Hillary Rodham Clinton once enjoyed a commanding lead in the polls and was the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party.

Last week, The Washington Post and ABC News released a poll showing why her fortunes have changed. Only 39 percent of Americans now view her as honest and trustworthy as compared to 62 percent for both Barak Obama and John McCain. Clinton’s numbers are down from 52 percent less than a year ago.

The news gets worse. Among Democrats, her numbers fell from 81 percent to 63 percent in that same time period.

Most campaign strategists tie the precipitous fall to her comments about landing amid sniper fire in Bosnia during her time as First Lady. Her campaign made it worse by handling the situation poorly when reporters uncovered footage of the official welcoming ceremony that was anything but hostile.

Politicians don’t generally rank high on the trust scale. At the same time, presidential candidates are held to a higher standard.

The ability to lead effectively is based on trust. Trust us; it will be a significant issue in this year’s election.

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The CIA developed the Phoenix Checklist to help agents apply a thorough, consistent process when confronting the complex problems they often see in the field.

Part I of the Phoenix Checklist showed how to define a problem effectively before you begin to solve it. Part II focuses on building a good plan to solve the problem.

The following are the key questions in Part II of the Phoenix Checklist:

1. Can you solve the whole problem? Part of the problem?
2. What would you like the resolution to be? Can you picture it?
3. How much of the unknown can you determine?
4. Can you derive something useful from the information you have?
5. Have you used all the information?
6. Have you taken into account all essential notions in the problem?
7. Can you separate the steps in the problem-solving process? Can you determine the correctness of each step?
8. What creative thinking techniques can you use to generate ideas? How many different techniques?
9. Can you see the result? How many different kinds of results can you see?
10. How many different ways have you tried to solve the problem?
11. What have others done?
12. Can you intuit the solution? Can you check the result?
13. What should be done? How should it be done?
14. Where should it be done?
15. When should it be done?
16. Who should do it?
17. What do you need to do at this time?
18. Who will be responsible for what?
19. Can you use this problem to solve some other problem?
20. What is the unique set of qualities that makes this problem what it is and none other?

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Next time you watch candidates on television or in person, try reading their eyes to understand what they are thinking. Eye movement can be a strong indicator of how someone is processing information.

Eye movement (as you see it)	Indication
Straight ahead/eye contact	Interest in the conversation; prolonged eye contact can indicate the person is trying to intimidate and/or may not trust you
Looking straight up	Feelings of contempt, sarcasm, boredom, or annoyance
To upper right	Remembering something from the past
To upper left	Constructing an image
To right	Recalling a sound from the past
To left	Constructing a new sound
To lower right	Having an internal dialogue or rehearsing something to say
To lower left	Thinking about how something makes them feel
Looking straight down	Feelings of submission or discomfort

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Warren Buffett once said, “If you lose dollars for the firm, I’ll be understanding. If you lose reputation for the firm, I’ll be ruthless.”

Nothing can damage the reputation of a firm more quickly than handling a crisis poorly. Scan through the five questions below and note whether you would answer “yes” to key drivers of effective crisis management.

	Yes	No
We have a written crisis communication plan and train our people at all levels and in all locations how to execute it, if necessary.
We are proactive in monitoring issues and working to manage them before they become crises.
We have updated and readily accessible databases of our stakeholders (clients, vendors, employees, etc.) to use if we have an unexpected crisis, such as an accident or natural disaster.
We have spokesperson(s) who understand the news media and will be credible in speaking for the company at a time of crisis.
If I happen to be out the country and unable to participate in managing a big crisis, I am confident my team would handle it well without me.

Although these five questions are not a comprehensive audit of your preparedness, they will give you an initial assessment. If you answered yes to all of these statements, your company is probably in good shape. If you answered yes to four, you have done some work but have room for improvement. Three or fewer, you have risks you need to address quickly.

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www.changethis.com

ChangeThis is a place for people to share big and small ideas in five- to 20-page manifestos. The website sprung from the founders’ belief that a media-driven culture is causing people “to change our minds on the basis of charisma, not fact.” Some recent entries include The "Lost Chapter" from The Back of the Napkin (a book on visual thinking) and The Freak Factor: Discovering Uniqueness by Flaunting Weakness.  The website allows users to vote on ideas for future manifestos.

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Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most
by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton and Sheila Heen

Everybody has difficult conversations every day, and most of the time those conversations don’t end well. Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most explains why they happen and provides step-by-step techniques to make distressing interactions more constructive.

Drawing from 15 years of research at the Harvard Negotiation Project, the authors explain how each dialogue is comprised of three challenging and simultaneous conversations:

1. The “What Happened?” Conversation. Who said what and who did what? Who’s right, what was meant, who’s to blame?
2. The Feelings Conversation. Are my feelings valid or appropriate? Should I check them at the door? What about the other person’s feelings?
3. The Identity Conversation. What does this situation say about me? Am I a good or bad person? Am I competent or incompetent?

Using examples from everyday life, this book goes on to decipher the three layers and demonstrates the mistakes and remedies for when unavoidable clashes arise.

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