Commission on Human Rights (CHR)’s Coco Quisumbing went ballistic in a recent press conference. Quisumbing berated and ordered the reporters as if they were her subordinates in the CHR. Everything was caught on camera and was shown on the news and later on posted online on the ABS-CBN website. The backlash that followed was horrendous for Quisumbing as she became the butt of all jokes. Here are some important lessons to be learned from this experience.
Before anything else, here’s a link to the video on the ABS-CBN website if you want to watch it.
Lessons for Quisumbing
- Just focus on your job – if you guys watched the video, you saw that Quisumbing was focused more on the positioning of the camera and the mannerisms of the reporters more than the story itself. She said that she was a former media practitioner and that she was thinking of the press’ convenience. I think the best thing you can do during media briefings is to make sure you do your job — which is to deliver the story so that the reporters can write about it and pass it on to the public. If Quisumbing put all of that effort into making sure that her story was clear then there wouldn’t have been any problems.
- Management Training – it really doesn’t follow that if you have years of experience in a particular industry that you’re all set to become managers or executives. People who get promoted or appointed to high positions should properly undergo management training sessions. These seminars/classes are good investments because more than the academic learning, participants are taught the proper professional attitude and mindset.
- The Internet immortalizes moments – if this happened a decade ago, people would forget about the entire incident in a few days. However because of the internet the content is preserved to be viewed on demand anytime, anywhere. Before you would only be able to watch it if it was shown on TV. Now all you have to do is go online, find the video, and watch the moment. I just hope that Quisumbing will be able to redeem herself in the next few months by doing a good job in the CHR. I won’t be surprised if this video becomes more viral than the Nike Basketball Viral Video, hehe.
Lastly, let me just give kudos to all the reporters who were there at the press conference for not losing your cool.
Nah, she doesn’t need those seminars. Gastos pa.
All she needs is a little humble pie.