leaders make when navigating bad press is “sticking their head in the sand,” erroneously thinking the news will blow over, said Risa Heller, founder and CEO of Risa Heller Communications, on a panel about corporate crisis response at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women: Next Gen conference in San Diego on Tuesday. “It’s not gonna blow over,” she added tersely.
Heller would know. The “crisis-communications warrior of choice,” as New York Magazine called her in February, has steered disgraced New York Representative Anthony Weiner, Jared Kushner, chef Mario Batali, New Yorker writer Jeffrey Toobin, NBC’s Jeff Zucker, former New York Governor David Paterson, and untold other embattled anonymous clients through a number of messes, from workplace affairs and nude photos to sexual assault allegations. She even helped manage Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents’ reputation when FTX collapsed.
Facing the problem head-on has been the PR maven’s MO for years. In a roundtable talk at Brown University back in 2015, Heller said public figures should be upfront about allegations rather than denying it. “Lies erode your brand and the trust of media who have supported initial denials,” she said. Being honest is all about framing the facts and responding to criticism, she added.
In 2021, she outlined her typical plan of attack for Insider. It mainly involves “doing one’s homework:” A leader under fire should gather facts quickly, correct the record where it’s wrong, and lastly, move to anticipate what could possibly come out next—or where journalists might sniff around next—and prepare to field that new batch of questions.
But none of that should come at the cost of reacting too quickly. “When something bad comes out about a company, we should take that moment to look at—institutionally—what is going on at the organization,” said Justine Sacco, chief communications officer of Tinder and Hinge parent company Match Group, who sat on the panel with Heller. “Ask, does something need to change? After you fix it internally, you can communicate it externally.”
And leaders shouldn’t pen an op-ed in response to a hit piece—for “so many” reasons, added fellow panelist Arielle Patrick, chief communications officer of asset management firm Ariel Investments. “You’re basically inserting yourself into someone else’s journalistic environment.” Plus, it makes the op-ed writer look “overly triggered.” Instead, she said, leaders under fire should come up with better ways to listen and reshape their public image that don’t involve print journalism.
Reputation—both of a company and of an individual—is part of risk management, she told the crowd. “In today’s day and age, there’s no excuse to not have your comms leaders at the table.”
While responding to bad news is one thing, it’s a whole other ballgame to repair trust both with people you know or work with and the larger public after you say the wrong thing.
But, Heller advised, you can only do what’s authentic.
“You can’t become another person; that doesn’t work,” she said. “One of the biggest comms challenges is when people say, ‘Oh, just kill that story.” That doesn’t work. Instead, I generally try to help people with a little therapy. I explain that if they can speak in headlines, and understand how the news cycle will go, how stakeholders, employees and investors will react, that helps them understand the direct impact.”
