Our latest episode of What Just Happened? looked at fallout of the sexual assault that happened at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup medal presentation.
Kate and Tamara spoke to partner at Mishcon de Reya, Emma Woollcott, about what happened and what lessons brands could learn from how the incident was handled.
Seeing your leader as a risk
It’s hard to imagine an employee or internal team rocking up to the CEO and saying, “we think we should train for a scenario where you do something illegal”. Of course, it’s a reasonable thing to want to prepare for, but the power imbalance makes the idea of suggesting it a bit farfetched.
The truth is, as Emma points out in the episode, it’s much more about being aware of patterns of behaviour and having a culture where everyone listens and learns about what’s acceptable and what isn’t (and being willing to change your behaviour, rather than get defensive about it).
Preparing for a crisis involving your organisation’s leadership team is about considering the potential impact that the role has on the company and its people. A leader can be a positive and inspirational force, or one that people are desperate to escape.
By taking the personal out of the equation and looking at the role over the longer term, as something that many people will hold throughout the organisation’s existence, you can start to really consider the risks it presents and how the organisation will respond to them.
By systemising risk – in other words creating processes to identify and manage all potential risks to the organisation – the risk leaders pose their organisations become less about them as an individual and more about the role and its impact.
Systemising risk
You can systemise risk by creating a healthy culture where inappropriate behaviour is not seen as acceptable, is challenged and acted on – and having processes in place to support this.
You’ll have clear lines of communication between employees, HR, executives and the board. It’s crucial to have as much information as possible so you can see patterns of behaviour and make informed decisions, and it’s why the process of recording reports is so important.
It also really helps to have a feedback process for leaders. Helping to normalise feedback from all levels of the company and set expectations around accountability.
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Featured photo by Mario Gogh on Unsplash
