September 17
RUDY GIULIANI’s CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS LEADERSHIP
A lot of people don’t like Rudy Giuliani. He’s tough, arrogant, abrasive, and vindictive.
But…
Even Giuliani’s harshest critics have had to admit that over the past long week, the nation’s most tragic hour has proven the New York City mayor’s finest.
His leadership in the face of unprecedented horror has demonstrated pure public relations genius.
Giuliani’s rare instincts can teach other less gifted politicians and public relations professionals alike how to seize public relations leadership in crisis. Indeed, recognizing the steps the mayor has followed — presumably instinctively — in confronting this crisis of all crises is more instructive than any crisis communication manual.
Here’s the PR leadership prescription that Rudy has adhered to in his most memorable moment as mayor.
· First, lead with action.
While few in our society or even our profession, alas understand this — it is “action” that is the key to public relations. Stated another way, you can’t have publicity without performance. Communication is hollow and false if not bolstered by reality and fact.
Action must come first.
Mayor Giuliani understood this. Within what seemed like moments after the Trade Center crashes, the mayor and Gov. George Pataki -who has also acquitted himself admirably -were on the scene in lower Manhattan.
Giuliani immediately took charge of the rescue operation. He announced plans for the police, fire and emergency medical departments; designated hospitals and shelters and blood centers that would be used; and declared the roads, bridges and tunnels that would be used officially closed to the public.
In subsequent days, he personally kept the public informed and updated on all the various actions that government was taking to restore order. He led with action.
· Second, go quickly to the scene of the tragedy.
President Bush was initially- and wrongly- criticized for not returning immediately to Washington to survey the Pentagon attack firsthand.
Mayor Giuliani risked no such criticism.
Not only did he and Gov. Pataki continually conduct news conferences at the Ground Zero epicenter of the carnage, but they both narrowly escaped death when they departed Building One, 10 minutes before it imploded.
Giuliani understood the importance of “symbolically bonding” with those affected by the tragedy, by rushing quickly to the scene of the onslaught.
This was a principle to which Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson adhered when his company was responsible for thousands of deaths in Bhopal, India, and that Exxon CEO Lawrence Rawl violated when an Exxon ship polluted the Gulf of Valdez in Alaska. Rawl was disgraced, and Exxon still, many years later, hasn’t erased memories of that mistaken decision.
Accordingly, the President’s visit to New York City Friday was obligatory.
· Third, communicate continually.
It is impossible in crisis to keep up with changing facts and information. But it is equally impossible to sit back and wait for all the facts to emerge before communicating. In crisis, uncertainty is the enemy.
Others will fill the crisis information void if official sources don’t come forward immediately and continually to set the communications agenda.
Accordingly, Mayor Giuliani set the agenda early, with morning planning meetings of his key aides followed by periodic press briefings to deliver specific messages. At one, he posted photos of the flight recorders that needed to be located. At another, he vowed to punish the bogus fund raisers and bomb scare callers. And at another, he pleaded against provocations of people of Arab descent.
By contrast, initially last Tuesday, the White House hesitated. Ironically, the first official national “face” that the nation saw was that of a public relations advisor, White House counselor Karen Hughes, substituting for the incommunicado President.
The White House quickly recovered its crisis communications footing, and the President, Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, Secretary of Transportation and others have since been continually available and correctly visible to the nation.
· Fourth, demonstrate humanity.
Few things are more urgent in a crisis than showing a human face to those who grieve. But many leaders – corporate CEOs as the most prominent example – mistakenly consider it a “sign of weakness” to show emotion.
This is another reason PR professionals are necessary – to counsel their clients and superiors to express humility and caring and concern in their communications.
As hard-nosed as he is, Rudy Giuliani has no trouble expressing emotion. Among the most poignant portraits amidst last week’s horror was the mayor’s hesitant, heart-rending acknowledgement Wednesday of the loss of three fire-fighting friends, who had accompanied him earlier in the day.
Again by contrast, President Bush, neither a gifted speaker nor a comfortable communicator, was at first stiff and formal in the face of calamity. By mid-week however, the President showed himself to be much more human, particularly when he momentarily broke down in an impromptu Oval Office press conference, when addressing the children of the victims.
