Uh, you’ve heard it before … The shamed celeb who’s been caught doing or saying something egregious and who has been advised to deliver an apology. If you’re like me, you tend to doubt his sincerity, often because it seems to center on embarrassment at being caught “calling all those hefty gals hefty.”
Steve Cody, the CEO of Peppercomm, a strategic communications firm, has a few ideas about how we can be more effective under these circumstances.
“Go ahead and apologize,” he says. Then take action. Specifically—and I’m paraphrasing here—
- Explain ‒ Yep. Step up. Don’t blame the drugs or your mother-in-law, no matter how tempting.
- Explain ‒ Tell everyone about the systems and procedures you’ve put in place to make sure bad words or actions don’t happen again. Interesting. In my opinion, doing this tells people that you haven’t really had a change of heart but are just working harder not to slip up.
- Enlist ‒ If explaining doesn’t work, find someone who can tell everyone what a great person you are. The more credible the enlistee, the better.
Of course, if all else fails, “be prepared to fall on your sword and resign.”
Cynic that I am, I find these suggestions helpful. Actions probably do speak louder than words, even in a situation where you are, by your public persona and past pronouncements, likely to be tainted. Coming from a background where repeated apologies for the same misdeed were required until they were “good enough,” I applaud action.
RIP: This post is dedicated to the late Joan Rivers, a force of nature who was often outrageous and who didn’t apologize much, if at all.
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