If you think you’re having a bad day, just be glad you’re not Lance Armstrong’s PR person.
This past Friday, the world was watching as this legendary cyclist felt everything slip away from him: his medals, his reputation, his sponsorship deals, his relationship with his family, his position as a CEO of LiveStrong. Lance Armstrong finally cracked – admitting his dope usage on a live interview with Oprah.
His story evokes emotion, whether that’s outrage at his choices, sorrow for his loss, or shock at the fact that it took so long to come out at all. But something to note is the pure fact that eventually, the truth always comes out.
It would be nice if that fact was motivation to always do the right thing, to always be prepared, and to always have it all together. But unfortunately, that’s not the world we live in. Things happen, whether they are in our control or not, and eventually, on any path, there is certain to be some crisis along the way.
For the next couple months, we’ll be focusing on crisis communication a bit more. We’ll explore who’s handling it well and who’s failing. And we can link back in each situation to Lance, and on the worst of days, count our blessings that even when it feels like we’re falling apart, at least we aren’t doing Armstrong’s PR.
It is really interesting too see how Armstrong and his attorneys are turning his admission and mortification with Oprah Winfrey into an opportunity for him to move back into a leadership role with the USADA and the World Anti-Doping Agency. Having been a top athlete, the top cyclist in the world, and now the pariah and scapegoat of potentially widespread doping, he will begin to rise again as a reformed and wise leader. Here is a short story out of Houston AP published on NBC Sports about it: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/50594103/ns/sports/