At just about the same moment Alex Rodriguez was delivering his mea culpa to Pete Gammons on ESPN about steroid use, I was stepping into a sound-proof recording booth in San Francisco with Christopher Springmann. Chris is the host and executive producer of a syndicated radio program called "Body Language [and] Life Love & Health," and he was about to interview me about The Power Presenter. (The program will be heard on Sirius XM Satellite Radio, CNN, Fox, ESPN, Bloomberg, and Public Radio affiliates. After the broadcast, the audio file will be posted here.)
Chris' first question was, "Mr. Weissman, we're in the elevator together and you have 90-seconds to answer this question about health literacy . . . What do our listeners need to know / that you know / about to how to effectively communicate with their doctor about a personal health issue that concerns them?"
My answer, "Two words, be truthful."
That piece of advice is as valid for health literacy as it is for every station in life, especially business - which happens to be the focus of my business. The stations that seem to be exempt from this rule are politics and professional sports. Politicians slip, slide, and spin away from ever fessing up. (Please see my previous post on that other Rod, Blagojevich.) Professional athletes just stonewall. After years of enduring such conduct from the pols and the pros, we've learned to live with their evasions and denials, just as we do with inappropriate behavior from an eccentric relative.
That's why, after all the equivocations from Roger Clemens, Rafael Palmeiro, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds, Rodriguez' admission was so surprising: "I was young. I was stupid. I was naive, and I wanted to prove to everyone that, you know, I was worth, you know -- and being one of the greatest players of all time."
Scott Ostler, the San Francisco Chronicle's sports commentator, had anticipated that "Rodriguez will have to deliver the Gettysburg Address of steroid mea culpa speeches." Except that A-Rod didn't quite do that - because of a loophole. His usage of steroids occurred during a penalty-free grace period granted by Major League Baseball, and so he was free to be truthful, and will not suffer any legal (perhaps commercial, but not legal) consequences.
In business, however, there is no grace period. There is no room for equivocation. There is no exception. There are just two words, be truthful.