Instead of being good in the moment, failing at it.
Robert Solomon
Consultant, coach, and workshop leader, author of the widely read and respected book, "The Art of Client Service," expert in achieving behavior change with advertising/marketing/PR agencies, clients, and individuals.
After happily arriving at a title for the International Advertising Association’s Annual Conference – “Why Client Service is an Art” – I soon realized I needed a story to open my remarks, something that would illustrate, demonstrate, and validate the title.
I was stymied for a bit, but then recalled a post I wrote, “Great client service people are ‘good in the moment;’ what the hell does that mean?” and had my answer.?
The piece recounts how my Foote, Cone & Belding Account Management colleague, Jane Gardner, was able to convince a client CEO, on the verge of thwarting a major brand campaign we presented, to instead do the exact opposite and greenlight it.
It was an amazing turn of events, now largely forgotten by nearly everyone in the room that day with Jane, by everyone at the rest of the agency, and by everyone in the rest of the business.? Pretty much everyone except me.
I thought of this again as I revisited post-October 7 events occurring on university campuses around the country, as Jewish students felt the sting of threatening backlash emanating in the aftermath of the terrorist group Hamas’ ruthless slaughter – there are no other words to describe it – of 1,200 Israeli citizens.
With temperatures rising in college campuses around the country, the Presidents of three of the country’s most prestigious and prominent universities, Penn, Harvard, and MIT, were called to testify before Congress. ?In the midst of the hearing, there came a moment when Congresswoman Elise Stefanik asked President Elizabth Magill of Penn,
“Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Penn’s rules or code of conduct? Yes or no?”
Stefanik then turned to Harvard’s President Claudine Gay, to ask if
“calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard’s Code of Conduct?” ?
Stefanik also put much the same question to Sally Kornbluth of MIT.
The answer was obvious, but the responses were uniformly tentative, waffling, indecisive, unclear, and compromised:
From Magill:? “If the speech turns into conduct, it can be harassment, yes,”
From Gay:? ?“It depends on the context,”
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From Kornbluth:? “It would have to be targeted at individuals and pervasive, as well as require an investigation.”
It’s a simple question:? is the answer yes, or no? ?There are times when nuance is called for; this clearly was not that time.?
No need to take even a second to respond.? No need to consult with attorneys.? No need to check with anyone on campus, not professors, not administrators, and not students.? The answer is simple, unequivocal, unimpeachable.
I’m reading these answers, thinking, “What is wrong with you people??? Have you lost your minds??”
Here was a moment when clarity, concision, and conviction were at stake, and all three Presidents, instead of being equal to that moment, failed at it.
Magill and Gay are no longer Presidents of the Universities they led.? Kornbluth, who is, if you can believe it, Jewish, might survive, but should not.
My politics are the polar-opposite of Elise Stefanik’s – she stands for everything I’m opposed to – but when a moment like this presents itself, it defies politics or party; more than anything else, it serves as a fundamental test of character:? do you have the courage to stand up and proclaim what’s right, or not?
Th other day, in an entirely different venue, I heard Presidential candidate Nikki Haley respond to a question, “What was the cause of the Civil War?” in an equally baffling, outrageously infuriating way.
What is wrong with all these people????
When I witnessed Jane Gardner’s response to our CEO client, there was absolutely no one she could turn to for advice or guidance.? A bunch of us were in that room, but Jane didn’t need rescuing. ?She needed to be good in the moment; she was, and then some.
The stakes were admittedly exponentially higher for those tone-deaf University Presidents and that laughably ridiculous Presidential candidate, but their answers were no less clear.? They had their moment to be good.
To a person, they weren’t.