THE SOCRATES CULTURE; The Secret To Making Good Decisions

How Great Leaders Make Great Decisions
Ishola Ayodele

A man once approached the great thinker of antiquity, Socrates and asked him a great question that has benefited so many people in the world today.

Man: Oh wise one what is the secret to making great decisions?

Socrates answered,  *"Ask great questions"*

In 1959 the Soviet Union (now Russia) beat the United States in the race to the moon when it landed the first man-made object on the moon.

The Then President of America Dwight Eisenhower asked a great question, "how can we be the first country to put a man on the moon?". He was told to put more funding into mathematics and Sciences which he did.

On July 20, 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the surface of the moon and Neil Armstrong an American walked on the moon thereby making the United States of America the first ever nation to successfully landed a human being on the surface of the moon.

Peter Drucker, the great scholar on Management remarked,
*"My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions."*

Jim Collins, the business leadership guru, wrote extensive about leading with question especially in his book 'Good to Great' where he wrote about a mechanism for moving a company from good to great.

 This mechanism he called *the Council* which is a composition of the right set of people headed by the CEO. And how does the mechanism called council work? *By asking questions which are germane to the success of the company* and find finding answers through dialogue and debate.

How can we master the art of asking the right questions?

Michael Lindenmayer, elaborates on the
seven basic ingredients to nurture the Socratic culture of asking a great questions in his article published in the forbe magazine.

*Here are the seven ingredients*

1. *Quest for the best answers*
Ray Dalio said, “Remember that your goal is to find the best answer; not to give the best one you have,”.

Ray Dalio founded Bridgewater, one of the best performing hedge funds in the world. His firm is guided by a set of principles and at the core of those principles is an intense commitment to asking great questions. From how he recruits, to the day to day management, there is a 360 degree culture of asking thought provoking questions.

2. *Be humble; Admit you don’t know*.
You need to check your ego at the door when you go to work. It gets in the way of finding the best answers.
Once your ego is checked, you can be humble and admit when you do not know the answer. This returns us to the questing path.

3. *Build stamina; Get a brain work out*
Most people can handle a few questions before they experience cognitive overload. In other words, their brain freezes and they experience emotional fatigue.
Too many questions with too few answers kicks in the flight response. People can shut down. The good news is that people can build up their stamina so that they can handle more questions.

4. *Empower everyone*
Want to unleash the potential of your team? Yes? Then you will have to ask questions and be up for questing for the best answers.
I recently had lunch with Art Gensler, the founder of the largest design firm in the world. I asked him how he was able to control management at such a large scale. He said, “I don’t.” He applies the power of guiding principles. And he does this through a culture of questions.

5. *Concentrate*
If you want good answers, you need to concentrate on getting them. Our brains are splintered by multitasking.
Stanford Professor Clifford Nass’s research showcases how multitasking both reduces the speed of decision making as well as the quality of the decisions generated.

6. *Questions for the three P’s*
The three P’s are: possibilities,
probabilities,
and priorities.
These three are sequentially linked. Apply different questions to the different categories. Certain questions generate possibilities, a different set generate Probability.

7. *Know thyself*
Having a Socratic culture is great. It also means everyone should embrace the Socratic ideal to “Know Thyself.” First you need to understand yourself before you can understand others.

A Chinese proverb says "He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever."

The eternal truth of life is that every problem has a solution, all you need to do is to *ask the right questions* and be attentive enough to hear the right answer.

Little wonder Voltaire, French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher famous for his wit observed that we should *"Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers"*

Please share your thoughts with me by clicking on the post a comment box below.

Ishola Ayodele is a Public Relations practitioner and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.
He offers the following services to Large Corporations, SMEs and Individuals.

Result Oriented Communication,
Effective Crisis Communication,
Effectual Political Communication,
Reputation and Image management,
And Impactful Presentation Coaching.
He can be reached on
BBM 58ED6030,
twitter @ishopr and via
Email: impactfulcommunications@gmail.com

BRAND ADMIRATION;Why A Customer feels A Personal Connection To A Company

Building a Business People Love, Trust and Respect.
Ishola Ayodele

There is this old saying that readily comes to mind when thinking about human relationships: there are three types of people that we never forget.
First are those who stand with us and help us through difficult times;
second are those who leave us in our difficult times;
and third are those who force us into difficult times.

In early 2015, Comcast made a big announcement : The much-maligned company planned to finally right its many years of wrongs by investing *$300 million* into improving its notoriously awful customer service. The company's press release , as is often the case with press releases, made big promises, and it sounded surprisingly penitent.

The reaction to the announcement was,
 sarcastic chuckles,
 and lots of "I'll believe it when I see it"


And then there were reactions like this on Twitter :

*@EPB_Chattanooga I wouldn't go back to Comcast for $300 million*.

