How can you lead in a crisis?

Many crises arrive with a "bang." But many don't. The most challenging - and often the most rewarding - responses are those where there is not initial agreement as to the existence of a crisis in the first place. This is where skilled practitioners can be of enormous value in focusing a team on what matters most, while being ready for what could happen next.

In our experience, the majority of crises that garner media attention are the "smoldering" kind- business problems and issues that, left unattended, erupt into a crisis once stakeholders start finding out. There are a variety of ways to identify the possible problems and address them long before they become a crisis. The key is getting management to agree that there is the possibility of a crisis. Management denial is one of the largest barriers to effectively mitigating the smoldering crisis.

Monitor Vital Signs (Ongoing Assessment) Every disaster or crisis must be assessed initially and then continuously. In emergency management we have tools such as the Situation Status (SitStat) Report that is produced at a tempo appropriate to operational intensity. The SitStat captures the vital signs. This includes vital signs of the impacted area such as community lifelines (healthcare, utilities, transportation, comms, etc.), as well as the response and recovery machine (i.e., staffing, facilities, lodging, etc.). In something as dynamic and complex as crisis management or disaster response, the ongoing assessment is as crucial as the initial. Leaders must recognize this and ensure operational vital signs are measured and shared.

Wikipedia defines capability as the ability to perform actions. As it applies to crisis management, the capability is the sum of capacity and ability. That capability includes preparing for a crisis (in advance), handling the reality and communication aspects of a crisis when one arises, formulating a strategy and deciding on a plan of action to protect your reputation, minimize damage and, if possible, turn things around. Your plan of action should include best practice thinking from the fields of Crisis Management, Crisis Communication, PR, Emergency Response, Social Media and Strategic Planning. In today’s always-on “real-time” news world companies have little time to avert or respond to a crisis.

Change-agility is key to effective crisis leadership. This can sound like a lot of buzz words - so let’s break it down: - It’s NOT about using project management techniques, specific tools, or big budgets. - It IS about how you see the world and relate to the people around you. - ANYONE can be a change-agile leader, regardless of their level of formal authority. - your main goal should be to enable and exemplify great collaboration. …actions: - Create space for honest, open conversation. Listen well. - Encourage ideas, unconventional approaches, build on them. - Stop asking staff to bring you only solutions. Explore with curiosity, and be sure to correctly identify the problem. - Set and model rules to engage respectfully as a team.

But make command decisions in time of urgency, Accept responsibility for acting in haste. Better to have acted and oops’ed than to have oops’ed when you should have acted.

Empowering a team is vital step, everyone who expected to, should be positively contributing to the response. However, before we get to that point, we need to ensure those who have a role in the crisis response have received adequate training and time to practice the role in exercises or simulations. As a leader, we can provide as much encouragement and feedback as we like, but if we haven’t trained people to do the role we expect of them, then we have failed in our preparation and they will never be able to carry out the role and be truly empowered. Investing in the team will bring cohesiveness and a sense of belonging to that team, this will help with individual and therefore team performance in a crisis.

Everyone brings some level of expertise to the table. Do not dismiss the layperson as they have valuable insight to a problem YOU are stuck on.

Need to be a good manager, believe in your team and that they believe in the team and it's purpose, in the grand scheme of the organization. Working as a team and training as a team is very important.

Communicate using language which is clear and free of technical jargon and abbreviations….the JESIP principle of communication

You don’t have to “Barney” down so others can understand, but you do not have to talk sophisticate snob either. No codes, just simple talk so that EVERYONE gets the just of what you are saying. Remember, there are no dumb questions, just dummies who don’t want to answer them.

Look, you went to this school and They went to that school. Point is, you know something. Nobody knows anything unless they have done something even if it is not directly associated to the problem, but something must be done. Learn as you go book learning leads to physical learning=experience.

Horses love a leader. They follow that leader. Mistakes are made that is why GOD created them, so that we may learn from them. No one is perfect. Hence no one is a perfect leader. Step up! Be a leader. Who knows, it may lead to bigger things.

Empower the CMT by giving it a clear objective. Unless the strategic owners get it right the rest will be a struggle and, quite possibly doomed to failure!

Crisis leadership starts with an acknowledgment that threats face an organization. This leads to a strategic approach to preparedness which includes the development, leadership, and empowerment of a crisis management team (CMT). A CMT can take many different forms such as a structure along business lines or it can contain components of an Incident Command System model adapted or modified to the particular organization. The CMT is then tasked with developing risk based playbooks which capture the nuances of response strategies and tactics. At the helm of a CMT is a proven leader who demonstrated calmness under fire and who has the command and communications skills needed to lead the CMT and collaborate at all levels of the organization.

A crisis is, quite literally, a moment of decision. This means that it requires action of us - it draws us in and makes us part of the story that is about the happen. Rather than simply a circumstance that is going to happen TO us. What this means to me is that each crisis is also an opportunity. We will manage aspects of it, provide leadership and direction, we will win and lose certain things in the aftermath. But above all, I'm reminded of the words "do well by doing good."

Pragmatically true but the leading failure in crisis management is a lack of knowledge, followed by late detection which is amplified by the matter of preparedness. This leave us routinely resorting to ad-hoc knee jerk reactions that create cricisms requiring flaccid reactions.