No pressure. But how would you explain your worst mistake?
It’s a good place to start your reflective process, when you’re preparing to campaign on anything.
And, ah. The fickle vindictiveness of the masses…
This week, the mayoral candidates in New York were subjected to scrutiny on their bagel choices. From the Times; ‘After The Forward published a survey revealing the choices of eight of the candidates (four preferred everything bagels with lox), a TikTok video from the account brooklynbagelblog ranked the candidates. “The candidate with the best order goes to Kathryn Garcia,” the narrator declared, favoring her choice of an open-faced everything bagel with cream cheese, a slice of tomato, capers, lox and onion. “You can see that she has a vision for this bagel and I assume that means she has a vision for the city.”’
Now assume you’ve made a mistake. Perhaps with your bagel order. Or even with something else less important 🤣. And the mob is at your door. Here’s the best advice I’ve got to give on how to manage the situation.
I’m afraid it’s a sports metaphor. But whatever. White guy here. 🧔
You’re going to be outplayed for long stretches in any rally. The key is to limit the involvement of your ego in these stretches. It’s not that you suck. It’s that winners are capable of absorbing an opponent’s pressure without taking it personally. Now, you have to simply limit the damage being done. And eventually, when you do manage to get back on the offensive, it’s your job to capitalize on those situations.
That’s my approach to crisis communications, in a nutshell. I hope it helps. Although woe betide you if you went with anything other than lox on everything, toasted, with capers, red onions, and cream cheese. Because some scandals simply do not pass. Otherwise, trust me. We can weather any storm.
