Thursday, February 19, 2015

Communicating with Authenticity and Integrity: What We Can Learn from Brian Williams





NBC suspended news anchor Brian Williams this week after accusations arose of him falsely reporting multiple, significant, first-hand encounters in Iraq, Israel and New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. It appears NBC hopes that implementing this six-month suspension will allow the controversy to blow over.  What remains to be seen is whether or not Williams will be able to recover his reputation as further details surface on his mistaken accounts of these major news events.

These days, network newscasters are considered celebrities and experts.  We allow them into our homes every night and assume that what they tell us is fact.  We expect them to check their sources and report with the utmost accuracy.  Trust is a difficult thing to garner and once it is lost, recovering it can be difficult.

“It is hard to imagine why Williams would falsely report events from his perch in one of broadcast journalism’s most coveted jobs in exchange for slightly louder applause,” said Washington Post opinion writer Kathleen Parker.

Brian Williams made a mistakeHe apologized and will likely have to do more of that in the future but, right now, he is holding his breath in hopes that he will be granted the opportunity to leave this debacle behind him and return to NBC Nightly News. So what do we learn from Williams and where do we go from here?

Key opinion influencers, role models and respected leaders in the media and business world must maintain a code of ethics and possess a level of integrity and authenticity of the highest level. When they stray from this practice, there are repercussions, for leadership, for the organization and even for the fans they have let down. How do they regain respect and how do their viewers, colleagues and organizations rebound?

Have you or anyone in your company communicated key information inaccurately? What was the outcome and how was the situation addressed? Many people offer leaders their trust assuming they are worthy of the honor based on their role or title. Trust and credibility should be treated like fine crystal. Once broken, it is very difficult to rebuild. 

Authenticity is necessary for a leader to be able to have influence over others. It doesn’t take long for people to catch on when leaders are not authentic or do not follow through with their promises. People have a desire for their leaders to be real and relatable.  Simply put, a leader is not leading if no one is following.   

One of the most difficult roads for organizations to maneuver is the period after an M&A.  Far too often the employees who remain feel the organization lied to them or at the very least that the company was not being honest and candid. The new organization is now tasked with rebuilding trust where it was lost while their people are wondering who will go and who will stay when the dust settles. So the seed of doubt is now rooted in a bed of distrust. Savvy leadership would focus on rebuilding the morale of the organization during this time, while establishing new corporate values and rules of engagement in an effort to make a smooth transition. It’s often not a quick and easy process but the sooner the employees have vision and experience of the new world the sooner trust can be established and the more effective the outcome.

Will Brian Williams receive a second chance? That has yet to be determined. Six months from now there will be a new controversy to occupy our blog posts and social media rants. Throughout history great leaders have made mistakes, yes leaders are human. Unfortunately in life most of us do not get a second chance in situations like this.  Leaders must be authentic or prepare themselves for what could be an indefinite suspension from influence. When you compromise integrity and trust, recovery can be a very hard, long road.



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