Today at 11:30 am, embattled New York Governor Eliot Spitzer finally resigned after what seemed like an eternity since it was revealed that he has used, as recently as 30 days ago, the services of escorts.
It was bad enough when Mr.Spitzer, upon being faced with the charges on Monday, gave a very, very vague, unapologetic statement, and forced his wife to stand at the podium with him. I have been asked by numerous reporters over the past few days what damage control Mr.Spitzer could have possibly done, or how he should handle the crisis.
The answer is an easy one.
Resign. Immediately. End of story.
What Mr.Spitzer failed to realize was that he had fundamentally betrayed his brand, and his message, upon which he has staked his entire career. Spitzer was relentlessly on message, and his message was that of THE crime fighter, the white knight, the superhero pursuing any and all villains.
The standard crisis communications solution is to do exactly what he did, stand with your wife, whom you just humiliated, at a podium and issue an apology. What Spitzer failed to realize was that his indiscretion was different, the situation was different, and the only thing he could have done is resign immediately and hope to limit the number of media cycles in which he would be the lead story.
From a public speaking standpoint, Mr.Spitzer has evidently learned very little over the past few days as his lack of remorse or emotion in his speech(s), what appears to be his focus more on his position that on what he has done to his family, and what was really a political speech rather than a public apology can easily make one call his sincerity into question.
So what public speaking/message development lessons can be learned from this situation?
1. Never, never, never base your message and your brand on a lie or falsehood. Once you are branded a hypocrite, you have passed the point of no return.
2. Don’t apologize unless you mean it. The appearance of insincerity is worse than no appearance at all.
3. There are no textbook cases when dealing with a crisis. Every situation requires a different strategy, and not every situation has a solution.
