Her screams convinced the bear to crawl off her husband and move to the road in front of their country cabin. Still on the phone she described the bear’s actions. “His pacing back and forth in the road,” she said. The man, his vision blurred by blood in one eye, wanted his wife to run inside and save her life. She didn’t move.

When police and paramedics arrived they said the man’s survival can be credited to one person, his wife. What did she do? She stood tall. Wildlife experts say confidence respects confidence. The only reason the bear stopped his attack and backed off was he saw she wasn’t going to back off. There are so many lessons here.

When in crisis, the worse thing one can do is cower in the corner. Standing tall in physical posture is just as important as standing tall in words. The point is never back down. Power recognizes power, confidence recognizes confidence. At all times, stand tall.

The law is bigger than money. The law is explained with words…think about that for a moment. Every punitive judgment from probation to the death penalty is validated in words. The words “not guilty” and you go home. The word “guilty” and prepare introduce yourself to a guy named tiny.

Great communication starts when you overhaul your perspective on what your words mean.  Great communicators  make confident declarations. Have you ever seen a warrant that reads, “Will you please turn yourself in to answer these charges?” of course not, the law is powerful because it is succinct, clear, and unapologetic…are you?

Even saying “no comment” is a comment. It is printable, it is quotable. Before you say one word, pause…and hold that pause indefinitely. When media leave the station to get coverage on a brewing story they are told to do one thing; get a comment. Don’t give it to them.

Now as time passes (usually 48-72 hrs) the situation becomes clearer allowing for a  more thoughtful response. There are times when an immediate response is needed. In such cases, crisis managers are key because we’ve been thinking about potential catastrophes while you were enjoying the good times. We’ve been planning for storms while you were on the beach.

When I hand over a prepared response to a client who’s in panic things immediately calm down. Words crafted in calm are invaluable during a crisis event. Before you say one word, pause and don’t say it. There’s wisdom in waiting.

The media is a negative leaning entity. This causes greater interest in things sensational whether true or not. The key to proper crisis management is making the positive aspects of your client as sexy as the negative accusation. This is not easy to do, but it’s very possible.

The end of a thing is never reported as zealously as its beginning. The phase in which a person is accused is most attractive to a media fueled by ratings and cycles. When crafting a defense with clients we create what I call sensational truth. This simply means we don’t wait to react but cause others to react to us. Once the media views your truth more attractive than the lies of your accuser you’ve won. This doesn’t mean you’ve won in a legal sense, but rather in the court of public opinion.

Why is the court of public opinion so important? Because no jury makes absolute cerebral decisions.  Nudge them in your favor while you can.

Many speakers are considered great because of the uniqueness of their ideas. They articulate concepts never before considered which is an intellectual stimulate. But the greatest communicators of all time do something very different. They communicate your ideas.

This is critical to understand. The greatest impression one can have on an audience is to have the audience say, “that’s just what I was thinking.” It is vital to realize they were only thinking it. The job of a great communicator is to breathe life into pre-existing, yet inarticulate ideas.

People, no matter their level of education, carry around ideas for 10, 20, 30 years.  The speaker who has done her homework will know what these ideas are. When she stands in front of an audience and sharply articulates blunt ideas, magic happens.

The next time you are planning a speech hit the pause button on what you want to say. Instead, find out what your audience wants to say. You’ll be surprised at what happens.

Sometimes Just Shut Up

Clemens former trainer Brian McNamee made very serious allegations of injecting Clemens with steriods. These allegations were backed up by Andy Pettitte. The Mitchell report had already damaged the Clemens legacy. All of this was too much for Roger to sit by silently. He had to speak.

Clemens gave a deposition to congress in private. It could have been over at that point. Nope. Clemens was more interested in climbing the mound and having his way one more time.  Congress stepped up to bat and knocked him out of the park.

I frequently tell my clients, sometimes it’s just best to shut up.

Highly skilled professionals have little advantage finding quality work today. The game has changed. Let me share one method that will save you frustration and have employers/potential clients hunting you down.

Stop Looking for a Job and Just Do the Job

I’ve used this method to grow two businesses during recessions. What does it mean? It means you take the initiative and do the work before you get the job. You then show the employer or potential client the finished product. If they love it, you’re hired. For example, there are millions of corporate websites with high annual budgets. One of my clients wanted to find work as a writer, this is exactly what I told him to do.

• Pick five websites of major corporations
• Rewrite their home pages
• Send them the newly written pages

My client landing two of the websites as clients. This led to more work. Today, he is overloaded with clients all because he stopped looking for work, and started doing the work. Apply this to your field of expertise and I guarantee everything will change.

When the public is on your side you look taller and more dominating than you really are. Since Tiger’s personal flaws have been exposed he looks 5 foot 3 and about 150 pounds soaking wet. What happened?

What happened to him is what happens to powerful, talented people all across the globe after a fall from grace. He has lost the aura of invincibility. While we all agree Tiger is the one to blame for his actions, I place partial culpability on one entity you may not have considered, his marketing team.

Nike and Buick were only a couple of the corporations pouring millions into his yearly endorsement pocket. So what’s the problem? The problem is this. When you set up a celebrity to be angelic it’s only a matter of time before his demon wants his 15 minutes of fame. The traditional approach for corporate endorsement marketing campaigns is to position the client as untouchable. This approach will not work in our new global economy.

Kids and adults alike now crave the authentic. They crave commercials showing an athlete’s losses not just his wins. It’s counter-intuitive, but if Tiger had allowed us more insight into his imperfect life, his marital imperfections would not have ruined his commercial value. Authenticity is good business.

Instead, read the post below on how Tony Hayward could have avoided his personal crisis.

www.rosscrisismanagement.com/blog/what-bp%E2%80%99s-hayward-can-learn-from-umpire-jim-joyce/

My wife, who spent over 20 years in the medical field, began to triage the two. When we approached the gentleman we could see directly into his knee cap. His leg was torn open. We looked and saw his wife’s bottom lip hanging down from under her helmet. A horrific scene.

My wife directed onlookers to immediately call 911. When the helicopter landed and the ambulance drove up something became apparent to me. Nobody was rushing.

Amateur onlookers were crying, gasping and running back and forth. But the professionals were moving intentionally with little talk. Saying only that which added clarity for their colleagues around them. It was almost as if the panicked environment required a peaceful offset. In crisis, slow is fast.

This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t move with haste. It means one must move with seasoned precision, and many times precision takes time. The two accident victims survived because of the “slow moving” medical professionals. Never let a crisis tempt you into unthoughtful action just for action sake.