Navigating Crisis
Every leader deals with crises at work, at home, in life. A leader is expected to deal with challenges effectively. After all, leadership is often best represented in difficulty circumstances. If you can lead through the tough times, most surmise, then the other stuff is a piece of cake. No matter what the crisis, there are several simple steps you can take that will help you be the most effective leader possible in any given situation.
Fly the drone. The leader needs to take the 30,000-foot view of the crisis. What is the big, overarching issue you are dealing with. When faced with something difficult many people get mired in the details down at ground level. A leader should fly the drone—get a bird’s-eye view of what they are dealing with. This may mean asking for outside analysis or input—getting a perspective that is unique and not tied to the issues at hand. You can more easily lead through a crisis if you understand the problem at its most basic.
Communicate. Crisis tends to make people clam up. They’re unsure of what to do, and so they just don’t talk about it, out of fear of making the wrong decision, reducing morale, or revealing their lack of confidence. A good leader, on the other hand, looks at crisis as an opportunity to communicate. Talk through the issue. Let others hear how you are weighing options and thinking toward the best solution. If you see adjustments ahead, give warning and let people know what is coming. Surprise or sudden change without understanding undermines a leader’s authority. Communication in crisis is a sure way to build trust.
Listen everywhere. In a crisis perhaps the most powerful tool of a leader is not his mouth, but his ears. Leaders in crisis listen well, gathering input from all sources. Listening helps you understand not only the problems you are dealing with, but how it is affecting the people and organization itself, and who may be able to lend a hand to help reach a solution. Keep in mind, too, that some crises exist because of deaf ears. Failure to listen can cause a crisis in the first place. Listening also helps to pace your solution… sometimes you can find a way out of a crisis too fast and miss the far better solution that taking time to listen may have revealed. Great leaders are known for their listening.
Adapt. A leader is a crisis must often take his people or organization through the change or effort necessary to bring about a solution. An adaptable leader knows that sometimes fixing a crisis means doing something differently or adding a skill or talent that doesn’t exist currently. People in general don’t like change, and a leader can help navigate change by being a pied piper for adaptation. Be willing to adjust, adapt and come out the other side a little different than you went in.
Analyze. Finally, a leader in a crisis takes time after the fire is out to determine the root cause, and how their solution worked. The temptation when weathering a crisis is to put up the hammock and take ten when the work is done. A leader refocuses the team on what went wrong, and what went right, while it is fresh in everyone’s mind. And analysis includes self—good leaders aren’t afraid to look in the mirror at their own performance or have someone else point out weaknesses. They know it’s the only way they’ll truly grow.