3. Be Honest

You’re reading an excerpt of Great Founders Write, by Ben Putano, writer, entrepreneur, and book publisher. He’s the founder of Damn Gravity Media, a publishing house that inspires and educates tomorrow’s great founders. Purchase now for lifetime access to the book and on-demand video course.

During a crisis, any whiff of dishonesty will shatter your trust with customers.

Robinhood never outright lied during the Gamestop short squeeze, but they withheld crucial information from the public for an entire trading day— specifically, the reason why they froze $GME. This lack of transparency was dishonest in its own way.

Tenev should have immediately shared everything he knew with the public using a tried-and-true phrase from the history of crisis communication, “Here’s what we know.” There was no benefit of withholding information if they had nothing to hide.

As a leader, you won’t have all the answers during a crisis, but that’s no excuse for not sharing what you know. Customers don’t need perfect information, but they need something.

Tenev’s integrity was called into question because it took so long for him to respond. The longer it takes to tell the truth, the less likely people are to believe you.