Thursday, October 18, 2018

3 crisis lessons from USA Gymnastics’ leadership struggle

The hits keep on coming for USA Gymnastics, still reeling from recent resignations and arrests connected to the Larry Nassar scandal.

The New York Times reported:

U.S.A. Gymnastics has been in upheaval for several years since the revelations about Nassar, who has been accused of molesting hundreds of girls and women, including national team gymnasts, when they sought medical treatment from him.

… Now the organization is on the clock to hire a new chief executive. Gymnastics is one of the United States’ most successful and popular Olympic sports, and the 2020 Games are approaching.

On Tuesday, USA Gymnastics accepted the resignation of Mary Bono, its former interim chief executive. Bono had served in her position just four days.

The New York Times reported:

Bono, a former congresswoman who trained as a gymnast when she was young, resigned on Tuesday after public complaints about her opposition to Nike’s support for Colin Kaepernick, the former N.F.L. quarterback who knelt during the national anthem to protest social injustice and police brutality. Bono was also widely criticized for her connection to a law firm that advised the gymnastics federation as it delayed revealing what it knew about sexual abuse committed by its national team doctor, Lawrence G. Nassar, who is now serving a prison term of 40 to 175 years for the abuse.

… The federation had hoped to regain some stability when it announced on Friday that Bono would be its interim president and chief executive, replacing Kerry Perry, who was forced out in September after just nine months.

A former organization president was recently arrested as well.

[FREE GUIDE: 3 things you (probably) didn't know about crisis communications]

On Thursday, The New York Times reported:

Steve Penny, the former president and chief executive of U.S.A. Gymnastics, was arrested Wednesday on a felony charge of evidence tampering in a Texas investigation into sexual abuse by Lawrence G. Nassar, the imprisoned former doctor for the national gymnastics team.

A grand jury in Walker County, Tex., indicted Penny on Sept. 28 on allegations that he had ordered the removal of documents from a national team training center in the county after learning that an investigation had begun into Nassar’s behavior at the site.

If convicted, Penny could face two to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000, according to a statement from the district attorney’s office in Walker County.

Here are three crisis lessons to take from the organization’s continued leadership struggles:

1. Words aren’t enough: Do more than apologize.

On Wednesday, USA Gymnastics tweeted a statement from its board of directors:

In the statement, the board said:

… We take full responsibility and apologize for the missteps that occurred and for the distraction this has caused – particularly when the focus should be on our athletes as they head off to Doha to compete in the World Championships. We also want you to know that we, as a board, are committed to taking action – even when it means changing course – to respond to the needs of our community.

During this period while we are recruiting a new leader, our board will be very involved in the day-to-day operations, and we will continue to have our management committee – made up of independent, membership and athlete directors - overseeing the operations of USA Gymnastics. The Board – taking into account the lessons learned from the most recent events – will review potential interim solutions to address critical management functions until a permanent CEO is identified.

However, neither the statement nor any subsequent communications have shared how the organization plans to “change course” or “take into account the lessons learned.” Without a clear path forward, USA Gymnastics is not telling people how it will overcome its crisis. This lack of transparency is not helping it regain trust.

A look at Twitter users’ comments shows how people currently view the organization:

The lesson? Be transparent and honest in your plans to fix a crisis. Drop the corporate apologies and PR speak, and instead identify solutions that your audience can visibly see you working toward.

2. Become digitally savvy.

USA Gymnastics’ Twitter account looks odd, with just two tweets containing its board’s statement about Bono, followed by retweets from gymnasts currently at the World Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar. There’s no mention of the statement on the organization’s Facebook page, either.

However, USA Gymnastics’ shortcomings on social media are more than just a mishandling of its official accounts.

The day after USA Gymnastics announced Bono as its new president, four-time Olympic gymnast Simone Biles shared a tweet in which Bono criticized Nike for its recent campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick :

The since-deleted tweet was roughly a month old when Biles tweeted it, however, prompting many to question why USA Gymnastics’ board members didn’t review Bono’s social media presence before offering her the position.

