How do you foster resilience after a crisis?

The first step is to acknowledge and address the crisis's impact on individuals and the organization. This involves proactively providing support and resources for those directly affected by the crisis, such as counseling and mental health services.

In the process of assessing, encouraging open communication is key for obtaining an authentic, honest, high quality input. For that to happen, they need to feel safe. Only then they can share their true experiences. Consider how safety can be provided as part of this process: can the input be anonymous? Can there be a narrative provided assuring and promising confidentiality of responses? How else could safety be invited into this process?

Smart leaders know that putting things in the right perspective early on can be essential. The people closest to the crisis might think it is the worst thing in the world and be paralyzed by fear or guilt. From their perch higher up the org chart, leaders can see the bigger picture on how bad a crisis can be and can use that to prioritize it appropriately. Sometimes that means pulling the figurative fire alarm and pulling in resources from everywhere to work on it. Sometimes it means being the calm face in the storm that reduces unproductive stress by reassuring people that the organization is built to manage through it.

The key is to listen. Remember, a business is nothing without its people. To be an effective leader, you must listen to the people impacted. But, do not just listen: you must also understand. Use their insights for change. Never let them feel marginalized or unheard.

Trust is based on truth. Distrust comes from dishonesty. Or, withholding information. The greatest leaders are open and transparent. This means being vulnerable and open to harsh comments and feedback. No matter what you hear (or think you will hear) you will be able to handle it. At times like this, your people look to you. Show them someone they can be proud of and can rely on in moments of doubt, confusion, and uncertainty.

Several skills could be super powerful in this process: - fully owning and being able to name and admit what did not go well - remaining non-defensive when inviting and receiving feedback, which take a lot to actually do it but is the most authentic behaviour and one, which gains the most trust and respect.

When the bad news hits, air the bad news out all out at once! Trying to sugarcoat, or buy time, or coverup things often creates bigger problems than the original problem. Take advantage of the shock wave the bad news creates to get everything out under it instead of having a drip drip drip of bad news down the road.

In my experience, especially after a crisis, in order to have employees involvement, the leadership needs to walk the talk when they say they need everyone on the same mission. The leadership needs to show that they trust their employees and that it’s one team and not two tiered team. In order for the employees to feel that they are on the same boat and that the organization needs them to overcome the crisis, the employees need to feel empowered and supported in their daily operations and initiatives. Employee empowerment is fundamental in overcoming any corporate crisis.

Your organization probably spent a lot of time creating your vision, values, and mission statements so get them off the wall and USE THEM! They can make a ready made scorecard to assess how well your crisis response plans are hitting all the right notes. At the minimum, they can be a useful framework to communicate what your crisis response is. Even better, they can help you identify any gaps you may have.

Remember to engage employees into this process. Making unconsulted changes, without employees buy-in might lead to them rebelling against changes rather than embracing them. Inviting their ideas and input is more likely to result in them feeling included, seen and heard and therefore feeling part of this journey.

In my experience, learn and grow from the experience is the most improved part in any crisis resolution. If an organization keeps making same mistakes and fall into crisis resolution mode all the time, no amount of employee empowerment will save that organization: it makes employees loose confidence in their leadership. They will feel the crisis is in fact a routine and not extraordinary event. Then, the emotional distanciation will occur and no amount of money will be able to keep the employees.

Never let a good crisis go to waste! Schedule a post-crisis debriefing with all the key players in that sweet spot of time after things are stable but before everyone forgets about it. The outcome of that debrief meeting should be to gather and refine lessons learned and risks exposed into a handful of specific actions (with responsibilities and timelines) for the future. Less is more here. Getting a smaller punch list out sooner beats publishing an exhaustive scholarly tome later.