Honesty is Not a Strategy


Was Your Strategy Torch ExtinguishedThere’s no doubt it has been a tough news week for reputations this week, from politics to wall street. But a consistent inconsistency has become obvious.

In the rush to respond, to do, thinking and planning were neglected.

Did the politician check his facts or his sound bytes? Did Facebook rush to an IPO before working out the kinks? Did people stop and think or just rush and say “Done is Good”? Honest is not a strategy! (Neither is dishonesty.)
Keep the Goal in Mind - Dancing with the Stars Disco Ball Trophy
People, have you not learned anything from Reality TV?

  • Align with winners, strategize for the desired outcomes.
  • Know your strengths.
  • If you aren’t good answering on the fly, then don’t.
  • If despite planning a big extravagant wedding but have second thoughts, don’t go through with it.
  • Think things through with the goal in mind.
  • Always know you’re being filmed.

You must have a plan before you act, and if your plan doesn’t cover worst case scenarios, it’s not a plan.

Akin’s strategy team should have been aware of his personal beliefs and not allowed him in a situation where they would come out, or at least have prepped him for the politically correct (folks, there’s a reason it’s called politically correct!) responses. He can keep his dirty, ugly mysogenist heart to himself, but as a public figure his team failed him by failing to protect him from his real thoughts coming out.

Facebook had several known issues with their potential, and despite having the IPO assessment point all the potential pitfalls out, they still rushed to ring the bell. Yet even 3 months later the majority of their users do not see ads on mobile devices, the ever increasing platform of choice for users. Ad revenues are a key source of revenue, so how would they expect to retain their base and investors if they still have refused to fix that issue? Their advisory team failed them.

Before you go out there with your plan you have to ask:

How will your audience respond?

There are times when done is good, but when the goal is what matters, and the stakes are very high, done isn’t good enough.