Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, May 14, 2018

Real #MeToo incidents in the workplace aren’t happening in a vacuum. Whether they are the most egregious examples of sexual harassment and abuse, or more subtle acts of unconscious bias, they all happen within a culture that somehow sanctions them.

New Examination of Corporate Culture

That is why the reputational risks of #MeToo (we calculate that since the first Bill Cosby trial, 298 high-profile executives have been let go in the US because of sexual improprieties), as well as escalating global calls for gender equity, are sparking a whole new examination of corporate and organizational culture. What elements of culture enable abuse, or create a toxic work environment, and what elements preclude them? […read more]

Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, March 23, 2018

You know that Marianne Williamson quote: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure?” Well so it is with Facebook. It turns out Facebook is far, far more powerful than any of us — even they, even Mark Zuckerberg — ever thought.

And with such awesome power comes awesome responsibility.

This week, Facebook shirked that responsibility through its terribly late and insufficient response to the Cambridge Analytica data hijacking scandal.

As a crisis advisor and coach who has crafted hundreds of what I hope are truly on-point, effective, and emotionally resonant crisis responses, here’s what I wish Mark Zuckerberg had done to give the world a response worthy of a Facebook’s vast global power and influence. […read more]

Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, January 17, 2018

As organizations wait for the next wave in the tsunami of sexual abuse charges that is rocking American business, board directors and C-suite executives are fixated not only on understanding their risk exposure, but on what they can do to get ahead of the issue.

The only solution – and the right solution of course – is for leaders of all stripes to seriously take up the challenge of quashing sexual harassment in their workplaces for good.

Davia Temin’s “15-Point Plan To Eradicate Sexual Harassment In Your Organization” is an actionable, and easy-to-execute game plan for serious boards and executives. […read more]

Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, December 31, 2017

The past several weeks have seen a string of mounting customer allegations against Apple, accusing the company of planning the obsolescence of its older 6 series iPhones through its last updates that limited those phones’ battery power and slowed them down significantly.

After radio silence, on Thursday December 28th, Apple finally posted a plausible explanation of why the last update indeed does hobble performance, and an apology, clearly trying to contain the reputational damage it has sustained.

While that explanation is a perfectly adequate one – it is too little, too late. […read more]

Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, June 21, 2017

I am sad that Travis Kalanick had to resign. As news of the Uber CEO’s resignation is digested by the world’s media analysts and leadership pundits, I would like to put forth a contrarian point of view – especially coming from such an outspoken advocate of gender equity in organizations. I do not think this is the biggest win that we who are interested in a bias and harassment-free workplace could have hoped for. Not by a long-shot.

Reformation vs. Resignation

Kalanick’s reformation would have been such a more powerful and optimistic story. It would have shown that, yes, personal transformation is possible, even among tone-deaf, frat-boy, start-up executives. And it could have shown that once a leader is made to, and allowed to, grow up, he or she can own it, and then transform a culture. […read more]

Leadership, “Reputation Matters,” Forbes, January 18, 2017

It’s no longer crisis as usual for United Airlines, or anyone else. Live social media posting has changed what you can get away with in a crisis — forever.

It used to be that if an airline made as monumental a mistake as United Airlines just did by causing a paying customer who had done nothing wrong to be dragged off a plane screaming, bloodying him up along the way in front of all his fellow passengers, they might still have gotten away with it.

After all, on a plane, passengers were basically incommunicado, so people couldn’t have protested easily, and they might not have been believed, especially if the airline denied it or called it an “overreaction.” The populace tends to believe its leaders in these situations, if compelling evidence to the contrary doesn’t exist. It rather makes one wonder about how many times such a debacle has happened before, and just not been caught on video.

But today all that changed. Live footage of the assault of an innocent passenger by security personnel was captured and immediately posted on social media around the world, instantly making United one of the most hated companies in the world. […read more]

Leadership, “Reputation Matters” Forbes, October 29, 2015

Arguably, our American president is really the world’s Crisis-Leader-in-Chief.  We rely on him – or her – to calmly, wisely, and brilliantly lead us through untold global craziness, back to economic progress, justice, security, and freedom.

So, politics aside, let’s try to rate last night’s 10 Republican debaters on their crisis leadership performance. In other words, when the going gets rough, which candidate would you want next to you in a foxhole? More importantly, who would you trust to get you out? […read more]