Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Add a Healthy Dose of Remorse to Sex Scandal Formula
If a picture says a thousand words, today's newspaper photos of Silda Spitzer next to husband Eliot Spitzer says at least five thousand. Her sadness is so evident, it's hard for me to look at her. And, as for him, he doesn't look like a remorseful man in the least.
He conducted yesterday's news conference with a tone of discussing any other day-to-day business and ended with, "I will report back to you in short order." We'll have to wait and see if No. 9 does indeed do that. When he does I can only hope that he takes a cue from a veteran PR professional experienced in crisis communication and not just his attorney.
Nonverbal communication is critical, in fact even more important, than what you say. We teach this in media training and it's even more crucial in a crisis situation to express genuine empathy and in his case remorse.
Nobody is expecting him to admit guilt or start bawling. However, this is someone who built his reputation on fighting corruption and then getting repeatedly caught on wiretaps discussing bringing a prostitute to his Washington hotel with his career at stake. To make matters worse, his wife of 20 years is standing by his side and he has three teenage daughters at home. You would think it wouldn't be too difficult to convey some sense of sorrow and shame.
He conducted yesterday's news conference with a tone of discussing any other day-to-day business and ended with, "I will report back to you in short order." We'll have to wait and see if No. 9 does indeed do that. When he does I can only hope that he takes a cue from a veteran PR professional experienced in crisis communication and not just his attorney.
Nonverbal communication is critical, in fact even more important, than what you say. We teach this in media training and it's even more crucial in a crisis situation to express genuine empathy and in his case remorse.
Nobody is expecting him to admit guilt or start bawling. However, this is someone who built his reputation on fighting corruption and then getting repeatedly caught on wiretaps discussing bringing a prostitute to his Washington hotel with his career at stake. To make matters worse, his wife of 20 years is standing by his side and he has three teenage daughters at home. You would think it wouldn't be too difficult to convey some sense of sorrow and shame.
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