“To err is human, to forgive divine.” - An Essay in Criticism, by Alexander Pope, English Poet, (1688-1744)

You have to feel for Ann Curry. The Today show anchor figuratively tripped and fell during her commencement speech at Wheaton College in Norton, MA. Oh, she was still on her feet, but the pain must have felt as searing as a bloody knee when Curry was made aware that the famous Wheaton alumni she named in her speech received their diplomas from Wheaton College - in Illinois.

Ouch.

Why do I hurt when I write that? You know, how when you see someone get hurt and you feel this pain in your bones? Why do we feel such empathy? I think it’s because it’s the kind of mistake any of us could have made.

Which is precisely why I am compelled to ask you – who’s got YOUR back?

(With apologies to Keith Ferrazzi, who wrote a book by the same name) this is a central question for anyone who has ever walked onto a stage. Who is helping you? Who is making sure that the research, revisions and edits are right? Who is there to catch you before you fall? Anybody? And if you have one or two people helping you, are they people you can trust to get it right? And do they have back-up?

I have no idea whether Curry, who seems like a nice person, wrote the speech herself. She told Jimmy Fallon later that her poor Googling skills were the culprit.

When I was a television news anchor (Boston, Philadelphia, Tampa-St. Petersburg) there was no Google yet, and we also never anyone to help with that sort of thing. People think I rode to work in a limo, had a makeup person and three assistants, when in reality I was scraping the snow off my own car at 3 a.m. to get to work on time. TV people are often really out there on their own.

You would hope that when you reach the network that you have some help, but again, she was taking the fall. Still, whether she penned it herself or someone hand her the script, the screw up is to go in without back-up. Somebody besides you or the writer or person preparing your slides needs to look it over. And, that person needs back-up. In this case, this was easily preventable if the writer had run it by someone at the college. Obviously they didn’t require that, but had she had them watching her back, she would never have walked on stage with that script. It was utterly preventable.

The question isn’t forgiveness or even to make a mistake – it’s just to surround yourself with people who take the risk out of these situations. In coaching our clients, we always work with them to develop a circle or team of people to help. You’d be shocked at how many senior leaders have no one to help with communications, or have someone very, very junior, or someone who has no time because they are supporting 147 other executives. Once the coach is no longer in your life you need a plan. You need more than one person who has your back.

“I am mortified by my mistake,” Curry wrote in an apology letter, “and can only hope the purity of my motive, to find a way to connect with the graduates and encourage them to a life of service, will allow you to forgive me.”

For the record, Curry’s list included the Reverend Billy Graham, horror director Wes Craven and former speaker Dennis Hastert. Wheaton College in Massachusetts was all girls until the 1980s; its famous grads include Lesley Stahl, Oscar-nominated actress Catherine Keener and former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman.

By the way, I do commend Ann Curry for a nicely written apology letter – here’s how it ends:

“...I want you to know that my brief visit left me deeply impressed with the quality of Wheaton. It was evident in the confidence of your graduates as they collected their diplomas, that they have been exceedingly well nurtured. And even with my blunder, the students were also gracious enough to react with a standing ovation. Now THAT is good manners.”