Scott Sobel Featured on Bulldog Reporter’s Daily Dog

The original article can be found here.

Will CEOs and Politicians Stop Making PR Blunders in 2015? What Do You Think?

By Scott Sobel, MA, Media Psychology; President, Media & Communications Strategies, Inc.

2014. A year of amazing “foot-in-mouth-disease” blunders by our business and political leaders. The list of blunders is arguably led by clothing chain Urban Outfitters hawking Kent State sweat shirts decorated with what appeared to be blood spatters, and NJ Congressman Michael Grimm threatening to throw a TV reporter off a balcony.

Of course, every year has its winners. Remember when BP CEO Tony Hayward said “I’d like my life back” after the horrific oil spill in 2010 and this 2001 New York Times headline documenting this incredibly insensitive bit of information: “Tobacco Giant’s Analysis Says Premature Deaths Cut Costs in Pensions and Health Care.”

A short time ago a Fast Company reporter interviewed me while gathering information about a fascinating angle that provides many lessons and warnings for businesspersons, politicians and communications professionals interested in understanding the dynamics of a potential reputation crisis and how to mitigate crisis. She asked, “What types of personalities and especially personal tendencies of leaders present warning signs of trouble?” Please see part of the Q/A between the reporter and me about how to identify rule-breaking personalities that can fuel very bad PR decisions, in the hopes that there will be some lessons learned for 2015 and beyond:

Scott Sobel: My credentials and experience provide a unique perspective on rule breakers. I’ve been a police and investigative reporter at the major market and network levels; and my PR agency works on all types of crisis and reputation management. I also have a master’s degree in Media Psychology.

I am often called on to mitigate business and reputation crisis caused by business leaders who have stretched the truth, been indicted or investigated because they have broken rules to varying degrees. These cases are usually the ones that draw the comments: “What were they thinking” or “How did they ever think they would get away with that?” 

The rule-breakers may be politicians or celebrities caught in an affair—A CEO documenting a racial slur in an email or bragging about “crushing or killing” a competitor in a classic Sherman Anti-Trust scenario. These rule-breakers act because they are self entitled, selfish, surrounded by yes men who reinforce bad behavior, tend to interpret their own reality, maybe borderline sociopaths with no conscious or have a such a strong limbic drive for survival that any selfish act of thinking rules are not made for me is justified.

Ironically, I’ve also seen similar behavior in some CEOs and the dozens of career criminals I’ve interviewed in and out of prison as a journalist. Naturally, all rule breakers aren’t criminals but that depends on what rules or laws they may be breaking.

The media, the movies and even our schools, in many cases, reward breaking the rules by lionizing some very successful businesspersons or celebrities who have broken rules and assist in the desensitization of society in business or violence. 

Reporter: In those “what were they thinking?” situations, in your experience, what do you see as a common cause? Is it a mix of ambition and pressure of success at any cost? Or some other underlying trait/external factor?

Sobel: Sometimes a prerequisite for success is an extreme competitive drive that may be juiced by borderline sociopathic behavior or even an overblown limbic system, a primal survival compulsion. Those often manic manifestations can fuel narcissistic personalities drowning in the inability to recognize any fallibility. Couple that bullet-proof behavior with a tendency to surround oneself with “yes-men” and you have an individual who feels the rules just don’t apply to them, they are better than others and deserve to be self-serving since everyone else will be blessed by the rule-breaker’s success. More simply put: Some rule-breakers in business are compulsive narcissists who surround themselves with sycophants. Those rule-breakers feel bullet-proof because all they feel and hear is “you are great, you are right.” Some Super CEO’s, celebrities and even successful thieves can be narcissistic and selfish to the point of not seeing reality. Of course, that “me ­ me ­ me” behavior can lead to success which feeds on the immense ego-driven position that rules don’t apply to me.” 

Reporter: What are the early signs of a rule-breaker who¹s doing edgy work now, but might lead to a big fall later?

Sobel: The news media loves to stroke hyper-successful types, even edgy entrepreneurs, who can be rule-breakers. When someone is described as “that guy who breaks all the rules, but he’ll eventually pay the piper,” you can easily recognize an individual who is potentially setting himself or herself up for a big failure. Little transgressions may lead to bigger examples of rule-breaking later.

Common sense tells us to watch out for those who tend to always cheat at scoring their golf card, always speed while driving, cut in lines or pocket that candy bar at the check out. Generally, we all know and don’t trust someone who always bends the rules but may be forgiving of those who break inconsequential rules that have no real victim—but who decides the severity of the rule-breaking? It’s likely we are all rule breakers to some degree and do intuitively know when we are going too far. The definition of a sociopathic rule-breaker is probably the individual who isn’t aware of when that line is crossed.

Naturally, the news media also likes to cover those whose pride comes before a fall and those who achieve greater heights can fall farther with a more spectacular crash, e.g. Bernie Madoff. Those kinds of rule-breakers seem to always be amazed that their media “friends” turn on them so viciously. There is a very long list of politicians who cheated on their spouses, stole public funds and broke the rules but thought they were bulletproof. There are a few exceptions, who do get away with murder, but a very, very few do using a lot of luck, charm and big-time lawyers.

Reporter: You mention that society glorifies rule-breaking as a path to success. Brilliant minds often go too far, but ultimately are rewarded for their hubris. Is there a happy medium between creatively solving problems that bend the rules, and behavior that¹s abusive to the system/people they¹re working for? How do we get there?

Sobel: You answered your own question really. Creatively solving problems and bending rules where there are no victims and there is a general societal benefit is very different than a rule-breaker who is narcissistic and selfish to the extreme. If there is no social redemption to an action, then that action should be questioned.

We don’t have enough room to document our leaders and the most famous rule-breakers’ PR mistakes, which harken back to all of human history. Remember biblical times when Pharaoh Ramses II famously told Moses to “Bring it on,” although, since the ancient Egyptian Pharaohs thought themselves to be gods they set all the rules, and in their minds could never make a mistake. Sound familiar?

If history is the template for the future then there will be no shortage of tragic PR examples in 2015 and beyond. Stay tuned, PR crisis managers.

Scott Sobel is president of Media & Communications Strategies, Inc. (www.macstrategies.com), a Washington, DC-based public relations firm that manages reputation and communications challenges of all kinds worldwide. Media & Communications Strategies, Inc. is a founding member of the Public Relations Boutiques International network (www.prboutiques.com).