The Value of Transparency … and an Apology

As we begin a New Year, our country is in trouble. It’s more than an economic crisis, which many people seem to be ignoring. It’s an embedded culture of corruption from Wall Street to Capital Hill. In that context, I wanted to share an entire chapter from my new book, “The Media Savvy Leader: Visibility, Influence and Results in a Competitive World.” The subject is about the seldom used yet powerful tactic of an apology:

I have never failed to be impressed by how a simple, honest apology can defuse the most volatile situation, often averting a communications crisis for a corporation or politician.

In another time, in the cowboy film, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, John Wayne growled “never apologize, and never explain.” But that was then—more than 50 years ago in a macho western. This is now. Today apologies can do wonders.

Consider this example: “Gov. John Rowland changed his story and acknowledged that friends—including some under suspicion in a federal corruption investigation—paid for work on his summer home,” reported Susan Haigh of the Associated Press. “Rowland’s admission, made public in a statement, came ten days after he insisted he alone had paid for improvements on the house at Bantam Lake.”

Another politician confirms what we believe about most politicians: that they accept payoffs. We hear it all the time these days. Yet in this case, Rowland exacerbated his situation by lying, then changing his story, and announcing it in a written statement. A statement! Who’s going to believe a written statement? Why not just come clean and stand up in front of the microphones and reporters with notebooks and say something that begins with, “I’ve made a terrible mistake. I apologize, and I’m going to do everything possible to make it right .…”

Rowland was later found guilty and went to prison.

Equally astonishing is the absolute refusal by some organizations and titans of industry to ever admit to any mistakes, even when their hands are caught in the cookie jar. In fact, it seems that the larger the scope of misdoings and more egregious misconduct, the more likely that arrogance will prevent the perpetrators from even considering the value of an apology.

It must be something in the American ethos that a guy who makes an apology is some sort of “girlie man,” to borrow Arnold Schwarzenegger’s words. Attorneys advise clients to shun the actual word apology in favor of regret.

Did you ever hear an apology from Enron, Global Crossing, or Worldcom? Nope. The message we heard was one of blame and excuses, seemingly driven by greed and arrogance. We were left with the impression that many of those titans of business were just well-compensated crooks.

Another example: Hurricane Isabel cut a destructive swath up the east coast of the United States, leaving hundreds of thousands of people with no power for days. Several of the power companies were slow to restore service. It was disclosed in the media that they had cut back the number of repair crews needed to upgrade power lines in order to show a better bottom line to investors.

Rather than standing up in a news conference and saying simply, “We made a mistake. We apologize, and we are now working feverishly to restore electricity to your homes,” the power-company executives attempted to defend their decisions. They did battle with the news media. They made the media their enemy rather than saying they screwed up. It was classic John Wayne behavior, circa 1950.

Yet today such behavior comes off as incompetence and appears to emphasize greed over a clear focus on customer service. It wasn’t smart, and the companies were broiled by the public, the media, the politicians and … the investors.

There are unfortunately far too many executives and attorneys who choose to duke it out (pun intended) with tough stances. The worse the situation, the greater the arrogance—and often the greater the media feast of one story after another. Denying responsibility or twisting facts, especially in the face of evidence to the contrary, will actually create a news story. Hey, just apologize, make amends, and move forward.

President George W. Bush managed to reduce damage to the reputation of his administration by accepting responsibility, albeit belatedly, for incompetence by the Federal Emergency Management Administration in responding to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. A week after the hurricane, people were still dying along the Gulf Coast, and the region was in chaos, because no aid had arrived from the federal government. When it was apparent that the government had no plan and the administration was being scalded by everyone from the media to both Republicans and Democrats, Mr. Bush essentially said, “We were wrong, we made mistakes, but here’s what we are doing now …” and outlined a plan for assistance.

Sadly, though, his apology was not subsequently linked to concrete actions and timely relief for those whose lives were devastated by the hurricane, giving rise to what some Bush administration observers called Bush’s “smirk factor,” a habit of making an apology or statement that is, in reality, neither sincere nor backed up by action.

Connecticut-based communications strategist Jane Genova counsels organizations on the value of creating goodwill through an apology. She said non-apologizers might be smart to explore using mea culpa as a power tool and she shared these examples from her work:

1. Just observe. When anyone makes a sincere apology, we listen. “I landed an assignment in the mega competitive hospitality industry by recognizing that even the most unhappy guest will be turned around by an authentic and detailed apology,” she said.
2. Give up on the “cult of the self.” Did the inward, self-focus theory ever work? It’s questionable. In an interconnected, volatile global economy, who can go it alone? That’s why the eastern philosophy of “no-self” is catching on rapidly. If we aren’t defending the self, apology comes naturally.
3. Decide if we want to be right, appear to be right, or be successful. Surrendering on this one is the necessary inner paradigm shift that makes apology possible.
4. Ignore the lawyers, initially. We can apologize in ways that won’t invite legal action or strengthen the case of the opposition. After we make a decision to do a mea culpa, then we should listen to the lawyers.
5. Try out apologizing. When we get the favorable attention of others out there, we know we’re doing it right.

When talk show host Oprah Winfrey realized she had been duped by one of her chosen authors, James Frey, she accused him on live television of lying about the supposed facts in his book, A Million Little Pieces, and she apologized to her audience for originally endorsing the book. The high-profile celebrity knew the power of an apology; done right, it became disarming.

Unquestionably, a sincere apology has become an effective tool in practicing communications. Most everyone will give a break or second chance to someone who admits a mistake. We are human. We do our best. We are not perfect. We make honest mistakes. In extremely difficult times, an apology can be an effective and proven method of controlling what the media says about you.

Filed Under: Featured • Media Relations • Reputation management • The Media Savvy Leader

Tags: David Henderson • The Media Savvy Leader • value of apology