Trudging the long road back from a disastrous mistake and shattered reputation: Lessons from the NSW Libs.

The fiasco over botched nominations for NSW council candidates has bitten deeply into the reputation of the Liberal Party for one key reason.

It touches directly on the essence of the organisation’s brand.

This isn’t a political post; it’s an observation about a critical issue that will play out for some time to come.

Surely the core business of any political party is to get its candidates elected. That’s the essence of their existence.

The Party’s failure to submit nominations by the deadline for more than 130 candidates means their behaviour was completely at odds with that essence.

That translates to a much lower “forgivability” factor, along with cries of “They had one job…!”

If an issue is at arms length from what a brand stands for, the fallout is likely to be less brutal over time.

For example, a Qantas baggage handlers’ strike will upset passengers and make the news for a few days but business will quickly return to normal. However, a safety incident for Qantas is a very different matter because we equate their brand with safe travel.

Of course, any organisation’s recovery from a reputation disaster will be hugely impacted by the quality of the initial response. In this case, it was less than stellar.

After initially shrugging it off as a resourcing issue the state director then named and blamed to shift responsibility. The Party responded by sacking him.

As political opponents howl with laughter and NSW faces a situation that could change the course of local government decision-making, leaders everywhere can learn from this epic fail.

• Clearly define what sits at the core of your brand. Defend it relentlessly; if any issue arises that might put it at risk, fix it and fix it quickly.
• Don’t underplay the impact of a mistake. This “resourcing” issue may well go down in history for the consequences it triggers.
• Take responsibility for the problem and never publicly blame others, especially people within your organisation. Fight it out behind closed doors but show a united front.