Forget making New Year Resolutions. Instead, stop doing these 6 things.
Stop lying.
The beautiful thing about telling the truth is that you don’t have to remember what story you told. You also don’t have to remember who you told or which version.
Stop being cocky.
You’ve heard the saying, “You’re not sorry. You’re just sorry you got caught.” Check your ego at the door. Then you won’t lie in bed awake at night wondering if someone is going to blow the whistle.
Stop believing what you’re doing is too small to be noticed.
Think what you’re doing is small-scale enough to fly under the radar? You’re kidding yourself. Whether you’re taking money from your company, non-profit, employees in dribs and drabs, or if you’re making comments you think are friendly and innocuous. They will get discovered.
Stop abusing your power or position.
Don’t force people to do things by lording over them to get your way. Don’t force them to keep silent. These things tend to bubble over and not stay secret for long. Do this often enough, and they’ll band together to ruin you.
Stop thinking the problem will go away on its own.
The more moving parts, the less chance of things blowing over. If you don’t take control of a situation early on, you’ll create a beast that’s hard to handle. Deep down inside, you know it’s wrong.
Stop putting things into writing.
It’s amazing the things that people commit to recording. If you keep writing about all the bad things happening to you, you’re essentially building a strong case against yourself. You know how in the movies where two people are trying to have a secretive conversation, and they turn on the music to drown out the bug in the room? Keep private matters private.
Obeying these won’t guarantee you’ll never have a crisis because once you reach a certain level of celebrity or status, people come out of the woodwork to take advantage of you. But you’ll greatly reduce your chances of ever having to call upon us.
For a deeper glimpse into our world, see our book on Amazon, A Lawyer’s Guide to Crisis PR: Protecting Your Clients In & From the Media.
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You can reach Roger Gillott and Eden Gillott directly at 310-396-8696.
Gillott Communications is a Los Angeles-based public relations firm that specializes in high-stakes Crisis & Reputation Management with more than 50 years of expertise in strategic communications, corporate public relations, and working with the media.
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