Saturday, October 10, 2009

Leading in the Face of Controversy

A controversy is a contention, strife, dispute or argument.

How do you manage controversy?

If you were a pageant winner and your criminal record surfaces, what would you do? If a young President of his country wins a Nobel Peace Prize, although he has not fully delivered on his results how would he respond?

Managing controversy requires skills in public relations and rapport, your personal/leadership branding, and personal values. Reeves Leong talks about Leadership Branding, and how the gestalt of a person matters more than singular events and performance records.

Do you tell the truth way before others find out? Or, do you test your luck and pretend it never happened? Or, do you let the dust settle after the wave of controversy washes over? Muddied thoughts lead to the blatant passing of judgments, inaccurate recollections, or things turning more ugly. Is bad publicity better than no publicity? Dirty laundry is still dirty – when you air it. In a world dictated by blatant self-aggrandisement via the formulaic, five-minutes-of-fame, YouTube-orientated span of attention, we need to be mindful of how the world views us through our actions, or inactions.

It should not be bad news that leaders should worry about. It is how bad news is presented to their people, that matters more. So, did Late-Show host David Letterman do the right thing by revealing details of his inappropriate employer-employee relations before somebody beat him to the microphone? If you cannot undo the damage, can you minimise it - via damage control, and the guise of collateral damage?

On a highly positive note: Congratulations to Singapore’s Mr Ng Ser Miang who has been elected to the post of Vice-President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC); he will serve a four-year term. 60-year-old Mr Ng, an IOC Board Member since 2005, was instrumental in bringing the Youth Olympics to Singapore in 2010. He has served on the Executive Board for four years.

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