BulletProofBlog the blog on crisis communications

Since my article for Forbes.com was posted yesterday, debate over whether South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford should resign has grown and festered, confirming our view that he accomplished nothing in his press conference except to fan the gathering flames. No such debate has raged over the suitability of Nevada Senator John Ensign remaining in office, nor is it likely to. Meanwhile, Michael Jackson' s tragic death may have eclipsed the story, but the damage to Governor Sanford' s political viability has been done.

These political scandals are usually so caliente that it' s easy to overlook the germane lessons they provide for the rest of us, including lessons for business leaders who may be embroiled in not-so-salacious problems like FTC probes or financial restatements.

But lessons there are, and fundamental ones. Let' s return to the fabled sage we quoted previously, Niccolo Machiavelli, who once said, "Bad news all at once; good news over time." If Governor Sanford is a veritable Machiavelli in reverse - dragging out the saga to ensure maximum public titillation over a protracted period of time - business leaders can do better by compressing all the bad news they have (and can legally disclose) in a single acknowledgement.

That bad news then becomes old news, creating too the opportunity for business leaders to inseminate positive messages about their companies in multiple venues over time. The new stories can then focus on all the productive steps being taken to ensure the problem is resolved or that, if there was wrongdoing, it will never happen again.

It' s never pleasant to rip off a Band-Aid but once it' s over, it' s over. In today' s culture, attention spans shrink and new issues replace old ones. It' s a given that some of those new issues will unfortunately involve new crises and new adversities. Yet the full transparency/speedy disclosure strategy that businesses master today will serve as equally effective models tomorrow.

Courage and speed are the crisis management bywords here, as much for corporate executives as for politicians and athletes.

Oh, there' s one final lesson business leaders can draw from the Sanford scandal. For goodness sakes, keep your composure. Blubbering gets you nowhere.

Richard Levick is President and CEO of Levick Strategic Communicaitons and a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog.