Beware the ‘mile-long screwdriver’!

Theodore Roosevelt once said ‘The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it’. Hands up any readers who have seen senior management ‘meddling’ during a crisis? Yes, I thought so.

An ex-colleague of mine - who used to be in the British Army - called this the ‘mile long screwdriver’ syndrome. This referred to situations where senior officers would ‘lean in’ and meddle when junior staff were working on a problem, for example fixing a Land Rover. A good example of this is in crisis communications where we often see highly skilled communications experts having their media statements or staff communications picked apart by the senior executives without any value being added.

When executives demand to see and check even basic holding statements then communications are delayed resulting in the slowing down of information flows internally and externally. The consequence is that stakeholders can be left in the dark and therefore perhaps less confident in the firm’s crisis response.

When supporting organisations with their communications plans we stress the importance of preparing and signing off ‘boiler plate’ crisis communications than can easily be adapted and issued by the Communications Team without getting further approval in the heat of the crisis. Crisis plans should cover which communications or decisions can be made at each level so there is no doubt about approval protocols.

As a crisis develops and communications get more complex it is understandable there will be wider debate about communications but remember - the specialists are there for a reason. The mile long screwdriver has no place in a crisis response.