In such tragedy, not only is it not wrong to show emotion – it is necessary.
· Fifth, use symbols.
Ours is a visual society. We are galvanized by “symbols,” particularly in crisis.
In the Gulf War, it was yellow ribbons. In Oklahoma City, it was a photo of a fireman carrying the charred remains of a little baby. But in the Trade Center tragedy, the most memorable image was an horrific one – the sight of a jumbo jet crashing headlong into a steel tower and bringing down a nation.
So here again, it was left to the mayor to come up with more hopeful, alternative symbolism. And so he did.
With New York City’s uniformed personnel the great heroes in the horror and with 300 fire fighters missing and feared dead, the mayor conducted his press conferences in an FDNY fire department baseball cap and an EMS medical worker windbreaker.
In so doing, he transmitted to one and all that hope and heroism and courage and confidence were still very much alive, regardless of the devastation.
· Sixth, express optimism.
The final responsibility of a leader in crisis is to express the clear and unmistakable notion that “this too will pass.”
Rudy struck that tone early and often.
“We’re going to rebuild,” he promised at the very first press conference. “We’re going to come out of this stronger than we were before. Emotionally stronger, politically stronger, economically stronger.”
By the second day, the mayor vowed, “Everything is safe right now in the city,” and he exhorted Broadway and businesses to reopen and people to go back to work.
“Returning to normal shows we are not afraid, shows confidence. So do things. Get out. Go to stores. Go to restaurants. Don’t feel locked in. This is a horrible thing that’s happened, the full dimensions of which we can’t begin to understand. But we simply must continue to go about our lives,” he said.
Giuliani’s language was as simple as it was eloquent — honest, straightforward, apolitical. And perhaps it was this quality, more than anything else, that distinguished him from all the other politicians.
As my friend Claude Singer, communications expert in his own right, put it, “Rudy, unlike anybody else, seems to transcend rhetoric and politics. In moments like this, there is no one better.”
Responses:
Kevin Manzel, Chantilly, VA (9/17):
Re: Former Weber Shandwick employee comment below
— How can anyone possibly say public relations has no importance right now?
How else will the president and the U.N. build support–domestically and, especially, abroad–for any of the actions they will take in the coming weeks/months?
How else will the F.A.A., United and American Airlines, and the travel industry as a whole prove to America it is safe again to travel?
How will Arab-Americans stave off the already-apparent rise in hate crimes perpetrated against their innocent people?
I’m no fan of Rudy, but it is more than fair to judge Giuliani’s actions over the past 7 days as a blueprint for how politicians can inspire and effect positive change through their personal PR in times of crisis. PR is more important now than ever.
PR Guru (9/17):
A few short words: Rudy for Prez.
Mary Jane Genova, President, Genova Writing & More, Westport, CT (9/17):
Until Rudy Giuliani emerged as Chief Crisis Officer, the leadership of Johnson & Johnson during the 1980s had written the rules for how to handle crisis effectively. Now, public relations crisis communications has a new set of strategies and tactics about what works — brilliantly.
As a subtext to the mayor’s crisis leadership, there have been other outstanding examples of crisis communications. At the head of the list are the heads of financial enterprises — ranging from Merrill Lynch to street.com. The heads seemed to put aside the usual capitalist individualistic self-interest and showed heart-wrenching concern for employees, the needs of a great city like New York and the fate of capitalism.
Could this be the spiritual turnaround that London Business School professor Charles Handy has been calling for since the mid 1990s. Handy pointed out that we human beings understand “enough” when we come to food or sleep or even partying. But we seemed to have lost our instinct for “enough” when it comes to the goodies of a capitalistic society — money, prestige, security. Well, this public relations person now knows she had enough and is ready to give to others. Traditional capitalistic self-interest may have been redefined in the days following 9/11.
Former Weber Shandwick employee (9/17):
I think it is disgusting to discern the PR value of Guiliani’s “performance” during this terrible tragedy. Is the public relations community so removed from reality that it must rate the “performance” at it relates to public relations, rather than humankind?
Does anyone really think that Guiliani cares one bit about how he is being perceived right now? He is not running for re-election, nor is he stumping for his potential successor Peter Vallone.
Right now, there is no industry less important than public relations.
The only “profession” that matters right now is human nature.
