Last Monday’s news about former Ohio State University’s Coach Tressel resigning created a lot of  phone calls, texts and emails for me.  One big reason is I received my graduate degree from The University of Michigan and if you didn’t know, we have quite a football rivalry with that school to the south.

For awhile, I was glued to my computer reading everything and then the next day sifting through my newspapers for more information and there was plenty of it.  There are many angles and interesting tidbits from this story and more that we don’t even know about yet.  But, one thing is for sure, this is an excellent study in corporate voice.  Up until this time Coach Tressel was the beloved football coach for OSU and portrayed an unblemished reign, or at least one without major incidents or violations.  His corporate voice was one of integrity, religion, excellent knowledge of college football and perhaps most important to Buckeye fans: he had beaten Michigan continually since he arrived.  But that all ended Memorial Day when he resigned because of covering up “Tattoogate” which was going to be revealed the next day in a Sports Illustrated Magazine cover story.  

Your corporate voice is who you are, your personality, what you stand for.  And when it goes awry as Tressel’s did, it can take years to neutralize it and/or get it back to where it was if you’re lucky.  Remember, your corporate voice represents you first–make it a good one and keep it in check.