When Good Intentions Go Wrong

Don't let good intentions lead to unintended consequences in your PR efforts. In this episode, we discuss a recent well-meaning attempt by a CEO to address negative press that ended up creating more problems for the company. We highlight the dangers of speaking without consulting expert counsel and the need for CEOs to consider the impact of their words on both internal and external audiences.

Read the article in TechCrunch: Carta’s CEO reaches out to customers about bad press, alerting them to bad press.

 

Transcript

Michelle Kane (00:17):

Thank you for joining us on this episode of That Solo Life, the podcast for PR pros and marketers who work for themselves, people like me, Michelle Kane, with VoiceMatters, and as always, my wonderful co-host, Karen Swim of Solo PR Pro. Hi Karen, how are you on this fabulous Monday?

Karen Swim, APR (00:38):

Hey, Michelle. I'm doing great. In spite of the major temperature drop, it's freezing cold, but it's okay. I'm good. I'm so good having a great moment. How are you?

Michelle Kane (00:49):

I'm well, thanks. Yeah, the fall crisp is finally arriving. It's a little gloomy today, but that's okay. Our morning was actually brightened up by this news from Carta. It was just a little astonishing. I think the theme of today would be CEOs who think they're helping, but they're also not. They're just not. This is why you have us. You might think that we're just fluffy, but we're not. PR pros are essential to your business.

Karen Swim, APR (01:22):

There could not have been a better ringing endorsement of why you should hire professionals to do your communications. I mean, I really just want to take this story and make copies of it and send it to every company in America and say, if you wondered why and as you're looking at your 2024 budgets, you're good reason to keep PR people on your team.

Michelle Kane (01:54):

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's definitely a case of you may be the most well-meaning person in the world, however,

Karen Swim, APR (02:05):

So

Michelle Kane (02:06):

Set it up because you flagged this story for us. What's the lowdown of what exactly happened?

Karen Swim, APR (02:12):

So here's what happened. So Carta is a tech company in the Bay Area and the CEO Henry Ward, who seems like a lovely person, by the way, wrote a post about a piece of negative press that no one had seen. So of course no one had seen it. It was going to be a non-thing until he wrote a post about it and then went into great detail into all of their negative press in addition to just coming off really bad. So it's just a highlight of what happens when a CEO takes matters into his own hands. So he published a post of a long post that he had sent out to his employees, and again, keep in mind no one had seen the story, but then when the CEO comes out and puts something out, and his reason for putting this out is to help other CEOs who might be enduring the same thing.

All kinds of attention was created around the story that no one would've seen had he kept his mouth shut. So it went out there and I saw it in Mary Ann's TechCrunch newsletter, and then there was another story, and then it was a roundup, and then here we are on a Monday morning talking about it, not because we want to pile on this poor CEO who got it wrong, but because it's a great opportunity to share again what you really should not do and kind of work through what he was thinking and the many ways it all went bad for him.

Michelle Kane (03:46):

So step one is when you have the notion of writing a screed like this is to check with your comms team so they can weigh in on whether or not it's a good idea because we understand, I mean, who doesn't want to defend themselves? That's the first urge of, well, no, we didn't because in this litany of things, but as you said, this article that really no one had seen, it's got a whole new life now and now I'm sure most everyone in his realm has seen it, and it's just like that commercial where the liquid spills and you're going go

Karen Swim, APR (04:28):

Most definitely, and it's interesting. Here's the message that I would send to CEOs. We just had a similar situation in my real life work like this happend. It wasn't sexual abuse allegations or anything like that, but it was a potential crisis situation. Obviously, we were looped in immediately when we knew that this could be a situation. So we did what everybody does. We had a crisis plan around this particular thing. We work through create with the client, helping them to draft a statement that could be sent out to the media in the event that this news did become public, and we asked him to please share this with legal, to share it with the appropriate people so that it got blessed and it was ready to go in advance. The news did get out, a reporter did contact us. We were able to respond immediately. Not with no comment, not with, we can't talk about this, but with the natural statement. It turned out to be a great story. That was exactly how we would've wanted this to play out, and I think with CEOs, this man sounds like he was leading with his heart.

