Being prepared

Know what you are trying to achieve and be prepared for the worst. This may seem obvious, but it seldom is. It’s easy to lose sight of objectives when the chips are down, so it’s vital to keep them in view. For this reason try not to field public relations personnel as company spokespeople. It could be tempting to hide behind them and use their media and communications skills rather than risk the possibility that the managing director might look foolish on television, but the best place for the public relations person to be is at a distance from events, keeping an eye on developments, and with a professional and detached view of what is happening. Your company will get better, more objective advice and as a result your public relations personnel should be able to steer a clear path through the problems.

There is also no point in trusting to luck and taking an optimistic point of view based on the time honoured idea that ‘it may never happen’. At least make sure that if it does, you know where you are and are ready to deal with it. Then if the worst case scenario doesn’t pop up, you can carry on with your job. But take care. It is often surprising how a journalist can miss the obvious, then stumble across it once again three months later – just when everything seemed safe.