This was unlike *Virgin America*—which has finished atop the annual Airline Quality Ratings for four consecutive years. Check this recent exchange via Twitter between VirginAmerica and one of its customers.

Dom heyberg twittered @VirginAmerica $50 flight compensation credit before I could even complain about last night's flight. Good job

VirginAmerica responded @domheyberg Thank you for understanding

Then Dom replied @VirginAmerica No worries. Shit happens.

The difference in response of customers to these two companies is simply the level of Brand Admiration.

brand admiration—a new concept about to be introduced by marketing researchers C. Whan Park, Deborah J. MacInnis, and Andreas B. Eisingerich in their forthcoming book,
Brand Admiration: Building a Business People Love .

brand admiration can be defined as unconditional love, trust and respect for a company.

Some benefits of Brand Admiration include:

Valuable repeat-purchase patterns.

Unabashed public promotion of the brand.

Higher tolerance for mistakes and missteps.

Stronger talent acquisition and retention.

Improved employee morale.

Expanded alliance and partnership opportunities

According to Professor Andreas Eisingerich one of the authors.
"brands build the strongest and most durable relationships with customers when they offer the following three; Enable, Entice and Enrich customers.

1. *Customers find value in brands that enable them*.
Such brands solve customers’ problems. They remove barriers, eliminate frustrations, assuage anxieties, and reduce fear. They provide peace of mind. With the brand as a solution, customers feel empowered to take on challenges in their personal and professional lives.

2. *Customers also seek benefits that entice them*.
Enticement benefits stimulate customers’ minds, their senses, and thei hearts. They replace work with play, lac of pleasure with gratification, boredom with excitement, and sadness with feelings of warmth.

3. *Customers seek benefits that enrich them and their sense of who they are as people*
 Customers want to feel as if they are good people who are doing good things i the world. They want to act in ways tha are consistent with their beliefs and hopes. They want to feel as if they’re pa of a group in which others accept and respect them. They want to feel proud o their identities and where they came from.

From this I think Brand Admiration hinges on a company's methodic and strategic commitment to developing three key pillars:

1. *TRUST*
Trust is achieved when a brand helps its admirers feel empowered, in-control, confident, or relieved of a particular pain point.

2. *LOVE*
Love is fostered when a brand stimulates senses of warmth, gratitude, nostalgia, and empathy.

3. *RESPECT*
 Respect is earned when a brand's beliefs, principles, hopes, and vision are in harmonious alignment with the people it serves.

It is imperative for these three components of Trust, Love and Respect for a meaningful brand admiration.

In human relationships, trust alone perhaps makes us shake someone else’s hands.
What about love? Love needs to be accompanied by trust and respect for a relationship to be healthy and sustainable.

Love without trust is like a car with no fuel. We can make it go by keep pushing it, but it won’t go very far.

How about respect? Does respect alone carry a relationship? Respect alone may not trigger strong behavioural motivations. Respect without love is likely to involve an arms-length relationship.

Respect may make us bow at someone from a distance. Without love, a relationship only based on respect won’t have that special lasting bond.

This is just a peep into the book. I am sure this book *Brand Admiration* will  definitely enrich our understanding of Branding.

Marketing guru, Seth Godin describes a brand *as a set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that taken together, account for a customer's decision to choose one product or service over another*

Building Trust, Love and Respect is the only to achieve this.

MOVING FROM CRISIS TO OPPORTUNITY; How Buhari could have turned Crisis into an Opportunity

A lesson from Hilary Clinton
Ishola Ayodele (Result Oriented Communication expert)

In 1998, the secret sexual affair between the then President Clinton and a White house intern Monica Lewinsky was exposed. After the initial denial, Mr Clinton later admitted publicly.

This is a shameful act and a big crisis for the US presidency as well as the Clinton family. There were lots of condemnations and call for his impeachment.

Suddenly, the whole nation was thrown into bewilderment when Mrs Clinton came out and publicly said, she forgave her husband.

According to inquisitr.com, "Hillary Clinton explained that she forgave Bill Clinton because of the love she feels for him, which is a gift that comes from her faith.

This statement set the tone for another view point for Mr Clinton's sex scandal. But Mrs Clinton wasn't done she went on to blame herself for her husband’s misdeeds.

According to UK Telegraph, Mrs Clinton had insisted that the sex between Mr Clinton and the then-21-year-old Monica Lewinsky had no “real meaning” and said *she had not been “sensitive enough” to her husband’s emotional state.*

Suddenly, the whole nation forgave Mr Clinton and he was allowed to complete his term.

Hilary Clinton's gain

I. She gained  perception of a loyal wife and an epitome of partnership.

II. She gained great popularity and was also perceived as a woman of faith.

III. She won an election to represent the city of New York despite not being originally from New York.

IV. She is on the verge of becoming the first female US president.

*Aisha's Buhari's comments*

Mrs Buhari in an interview with the BBC said her husband did not know many top government appointees in his cabinet. She also accused them of not sharing the vision of her husband’s party, the  All Progressives Congress party.

