How to Convince Your CEO That Crisis Media Training is Essential

By Tony Shelton, Executive Vice President, Crisis and Training, Edelman Houston

If you ask, any CEO can cite recent examples where someone in her position made a mess of communication in a crisis.  Such failures can cause employees and customers to bolt, the reputation and stock price to plummet and, unfortunately, guarantee a special place on YouTube – forever.

No wonder so many CEOs, especially those whose companies don’t sell directly to consumers, say they want to keep a “low profile.”   That often translates to “I’m never going to talk to the media.” The problem now, given the context CEOs operate in, is if companies don’t participate in the story when they have a crisis, the story doesn’t go away.  It goes on without them – without their voice – and that’s never a good thing.  Some crises are so serious that the CEO is the only company person the media and public want to hear from.

Our job as communications professionals involves counseling executives on why it’s important to engage the media. Below are the most common questions we get from communicators working with an executive to convince them that media training, and ultimately engagement with the press, is worth the effort.

How do I convince my CEO to take the time to do media training?
You might first discuss a few things with the CEO.  For instance, note that in the age of social media, everybody’s a reporter so news about a company – even if it’s not true – gets out and spread almost instantly.  That’s why your company needs to stake out a place in the story early on and have a top spokesman ready to communicate quickly. Note:  If you don’t have direct access to the CEO, enlist the support of your boss to carry the recommendation up the chain to the CEO.

What if the CEO says she doesn’t have the time?
Tell her that the training can take place in 3-4 hours. The session will be completely focused on actual company issues and feature a worst-case or a more likely crisis. The session can be private, and tapes of the practice interviews will be destroyed after the session.

Do CEOs get a different training from what is provided to lower levels of management and others? 
The review of the modern essentials of dealing with the media – in good times and bad – is similar for all groups. However, with the CEO, the level of severity of the situation used in the training will be much higher. You can assure the CEO that even after being trained, she will not be asked to speak to the media about very small crisis – such as a traffic accident involving a company vehicle. She would be asked to be the spokesperson only when there are multiple injuries or deaths, regulatory actions, or extreme damage to the environment or private property.

Is it better to train the CEO by herself or, for example, with the executives who report to her?
Either can work. The upside of the one-on-one session is more attention and more time to work on delivery and answers to the tough questions. The deciding factor often just comes down to the practical matter of coordinating calendars. The benefit of the small group training is that all the top execs receive the same coaching, which helps ensure consistency of the response in a crisis. Often, it is the only time the top management have ever talked about what could be communicated in a crisis.

How do I explain to her what I would want her to say in a crisis?
In an extreme crisis, the CEO and/or other top spokesperson must do three things:

• Give a face to the company and provide assurance that she is personally making this a top priority (and probably appear at the site)
• Explain what is being done to end the crisis; and 
• Express personal condolences to the family of anyone who has died in the incident, extend best wishes to the injured and say how the company is assisting all of those persons who have been affected by the crisis.

Is there ever a time when a CEO should not be the spokesperson, even if she’s had media training?
 Even after media training, if the CEO still has a tendency to “wing it” or “go off script,” that’s a clue some other high-level spokesperson might sometimes be a better choice.  For example, you might suggest using the top executive in charge of operations, because there will likely be technical questions about operations.
Just make sure that person has been media trained, too!