Way more than enough has been written about the Tiger Woods episode of late, but it’s one more reminder that in good and bad times, always tell the truth and do it damned fast. There is little if anything to be gained by dragging out a response. If you’ve got to get the lawyers involved do it only with the PR people sitting with the lawyers as equals at the table. Decide fast and get on with it. Opportunity follows speed.
I had the pleasure of working with Tom Downs when he became chairman and CEO of Amtrak. Tom is brilliant, articulate, well-read, irreverent and has an infectious sense of humor. In his first meeting with his top 115 leaders, Tom admonished them: “If you remember nothing else from this meeting, remember these four words: “Always tell the truth.”
Telling the truth became the norm at Amtrak in those days. If there was ever doubt about how Amtrak officials were to respond to the news media, how a supervisor was to communicate to a conductor in the Northeast Corridor or how an employee was to relate to a colleague, people would ask: “What would Tom say?” and people would respond in unison, “Always tell the truth.”
Way more than enough has been written about the Tiger Woods episode of late, but it’s one more reminder that in good and bad times, always tell the truth and do it damned fast. There is little if anything to be gained by dragging out a response. If you’ve got to get the lawyers involved do it only with the PR people sitting with the lawyers as equals at the table. Decide fast and get on with it. Opportunity follows speed.