Although she did not mention any names, she however asked people to watch out for them on the television programmes.
And she said she won't support  Buhari's reelection in 2019 if things don't change.

According to the Vanguard, President Buhari while standing beside the German Chancellor Angela Merkel  responded jocularly
*“I don’t know which party my wife belongs to, but she belongs to my kitchen and my living room and the other room.”*

PR Lessons

1) *Orientate don't react to a crisis*

According to the businessinsider, Mrs Clinton went through hell during this period of her husband’s sex scandal.

A reactionary action would have been to divorce her husband but this would have aggravated the situation as it may fuel the impeachment call from a section of Americans.

Buhari reacted to Aisha's comments and caused more damage. That statement diminishes the role of women and may make the international community see him has having no respect for women.

The cure for a chronic headache can't be chopping off of head.


2) *Resist the temptation to Blame,  Condemn or Ridicule anybody during Crisis*

What is most needed during crisis is not criticism but leadership. Critics emphasis the magnitude of the damage and hardship a crisis will bring but leaders proffer the solutions to crises.

One way to start is to avoid blaming or ridiculing people in a crisis but to assume responsibility for what happened. The Clinton's crisis needed a leader and Hilary stepped up to the leadership position. This is why most Americans want her to lead them as President.

President Buhari ridiculed his wife rather than addressing the issue. He could have just said, *"Well, that is her opinion and I respect her perspective on my appointees. Her support was crucial to my winning the 2015 election, When I get back we shall discuss it further in our bedroom(jokingly)*

This shows that the president accept criticism, respect other people's opinions and his willing to engage his critics in a discussion.
(good qualities of leadership)

3) *Get on the field*
This is where you do all the repair work. Once a crisis strike you must get busy doing all the right things, meeting all the right people, assembling all the right set of people needed to manage this crisis and most importantly start saying all the right things that need to be said to the right set of people and at the right time they really need to hear it.

Hilary consulted wide and came to realize that deserting her husband in his time of trial may have some negative consequences on her future political ambition.

Thus, getting on the field to repair her husband’s reputation as well as her family's has paid off for her.

Immediately, Aisha granted the interview, the President should have consulted PR experts on the implications of that interview and the best ways to respond to reporters.

I think his media team failed him they should have anticipated all the questions Aisha's interview might generated and most logical answers to them.

4) *Use Crisis as a leverage to demonstrate some great virtues that will win you public confidence and respect*

Samsung's recall of its Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is expected to cost the company about *$5.8billion* according to marketdrive. This act has been praised and commended as a way to regain customer's trust.

On February 6, 2014, General Motors (GM) recalled about 800,000 of its small cars due to faulty ignition switches.

Hilary Clinton leverage on the Monica Lewinsky crisis to show Americans she is truly a dependable friend, a loving, loyal and compassionate wife and a courageous leader. These are the type of virtues Americans love in a hero (check out Hollywood films).

This was wise because she used that crisis in 1998 to position herself as a suitable candidate for the American president in 2016.

Actually Aisha's comments presented the President an opportunity to put himself in good light and to be perceive as a true great president by the International community but unfortunately he missed it.

President Buhari could have responded this way.
*"Well, that is her opinion and I respect her perspective of my appointees. Her support was crucial to my winning the 2015 election, When I get back we shall discuss it further in our bedroom(jokingly)*

Leveraging this opportunity he could have gone further by saying

*but on a serious note, to rebuild Nigeria and grow our economy we must look beyond political lines and prioritize competence.*
(or something better than this; anything that will sell him to the world as being committed to turning Nigeria around)

This would have make the International community perceived him as truly committed to the growth and development of Nigeria. And indeed a great leader.

John F. Kennedy said, "When written in Chinese, the word 'crisis' is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity*.

Please share your thoughts with me by clicking on the post a comment box below

Ishola Ayodele is a Public Relations practitioner and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.
He offers the following services to Large Corporations, SMEs and Individuals.
Result Oriented Communication,
Effective Crisis Communication,
Effectual Political Communication,
Reputation and Image management,
And Impactful Presentation Coaching.
He can be reached on
BBM 58ED6030,
twitter @ishopr and via
Email: impactfulcommunications@gmail.com

45-6-3-2 RULE; The Formula For Effective Rumour Management

When a rumour threatens your reputation or business; What do you do? 
Ishola Ayodele

Some years back there was a report that two people of the same family died after eating indomie noodles in one northern state in Nigeria. Many people started avoiding eating indomie noodles as the word going round was that indomie noodles now contained some poison that kills people. This resulted in decline in the patronage of indomie noodles and some lost in revenue to the company.
After two month of investigation without finding any credible source of this report it became clear it was a rumour.

