Capelle On Golf

I noticed a column by Golf World’s Ron Sirak in which six prominent crisis management consultants explain how they would handle the Tiger Woods crisis.

Before reading the article, I wrote my advice, which appears below. Then I read the article to see what the pros thought. First, my advice, then theirs.

Crisis management would be appropriate for a one time misstep from his otherwise pristine off course life, but this goes way beyond a typical crisis. Woods is not the ideal brand spokesman any longer, and no amount of PR or phony baloney damage control can change that, nor could it have since the accident.

So, forget about  using typical crisis management that is centered on fixing Tiger the Brand. How about fixing Tiger the Man? Fundamental #1 is to first get Woods straightened out.

Woods needs to forget about Team Tiger and find a psychologist and a spiritual healer so he can begin the hard work of rebuilding his mind and way of thinking from the ground up. The right PR firm could help with that.

His swing changes took over a year to take hold – his mind makeover will take even longer. Can he win golf tournaments in the interim? Maybe. But that should be secondary to his spiritual awakening.

Woods is a deeply flawed human being. He needs a time out so he can, for the first time in his life, discover the Tiger he’d really like when he looks in the mirror – not the heartless ninja warrior he was programmed into becoming.

Now for the experts and who I would hire if I was Tiger Woods.

You’re Hired!
Dan McGinn - TMG Strategies
‘What do you really need to do to address the problem?’ Put aside the communication issues. Put aside the pressure from your sponsors. Put aside the chase for the most major titles. What is the real nature of the problem and what is the best advice from the experts to correct it in a substantive way?
“He is going to have to have a new humility. People want to know ‘Do you really get it? You hurt a lot of people.’ Does it look like he wants to earn it back rather than just get it back? He needs great counseling support.
If he tries to deal with this as merely a PR problem, he is going to be a major failure. It will be seen through.”

Good Second Choice
Marsha Friedman   Event Management Services Inc.
“He needs to shift his worldview. It’s not enough for him to show penitence, but he has to actually be penitent. He needs to believe intrinsically that the betrayal of his wife and of the public’s trust was wrong. Any rehabilitation in the public eye must be preceded by at least the beginnings of a rehabilitation within himself.
“…  he needs to take time off from golf not to stay out of the public eye but to repair the damage in both his private and public life.”
Finding his inner peace and fixing the darkness within him that caused this mess will result in him becoming a better golfer than he already is today.”

NO
Jeff Eller - Public Strategies, Inc.
“The only one who can answer [when he should return] is Tiger. He has to get his head to a place where he thinks he can compete at the level he is capable of. [When he returns] he shouldn’t recast himself in any fundamental way. In politics, a prime directive is that you don’t put your candidate in funny hats. Don’t try to make him something he is not.”

NO
William M. Moran  - McCarter & English LLP
“He needs to miss a few [tournaments]. It will demonstrate his value to the game. And when he does come back, the story is not just about his infidelity, but also about his comeback to golf. Then he regains a measure of control. I don’t know if he will ever get to the level of income he has now. But assuming he wins, he will get back to a level he will be very happy with.”

NO
Jonathan Bernstein - Bernstein Crisis Management, Inc.
“If he wants people to think he’s not golf’s equivalent of a bad-boy basketball player or a bad-boy football player, he needs to spend time rehabilitating his personal image. From a public memory point of view, he needs to take a year off. Time heals and makes people forget. And it is going to take him time to return to the focus he was famous for and to be prepared for the media storm when he returns.”

NO
Ken Scudder - Virgil Scudder & Associates
“What I would recommend is one interview with Oprah or Larry King. Then he should do one press conference. ‘ I’m not even sure he should [take a break from competitive golf]. Winning won’t make this go away, but it will help a lot.”