A guest post by Submariner
Being respected only to the extent
that you are feared is pure Tucker, but it’s not good for the long term for a
retailer. People always have a choice. If the rejection of your plans for a new
store in Little Binding is felt by half the town to be a victory for local
democracy against the forces of oppression, you’re well on the downslope and
it’s time to short the shares. The Tucker doctrine puts you on the opposite
side from your customers. In the case of the Tesco crew, they are even on the
wrong side of the Blair backlash.
In business and politics alike,
times are hard. In the post-bubble economy everything feels like a crisis, and
in a crisis the feeling is that anything goes. It’s only human nature to want
the comfort of a mythical deadly PR assassin on your side.
But out among the reality-based
community, it is not going to help. This is no time for smoke and mirrors, no
time for bluster.
The best corporate communication is
when the audience sees the business, not the spin apparatus. If you want long
term support, take your pain when it’s due. Be frank with your employees, customers, and lenders. Guide expectations to where you think they should be,
realistically. Don’t try to put an unrealistic gloss on your losses or revenue
reductions.
Educate people about what you can
and can’t control in the market. Your business may well be affected by snow,
the electoral cycle or the Japanese tsunami, but don’t look as if you’re asking
to be excused. Say what the effect has been, when it will drop out of the
numbers, and what (if anything) you’ll do differently in the future.
If customers, employees, investors or other
stakeholders feel they are being spun a line, they will not give credit even
for actual performance and good works. What they will respond to is meaningful
management action, backed up by solid facts, good listening and a sense that
there are overlapping interests between them and the organisation doing the communicating.
No-one ever won trust through intimidation, and fear paralyses better than it
motivates.
What politics and the corporate
world need more of is the anti-Malcolm. The best communicators are those who
concentrate on gathering proper evidence, telling the truth, helping people
inside and outside to accept and understand reality, and using their own
understanding of the world to help the business make the truth better over
time.
Yes, yes. I know. No-one wants to
hear that now. It’s all so Pollyanna, enough to make you puke. Hand me the
Malcolm mask, and the Profanisaurus. I’m off out to get a job.
Part 1 - A Tucker of your own
Part 2 - Life Imitates Art
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