When a dentist kills a lion: a lesson on reputation management

Lion in Hwange NPBy now, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Dr. Walter Palmer, the dentist who killed Zimbabwe’s beloved lion, Cecil. If you’ve somehow missed this social media firestorm, catch up here.

I’m not going to talk about how what Palmer did was wrong and what type of punishment he deserves–that debate is playing out in full force on Twitter. What I want to talk about is that Palmer is a dentist. Assuming you haven’t lured a national treasure from his protected habitat to kill him, let’s explore some lessons we can take away from Palmer’s life-ruining mistake.