Module 1.3 – Leadership in a crisis or incident – How to be a leader

Here are seven lessons for leaders charged with leading their team/organisation through a crisis or incident:

Lesson 1: Leaders must face reality. Reality starts with the person in charge. Leaders need to look at themselves in the mirror and recognise their role in the current situation. Then they should gather their teams together and gain agreement about the root causes of the crisis. Widespread recognition of reality is the crucial step before problems can be solved. Attempting to find short-term fixes that address the symptoms of the crisis only ensures the team or organisation will wind up back in the same predicament.

In order to understand the real reasons for the crisis, everyone on the leadership team must be willing to tell the whole truth. Leaders can’t solve problems if they don’t acknowledge their existence.

Lesson 2: No matter how bad things are, they will get worse. Faced with bad news, many leaders cannot believe that things could really be so grim. Consequently, they try to convince the bearers of bad news that things aren’t so bad, and swift action can make problems go away.

This causes leaders to undershoot the mark in terms of corrective actions. As a consequence, they wind up taking a series of steps, none of which is powerful enough to correct the downward spiral. It is far better for leaders to anticipate the worst and get out in front of it. If they structure their plans and Standard Operating Procedures for the worst case, they can get their team or organisation prepared for any eventuality.

Lesson 3: Get the world off your shoulders. In a crisis, many leaders act like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. They go into isolation, and think they can solve the problem themselves. In reality, leaders must have the help of all their people to devise solutions and to implement them. You must communicate with your team members and draw upon the vast amount of knowledge. This means bringing people into their confidence, asking them for help and ideas, and gaining their trust and respect.

Lesson 4: Before asking others to sacrifice, first volunteer yourself. If there are sacrifices to be made – and there will be – then the leaders should step up and make the greatest sacrifices themselves. Everyone is watching to see what the leaders do. Will they stay true to their values? Will they bow to external pressures, or confront the crisis in a straight-forward manner? Will they be seduced by short-term actions, or will they make near-term sacrifices in order to fix the long-term situation?

Lesson 5: Never waste a good crisis. When things are going well, people resist major changes or try to get by with minor adaptations. This is also referred to as complacency. Sadly a crisis provides the leader with the platform to get things done that were required anyway and offers the sense of urgency to accelerate their implementation. It should not however get to the point where a crisis is needed to implement the obvious change that was required. Be firm but professional with the client/Hierarchy and make your opinions and thoughts count.

*Tips*

• Face reality. Leaders can’t solve problems if they don’t acknowledge their existence.
• If there are sacrifices to be made, leaders should step up and make the greatest sacrifices themselves.
• Leaders must have the help of all their team/people to devise solutions and to implement them.