Field Guide:Â When the Boss Is the Crisis
Somebody has to tell the emperor. It's usually you.
How to talk to a boss without talking down to a boss.
Thursday, October 29, 10 AM ET. One hour. Live on Substack.
You'll get a calendar invite and a reminder the day of.
To watch live you need a paid Substack subscription. $7 gets you in.
The Promise
Crisis manager here. The hardest call I get isn't about a critic. It's about a boss nobody can tell the truth to. In one hour: how to give your boss the risk instead of the verdict, how to make the hard thing sound like inside information, and how to stop getting treated like admin when you're a manager.
It always comes
down to fear.
It's very difficult to tell the emperor he has no clothes. I know, because I'm usually the one who gets the call after somebody tried.
One thing I notice working with CEOs, and something they never admit: the biggest block is emotion. Fear of getting exposed. Fear of looking weak. Fear of not knowing something. Fear of losing control of their reputation. Fear of the board. Fear of losing their job. That fear comes out as contempt, and when contempt bleeds out, it's everywhere: on the staff, on the critics, on the mom who brought it up at the board meeting.
I've been answering these questions one phone call at a time for years. The boss changes. The industry changes. The answers don't.
So on October 29, I'm answering them once, for the whole room.
 Who Should Be in the Room
The communications director. The chief of staff. The manager who has to manage the boss. Anyone who's always treated like the admin even though they're a manager. Men and women. The boss is welcome to overhear.
 If you manage the pressure, be in the room.Â
The  5 questions I get when the boss is the crisis:
"How do I tell him without telling him?"
"Why does he treat the critics like a mob?"
"How do I stop being treated like the admin when I'm not the admin?"
"What do I say when he's about to do something stupid in a meeting?"
"How do I make him look good while I fix his mess?"
What  you leave with:
- The fears that run a bad boss, and how to spot which one you're dealing with.
- The tip, not the correction. How to hand him the truth so he thanks you for it.
- Risk, not verdict. Word-for-word scripts for the moment he's about to make it worse.
- The Scaramucci rule. When to speak, and the room you never say it in.
- Your way out of the admin box. The expertise you already have that nobody's using.
One hour. No deck. Hard stop at the top of the hour.
Three Doors
Already a paid subscriber?
You're In
The live shows up in the Substack app and your inbox at 10am ET on October 29th.
The Vault
$7 a month or $70 a year
This training live, plus the rest of the fall trainings.
Professional
$500 a year
The live, plus the pack within 48 hours: the replay, the risk-not-verdict scripts, and the five questions on a one-page card you keep in your desk.
This fall, all four trainings are open to every paid subscriber, exactly as announced.
In January, live seats become Professional only. Join now and you're in for all four.
Your job is to make them look better. Do that, and you become  the one person  they trust. That's the whole game.
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Questions
Can't make it on October 29th at 10 AM ET?
Every paid subscriber gets the replay. Professional members also get the pack within 48 hours.
Where do I watch?
On Substack, in the app or in a browser, at mollymcpherson.substack.com. Paid subscribers get the notification and the link. Nothing to install if you'd rather use the browser.
Will you look at my situation?
No. The room learns the moves. Your own situation is a different conversation, and you can start it at hello@mollymcpherson.com.
Billing?
Subscriptions and billing are handled by Substack, not by me. Manage or cancel anytime at substack.com under your account settings. If billing goes sideways, Substack support fixes it faster than I can.
About Molly
Molly McPherson is a crisis communications strategist and the host of The PR Breakdown. She has worked every side of the media desk, and she is the first person leaders call when reputation is on the line. This summer, more of those calls came from medicine than from anywhere else.
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