When Mrs. Ferraro made this debatable statement a few months ago, perhaps she never considered the repercussions of what her words would have on Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Could she have realized then how her words would be perceived as majorly negative and divisive among the Democratic ranks? Did she care?

Women have to continually fight battles in and out of the “situation” rooms and board rooms. We are continually defending our rights to do business, transact business and engage in economic trade whether it’s on our three way conference call to our District Managers or in front of a sub-committee review hearing. We are totally responsible for what we say and how we say it and to whom we say it to. Geraldine Ferraro is responsible for what she said and I’m certain it caused Hillary some points towards her White House goal. How could it not?

There are numerous people who are not all that excited about having a future female president – we know that. We know that right now, Hillary is even struggling just to keep her head in this race. Literally. But what we can take away from this little lesson as women in business is simply to watch what we say. Even though we may feel passionate about something and want to broadcast it to the world, the timing or the audience may not be the right setting to do it in.

People don’t want to do business with what they consider “loose canons.” If they feel that investors will pull out of deals because “she talks too much”, you can believe they will pull out and won’t be doing business with you or your firm any longer.

Damage control was done in the Ferraro case, but maybe just a little too late. Geraldine should have thought about that before she spoke too soon.

It might have possibly caused Hillary the nomination. Possibly.

Post from: EveryJoe

Watch What You Say: How Geraldine Ferraro’s Statement Can Hurt Business Women