Saying ‘no’ to your CEO is vital to media training

Longtime TV news executive Ben Dobson has spent his two-plus decades watching “really good people and leaders” fall into common media traps that result in negative headlines and company scrutiny.

A lot of those issues, he said, stem from either overconfidence – a feeling like they can “wing it” – or simply because they didn’t have anyone in their corner to prepare them.

Dobson, currently the news director at DC News Now, believes investing in formal media training can help organizations ensure their CEOs and spokespeople “stay out of their own way” and avoid unnecessarily damaging their personal and professional brands.

“One of the hardest things to do is building that trust so that you could get into a room with one of those (CEOs) and tell (it) like it is,” Dobson said during PR Daily’s recent Media Relations Conference. “That oftentimes means being honest with them, even if it’s not what they want to hear.”

During the 20-minute discussion, Dobson cited a few examples of high-profile executives who stumbled during interviews, potentially doing major damage to their companies’ reputation and/or bottom line.