Dufil Group, the manufacturer of indomie noodles make a very big mistake in keeping mute in the face of the spread of that rumour. And it cost them to lose some significant market share to Dangote noodles in the north.

According to my mobile dictionary,  A
statement or claim of questionable accuracy, from no known reliable source, usually spread by word of mouth.

Two Professors, Gordon W. Allport and Leo Postman in their priceless book, 'The Psychology of Rumor' wrote, "Rumor travels when events have importance in the lives of individuals, and when the news received about them is either lacking or subjectively ambiguous. The ambiguity may arise from the fact that the news is not clearly reported, or from the fact that conflicting versions of the news have reached the individual, or from his incapacity to comprehend the news he receives".

The fact that rumour usually spread because of it importance to the people who spread or receive it makes it very important for us as communicators to understand the psychology behind *rumour* in order to be able to advise our clients effective on how to manage it especially if there is a possibility of it leading to a big crisis.

Rumour just like news has a particular life cycle within which
1) it can cause great reputational damage, decline in sales or lost of customers.
2) it can be quickly contained and permanently debunked before it could cause any damage.

In his thought provoking book, 'The power of Communication' NYU's Adjunct Professor of management and President of logos Consulting Group, Fred Helio Garcia wrote about the 45-6-3-2 rule of Crisis Management which I find very useful for effectively managing rumour.

The 45-6-3-2 RULE
This is a reality-based observation of the news cycle and points at which one can influence the cycle.

This is what it means.

There are specific points in a news cycle where it is more possible to kill a negative and inaccurate story(rumour), and to control and diminish a negative and partially accurate story.

Miss one of these points, you will suffer reputational damage. Worse, the distance between the points grows in an almost exponential fashion, as does the spread of bad news and likely reputational damage.

This is how it works.

45 Minutes:
Within the first 45 minutes, give or take, of a news cycle you have maximum influence on the outcome of a story.

If a rumor prompts a reporter to begin working on a story, the first 45 minutes are critical. During this time, only a small number of people, and possibly only one reporter, knows about the rumor and is working on a story.

If, on the other hand, you are unable to respond to the reporter within the first 45 minutes or so of the news cycle, a number of very powerful negative things happen.

First, the original reporter is likely to be working the phones trying to get confirmation of the rumor, in the process retelling it to sources, who themselves can pass the rumor along to other reporters.

Second, given the proliferation of all-news television, radio, and the internet, the chances are high that the story will break quickly.


6 Hours:
Once a story crosses a wire service, is broadcast on television or radio, or appears on the internet, it is, at least for the moment, out of your control.

It may still be possible eventually to control the rumor and even to kill the story. But now it will much more difficult. And it takes much longer.

As a general rule, once a story is broadcast you can expect to have at least six hours of negative coverage.

During these six hours, more and more reporters are coming to the story, and the story is being rebroadcast on competing media outlets. More and more people become aware of the rumor, and it grows exponentially.

If a story appeared on one all-news cable television, the odds are high that it will appear on others and on the regular network or local TV news stations that night, and in drive time radio. Your customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, regulators, and local community are made aware of the rumor and can begin to act on it, to your reputational and business disadvantage.

If you are unable to control the story during this phase of the cycle, however, expect several days of negative news.


3 Days:
Once a story hits the daily newspapers, you can expect it to be alive for several days. During the day the story appears there is likely to be television and radio commentary about the story, as well as gossip among your customers, employees, and competitors.

The day following publication, newspapers that missed the story on day one are likely to pick it up as their own day one story. Even newspapers that carried the story on day one can carry a second-day story of reaction to the first story.

And those who come late will themselves carry their own second-day stories on day three.

 But by this time you will have suffered several days of reputational damage and will have seen a much wider range of people exposed to the negative rumor.

If you cannot control the story during these three days, expect at least two weeks of negative coverage.


2 Weeks:
After the daily newspapers have had their run, there is still a further news cycle that includes weekly and semi-monthly magazines, industry trade publications, weekend newspaper wrap-up sections, and the Sunday morning talk shows.

If a story has been alive for three days in the daily press it is unlikely to escape some notice from the weeklies and semi-monthlies.

If, however, you are unable to control the story in this timeframe, expect continuous coverage, coverage of Clinton-Lewinsky or OJ Simpson proportions.
A company is unlikely to recover from this kind of scrutiny.

Please share your thoughts with me by clicking on the post a comment box below

Ishola Ayodele is a Public Relations practitioner and a member of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations.
He offers the following services to Large Corporations, SMEs and Individuals.
Result Oriented Communication,
Effective Crisis Communication,
Effectual Political Communication,
Reputation and Image management,
And Impactful Presentation Coaching.
He can be reached on
BBM 58ED6030,
twitter @ishopr and via
Email: impactfulcommunications@gmail.com