What began with an admission of infidelity by Nvidia Founder Jensen Huang and an investigation into potential national security concerns resulted in Huang's resignation as CEO, President and board member of the company he started more than 30 years ago.
Huang is now managing more than a typical corporate crisis. He is facing a defining moment that could shape his family relationships, personal legacy, trust he has spent decades building, and with the national security angle—possibly prison.
Family Comes First—Full Stop
Huang built one of the most successful companies in history, but Nvidia is nowhere close in importance when compared to family. Another company can be founded, and professional hits can be absorbed. However, replacing the trust of your spouse, children and extended family takes precedence. Negotiating forgiveness through a statement will fall flat. Avoid using the family as supporting characters in public comments or having them next to the accused at a podium. People notice when a leader's stated priorities and actual behavior conflict (especially when they are related to you).
When former New York state Gov. Eliot Spitzer addressed revelations that he had patronized a prostitution service, he held a press conference with his wife standing beside him. While he apologized for betraying his family and promised to work to regain their trust, the image of his visibly uncomfortable wife standing beside him became one of the defining images of the scandal.
Similarly, in 2004 former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey announced that he was a “gay American” during a press conference with his wife Dina Matos McGreevey standing beside him. The image of his wife next to him became another example of the political instinct to use a spouse's presence to reinforce a public narrative of family unity despite reality being more complicated. In a parody, “The Office” illustrated how transparent and uncomfortable this strategy can be when Angela and “The Senator” held a similar press conference exposing his affair.
The work ahead for Huang must happen privately, consistently and without an audience. His family deserves the opportunity to determine what comes next without the pressure of public expectations.
Managing a Story or Showing Accountability?
The initial acknowledgment from Huang and the company did what it was designed to accomplish. He owned the affair, accepted responsibility and acknowledged the coming investigation(s). However, the subsequent reporting about another alleged relationship involving a company executive dramatically changed the communications landscape.
Enablers will suggest pointing fingers at the stress, or the media or a million other places. This is a time for accepting responsibility consistently and looking inward only. If you are explaining, you are losing. Credibility gets rebuilt through what people see and how they feel instead of from words on a page or screen.
In 2010, after revelations of multiple affairs, Tiger Woods delivered a nationally televised apology. His initial effort was heavily scrutinized, and his marriage never recovered. But over the following years, he gradually rebuilt his professional reputation through his conduct, commitment to golf and performance. His 2019 Masters victory was an extraordinary professional comeback after years of personal and physical setbacks. While Woods's subsequent DUI arrests present new personal and professional challenges, he has climbed out of negative situations before by putting in the work, and he may have to do it again.
The Company is Bigger than its Leadership
Huang's resignation is a reminder that leadership sometimes requires recognizing when your continued presence has become a distraction or liability to the organization.
If the upcoming investigations show Huang could return without compromising credibility or obligations, there could be a chance to rebuild trust, but don’t count on it. While painful for any founder, leaders must be prepared to step aside. It is also one of the clearest ways to show you are serious.
David Petraeus resigned as the director of the CIA after acknowledging an affair with a colleague who was writing his biography. He also admitted the potential that he was sharing classified information.
Petraeus recognized that his personal conduct had become a liability for an institution entrusted with protecting national security. He stepped aside rather than force the organization to carry the burden of his personal circumstances.
There is a distinction between a successful founder and a responsible leader, and the Nvidia is now much bigger than the individual who built it. The company’s future and national security will always be a higher priority above one individual position or reputation.
Huang's departure removes him from the immediate leadership equation, but the company still must address questions surrounding its executive oversight, internal policies and decision-making processes.
A Legacy is on the Line
What happens in the coming months will shape how Huang is remembered. Will he be a leader who failed to exercise judgment when the stakes were highest, or as someone who confronted a personal failure, protected his family and put the company and larger interests ahead of his own?
In the aftermath of a scandal like this, the highest-value role for communicators is often helping the leader see the situation clearly rather than generating more words or arguing with a reporter on the facts in a story or the headline they chose.
No communications strategy can repair a marriage, restore a family's trust, erase the consequences of poor judgment or insulate a company from legitimate questions about national security. Communiators must go beyond the traditional roles of wordsmithing statements or arranging photo ops and help leaders recognize when a personal problem has become a corporate liability and when stepping aside is the most responsible action.
Advisers are responsible for helping leaders recognize what is truly at stake and take personal accountability, even when that means delivering advice no one wants to hear.
Huang spent decades building a company that changed the world and amassed a fortune to match. Despite the temptation, he must avoid becoming mired in the current headlines and instead recognize the broader implications of the choices that are ahead. Sometimes the most important advice a PR counselor can provide has very little to do with communications. It is helping a leader recognize what is truly at stake before there is nothing left to protect.
Dan Rene is a strategic communications counselor at Dan Rene Communications.