Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

When I heard the story about Tania Head from my colleague at bizofknowledge.com, Bill Belew, concerning her unbelievable assertions about her alleged experiences as a survivor of 9/11, which now look like they were completely fabricated, it makes you ask the question why she did it and how she got away with it so long.

According to Head, she lost her fiance as the World Trade Center collapsed. She added all sorts of stories on her way down from the 78th floor, which would have made her one of only 19 that made it from that high up. You can find the story of Belews here, and the story in the New York Times  here.

The point I want to make her is why it was able to go on so long, and what we can do about something like this in our businesses to prevent this type of thing from happening.

What allowed this to go on, wasn't something bad, but rather, it was something good: people were willing to assume the best when hearing the alleged tragic story.

As it relates to business, we must be careful in how we handle something like this. When you consider 9/11, many things about it are considered sacred by many people. So to publicly question something considered sacred, is a sure way to damage the reputation of anyone or business attempting it.

The reason questions weren't asked for such a long time, in my estimation, was because most people couldn't and wouldn't think in this way - especially in the immediate years following the tragedy.

When we examine our people or potential hires, we must be very careful on how we handle the way we do it. I'm not talking about the legal aspects here, that should always be followed, rather I'm talking about how we handle the process of dealing with someone we are sure may be lying about something important, but is a sensitive issue of many people in the company and without.

One reason the assertions of Head weren't questioned, is most people wouldn't think that way, and even if they did, most wouldn't want to pursue it. Part of the reason is it's very messy and not uplifting in any way. It can take something out of people that hear about it.

How to we handle employees or fellow business leaders that may lack integrity, but may be connected to a very sacred cause or idea?

I think the answer is we must do it as thoroughly as we can. We can't hold back finding out information because it could be controversial. As a matter of fact, when something has the potential to be devastating, it's even more important to be completely thorough in our investigations. People will demand absolute proof in cases like that.

It seems it's more important the actions we take after we get the information, than the information itself. Most people won't want others to be humiliated if they are found to be lying, when it's connected to something else important. It's these entaglements between people, causes and ideas that make it difficult to handle.

To me, it's best to handle it as quietly as possible with the person in question. Obviously there will have to be communication with those it'll impact, like with Head, who was removed as president of the 9/11 Survivors' Network. Obviously people had to be told why it had to be done.

What I'm talking about here is how it's communicated. It can't be done in a way that somehow maligns the original connection: 9/11 in this case.

It's best to tell the story straightforward, and let people come to their own conclusions. Communication concerning the story has to remain on the behavior. If it is allowed to go beyond that, it can become a worse mess than was originally encountered.

A lot of businesses and business leaders lose public opinion at this point, as the orginal problems are forgotten and secondary, or irrelevant issues are allowed to come to the front.

Again, the best thing to do is communicate the story factually and in detail, from there let those who hear make the determination on what they think about it. Try to push it to hard and people may start to push back, because they resent the way you behaved.

Honest, detailed and open communication is the best way to handle these types of situations. Even if we know it will become public, it's best to deal with it as privately as possible to show we're trying to take the higher road.

Whether we like it or not, when we deal with things considered extremely important by people, we're in a public relations situation. To not understand that and handle it accordingly, has gotten a lot of businesses in trouble. Take the high road, do your homework, and most the time we can come through these types of problems in good shape.