All you had to do was read the title to know what this one was gonna be about. The entertainment world was abuzz this past Sunday when a Hollywood star unsuspectingly struck another Hollywood star on stage…at the Oscars (!!)…on national television. Not the VMAs! The Oscars!!

I don’t need to add their names or any context here. You know what happened. You either watched it live or saw the clip. Maybe the Japanese version without all the bleeping. Because that’s what we do. When a celebrity makes a scene we’re drawn to it. We watch it. We re-watch it. We talk about it with our friends. We analyze and speculate as to the root cause of what caused such a kerfuffle. And on and on.

I’ve seen a scene or two in the workplace. Not a full blown slap. You really shouldn’t have to worry about your co-workers slapping you unprovoked. But there have been some verbal blow ups over the years. The point I’m trying to make is that whether it’s the Oscars or your little startup shared office space scenes will attract attention. People are drawn to them! They’re going to watch and word is going to get around.

Remember when Tim Armstrong fired that guy at AOL in front of the whole team while the meeting was being recorded? Super uncomfortable stuff! Now hopefully your blow up isn’t recorded. And I’m definitely assuming it won’t be physical. Still, the point remains the same. Anytime you embarrass yourself or someone else publicly by losing control as the leader you’re losing control of a whole narrative. All of a sudden the focus isn’t on a Best Actor Oscar or a new direction of a company. If you get up and cause some public embarrassment people will talk about THAT.

Look at all the clean up The Fresh Prince is doing this week. Not ideal! Whatever focus was supposed to be on the movie & performance he was there to be honored for is not getting a morsel of that attention anymore.

Could he have waited until the commercial break to pull  aside and deliver some 1×1 feedback? Who knows. It’s a good lesson for us in the pressure cooker of startup performance. Maybe save ourselves some grief next time we think about reacting in public. Or at least if you’re going to slap someone (with verbal feedback) maybe do it in private you know what I’m saying?