Send to KindleTen Essential Steps for Leaders in a Crisis
What are the top ten things for a leader to do when faced with a crisis? I saw this question recently and it got me thinking. Good leaders try to anticipate crisis, developing plans and checklists for anything that might happen. But what about when the unthinkable happens? What should a leader do when a real, no-kidding, unanticipated disaster strikes?
1. Have a solid strategic plan but be willing to deviate from your goals, or at least their completion dates. In both cases, the organizations that were impacted had to set aside some goals. That doesn’t mean we just dumped them, but deferred them until the biggest part of the crises passed.
2. Work to develop effective leaders. I was blessed with some of the most outstanding leaders I’ve known. I can’t claim all the credit as many of them were placed in essential positions by others before me, but they were there at the right time and they made the difference.
3. Adopt an effective leadership style that encourages everyone in the organization to be engaged. Make sure they know they’re important and that you know it too. Encourage yoursubordinate leaders to lead and know they have the authority to take action. No matter how good your subordinate leaders are, if you haven’t let them lead, they won’t be there when you need them.
4. Develop good relationships. There are people and organizations that are going to be essential to your recovery. It’s little noticed these days, but I believe for the first time since the revolutionary war, foreign military forces were sent to the United States in response to an attack. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization dispatched Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft to help monitor and control U.S. airspace. When I experienced my second crisis, I did not have the relationships that would have made handling the crisis easier. Lesson learned.
5. When that unexpected and unthinkable crisis happens, stop and take a deep breath. A pilot I used to fly with always said the first step in an emergency is to “hack the clock.” He was referring to the process of resetting the timer on a wind-up clock in the cockpit. It had nothing to do with the emergency but allowed time to let the brain absorb the situation and deal with the initial shock. Without this step, your first reaction will very likely be wrong.
6. Do quick analysis before quick action. Granted there may not be time for a detailed look at all the variables, but at least a cursory review is essential. I got this one right in both cases and was able to respond better. Did I get everything right? Of course not. But in both cases that quick analysis avoided making the situation worse.
7. Take the high road. It’s very tempting to immediately begin the blame game. After all, if heads are going to role, we want to make sure ours isn’t one of them. While it will be necessary to determine what happened and how to prevent it from happening again, now just isn’t the time.
8. Keep a record. This is something I failed to do well in either crisis. Later, I was scratching my head trying to remember some important points. You’re going to make mistakes and you’ll learn a few things. After the smoke has cleared is a good time to review those lessons. It’s a lot easier if you’ve written them down. That also means keeping track of those people who move heaven and earth to save the day.
9. Keep your eye on the future. This is probably one of the hardest steps. It’s common and very easy to get so bogged down in crisis management that you, and more importantly your organization, will completely forget where you were going in the first place. I worked for a leader once who never let us forget that we existed to accomplish the goals we had set. While problems presented set-backs, we still knew what direction we were going.
10. Above all else, be a leader. If you’re depressed, the world is closing in around you, and you feel all is lost, keep it to yourself. You’re people need a leader who stays on an even keel and rises above the muck. Don’t abdicate your responsibilities, hide in a corner, or become a defeatist. After 9/11, President Bush gave the best speeches of his entire presidency. Yes he was upset and his passion showed. But he spoke as a leader, positive of what would be and without a hand-wringing and woe-is-me attitude. In my other example, there was a more senior leader who didn’t get this point with a much less favorable result.
Thank you to Glyn Cave for asking this question on LinkedIn.
