Admit it. You’ve done it. You’ve pressed ‘reply all’ when your snarky response was only meant for one. Or you’ve sent an angry – or worse, drunken – tweet in response to the project you spent hours pitching for, but didn’t get. Now what? How do you recover from these blunders and keep your personal brand reputation in tact?
Pause. Then act quickly
Still your beating heart and assess the damage. Check that what you think happened really did happen, and run through the possible consequences.
Own up to your mistake
With each passing minute, the crisis (whether real or imagined) kicks up a gear. Resist the impulse to grab your keys and run. Respond. Decide what you want to achieve with your response and then try to right the wrong, honestly and authentically. Sometimes, that’s all that’s needed.
Embrace the crisis
Consider this: how can you turn this into an opportunity? How can you act creatively to use this situation to your advantage? Focus on what you can do, not what you can’t. For example, can you use it as a catalyst to have a heart-to-heart with the person concerned; or volunteer to develop a reputation management tool for your business? Remember, your reputation is made in crises. How you perform in the tough times is what matters.
Don’t beat yourself up
Learn from it. Move on.
Do you have any more ideas for us? Or has something cringe worthy ever happened to you? Please share it with us in the comments below.