“U.S.A. Gymnastics’ board of directors later said that the post was disappointing and that it had been missed during the vetting of Bono’s social media accounts,” The New York Times reported.

On Sunday, as criticism grew, Bono tweeted:

Roughly an hour later, Bono deleted the post and tweeted the following:

Fortune reported:

Bono expressed regret on Sunday, and also vowed that her post did not reflect how she would approach her work with the organization. But the damage had clearly been done.

On Tuesday, Bono tweeted her resignation—and stood by her tweet criticizing Nike and Kaepernick:

In her statement, Bono said:

My regret is that I would have brought to the organization, the angst and anger of my own story: a young aspiring gymnast who witnessed first-hand the assaulting behavior of a coach, watch peers who acquiesced it in move ahead while those who didn’t were left behind, and myself stayed silent … I would have brought a fire in the belly to ensure that no one as taken with gymnastics as I was at that age, should have to choose between abuse and ambition, or between properly speaking out and promoting personal success.

My withdrawal comes in the wake of personal attacks that, left undefended, would have made my leading USAG a liability for the organization. With respect to Mr. Kaepernick, he nationally exercised his first amendment right to kneel. I exercised mine: to mark over on my own golf shoes, the logo of the company sponsoring him…

A tweet, Instagram photo or Facebook post can make headlines within hours. PR pros no longer have the luxury of waiting to make a statement or not including social media channels in their strategies because their focus is on traditional communications channels.

If you’re not currently digitally savvy, become so.

You might not lead an organization’s social media team or execute its online campaigns, but at the very least, you should know how to look through people’s social media accounts for potential threats to your organization’s image. You should also take care to avoid making similar mistakes on your own social media profiles.

3. A systemic problem requires a clean start.

Offering apologies and scrambling to fix a current firestorm won’t help your organization’s reputation if the crisis to which you’re reacting is widespread.

USA Gymnastics has been struggling to build trust, but the board’s decisions over the past year haven’t helped to instill confidence.

ESPN reported:

Bono was to be a stopgap while USA Gymnastics searched for a permanent successor to Kerry Perry, who resigned under pressure from the United States Olympic Committee in September after spending nine months on the job.

Bono's brief tenure was preceded by another high-profile departure. USA Gymnastics moved on from coach Mary Lee Tracy on Aug. 31 -- just three days after she was hired -- saying she "inappropriately" contacted a survivor of sexual abuse by Nassar.

“Tracy initially defended Nassar, even after dozens of women said he had abused them,” The New York Times reported.

ESPN reported:

"Selecting [Bono] as interim president was an insult to every survivor and shows a complete disregard for the safety of child athletes," said John Manly, a California-based attorney who represents more than 100 women suing USA Gymnastics for its failure to stop Nassar. "USA Gymnastics should be decertified immediately as the governing body for gymnastics in the U.S. It should be replaced by a body with credible/competent leadership that includes survivors. USAG is a disgrace to our current athletes, to the survivors and our nation."

The BBC reported:

[Gymnast Alexandra Raisman], who won team and floor gold at London 2012 and team gold at the 2016 Rio Games, said it was the former congresswoman's role at Faegre Baker Daniels that troubled her.

In a series of tweets, she pointed out how lawyers at the firm, although not Bono herself, and sport administrators had been aware of abuse allegations against Nassar in 2015, and yet he had been allowed to continue working - and abusing children.

Following Bono’s resignation, Raisman tweeted:

Whether it’s a problem with leadership or a broken system within an organization (such as an ineffective customer service department), the best path forward is often cleaning out the old and starting anew.

Without getting rid of the people and systems that caused your crisis in the first place, you can’t truly move forward with your reputation management plan. Don’t just put a Band-Aid on your organization’s image “wound.” Rip it off, and be transparent about your current and future plans to regain trust once again.

What additional advice, if any, would you offer organizations confronting this kind of crisis, PR Daily readers?



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