Michelle Kane (05:41):

Oh, sure.

Karen Swim, APR (05:41):

It's a terrible idea in business in general for lots of decisions because you've got to put on your professional hat. You have to think about your audience, and you have to understand that talking to the public is not talking to your best or talking to your family. There's so many ways that this can go wrong and did, and so he spoke from his heart, and it does sound like he's a decent human being, but he picked up a shovel and dug a grave that was deep enough for 20 bodies to fit into it. It just got worse and worse and worse and worse.

Michelle Kane (06:19):

Yeah. Yeah. That's not the way to start your week, let alone do at all. And looking at the flip side of this, we're not being disingenuous. I mean, you certainly don't want to hide things, but at the same time, my goodness, you can just reveal information that just really does not need to go public. And even if and when it does, like you say, we need to plan around that, plan for it. Consider all the audiences, all the ways that this will impact you, your company, your people. There's just so much that goes into it Now, he could very well have written this, gotten it all out of his system, and then looped in his team for good counsel and to just talk him through it, because I do understand, I mean, especially in that world, your team can feel like family and you can feel a bit of comfort, and you're just so wrapped up in the world of the day-to-day of your company. So I get it. I get how this could happen just from the other side of this. Yeah, just please involve your communications team members. Just do it. I don't care how much you think you don't need to or how much you think that this line item is a waste of money. We just have these people around telling us where to put dots and dashes. No, it's so much more than that. We're your champions.

Karen Swim, APR (07:52):

He vomited on his internal people as well. I mean, it really was. It was just like he vomited words all over everybody and he really, I don't know how his internal people reacted, but I would also say that in the same way that attorneys advise, you don't just, yes, we know the facts and we know that when you are in a situation where you're defending yourself, there's that human instinct to want to have your say, but you have to be strategic about it. You have to be smart about it. And as a CEO, I think that there are some things that you share and some things that you don't share, and not because you're lying to people, but there's a way that you frame things and you have to take a step back and not think of yourself and just wanting the information off of your chest, but you also have to protect your people. So in my mind, here's one of the downsides that I see. You brought attention to negative information. You shared that internally and externally, which then you also brought up all of the other negative things when people may not be adding it up as you do, because what happens is that sometimes something bad happens and people forget about it, it goes away, but you just right in front of your team too, reminded them of all of the negative press, and you said that and you apologized for it.

I'm so sorry. I know you didn't sign up for all of this negative press. Why would you paint that picture of pessimism to your team? It was unintentional. I know he was attempting to comfort them and to say, I'm so sorry. I know you didn't sign up for this, but they're not really bearing the weight of this either. You are bearing the weight of it, and now you dropped it at your team members’ feet. Because I've worked for companies where there has been negative press because that's just been the job. That's been the job that we're in. It didn't make me feel differently about the company. What I wanted to hear from them is not a rehashing of negative news, but I wanted to continue to see leadership, and I wanted to continue to see the integrity because what was important to me was being able to trust my leaders and be mentored by them and understand that they truly care for me. That didn't mean rehashing negative scenarios, and so I think he could use some help in that area. It sounds like they may not have internal comms people or any PR people on their team, because I know that professional communicators would've never allowed either of those scenarios to happen internally or externally.

Michelle Kane (10:32):

I agree. I agree. And doesn't it really point to a bit of a trend in that arena of, well, we don't need PR people like well, well, you do. You really do. I mean, trust us, we're not, I mean, we know our listeners know this, but for those outside of our industry, we're not just making up this job because it's fun to pretend. We realize, and as many of our clients realize, we provide an essential role of looking out for you and your best interests and helping you present yourself in the best way possible to your publics.

Karen Swim, APR (11:07):

I agree. I would say another big mistake that he made, and this is a myth that I believe many, many, many founders carry and many organizations carry in his public post. Essentially, it sounded like he was bashing the media and he painted them all with this broad brush of negativity and made everybody sound like they were an exposé reporter that could not be further from the truth. By and large journalists, and I'm talking real journalists. I'm not saying every Joe America with a blog of their own, that's not necessarily a journalist. Well, some journalists definitely have their own thing. Journalists care about reporting facts. We all have inherent biases, but some of us are trained to understand that we have those biases, and to learn how to communicate with an awareness of that and still be balanced. It was the most horrific statement, and it was really unfair because the one thing that PR people fight for and we all agree on is that we believe in a free press.

We need a free press. He even brought up John and the Theranos reporting and said that after he won this Pulitzer Prize for his work, that it ushered in an era of basically gotcha journalism in the tech world that also could not be further from the truth. What John did was a public service. He reported on a company that had lives at stake. These were people that were relying on laboratory testing for diagnoses. This was an important story. I believe that it won an award because it was great reporting. He took a deep dive. He hung in there. This was not to say gotcha to the tech industry and expose every little dirty secret, but let's be clear, the tech industry has been notoriously horrible culture. I've experienced it myself. I know that many people out there have had personal experiences, and so any reporting that's done that talks about a company culture and things that go wrong, it's not because reporters are trying to win awards or because they're out to get you. They're doing their jobs.

Michelle Kane (13:44):

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They're just doing their due diligence, seeking the truth in a way that will benefit all of us. It's just, yeah, I mean, the press over the years has gotten a bad rap, and especially, it's been quite intense as we all know these past several years. And yeah, that's very disheartening, especially when that same company might like the press to pay attention to them for the positive things they do in the future, and how will this impact that? I'm not saying the press is vindictive, they're not, but it's just like, oh, well, I don't know how we're going to be portrayed if we cover you. So…

Karen Swim, APR (14:27):

100% agree. I mean, he really did get that wrong, and by trying to be his own press agent in this letter, he talked about some past allegations of racism, misogynism, and sexual harassment, and there were a couple of executives, I guess, that were fired, and he brought that up again, and he said that our mistake wasn't in firing them, it was in hiring them at all. Again, it doesn't paint your company in a positive light. And I mean, if Henry ever hears this podcast, please understand that we are not saying that you are a terrible person. We are saying that you made a mistake in the way that you handled it, and so in the same way that you found it instructed in your posts because you thought that it would help CEOs, we are hoping that CEOs will listen to this podcast, and companies will listen to this podcast and understand that good intention should not drive your PR or your leadership decisions. That was a huge misstep, and we're only talking about this because it is public. We would never be talking about this had it never been made public.

Michelle Kane (15:42):

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We come at this from purely helpful motives because we want, Hey, we want everyone to do well. And if that was something that you needed to get out of your system, that's great, do it. But it's the old adage of write the letter, don't send it.

Karen Swim, APR (16:04):

I've done that a million times. It's great therapy. Writing for me just helps to get it out there, so I'll do my thing, I'll rant. I'll get it all out, but it'll never see the daylight because it's an exercise for me. And again, it's so important to draw that line, and I don't think that every human being, that's not a skillset that we all possess, and that's okay. It does not make you a less than worthy human being or leader. It just means that there are professionals that can help you see the potholes that you wouldn't even know to look for. And so again, here is who I believe. I think I've said this over and over, to be a really good man who had really good intentions, but in speaking without expert counsel, he really did himself and his company a disservice. And to be honest, I guess one thing is that I didn't really think I had heard of Carta. Maybe I heard of them, but wasn't real aware of them, but I probably won't forget their name again. So good job in amplifying your brand name.

Michelle Kane (17:15):

Oh my gosh. Well, we know now, and we hope you found value in this time together today. CEOs, hang in there, give us all a call. Make sure you have a comms pro at the ready, because honestly, it will do you a world of good. And until next time, thanks for listening to That Solo Life.