The Resilient Leader: 5 Great Principles for Confronting a Crisis

Some leaders face truly catastrophic crises – from oil spills to plane crashes to massive cybersecurity leaks.

While most of us don’t have to tackle challenges quite so cosmic, we do need to know how to respond to more everyday crises like when someone says ‘I quit’, or ‘I heard our division is being sold’, or ‘I read a nasty post about us today on social media.’

By definition:

?A resilient leader is one who can embrace change, overcome adversity, and bounce back. What can we learn from the world of crisis management to help us with our day-to-day leadership?

Here are five big lessons from the crisis experts

The first rule of crisis management is risk awareness and risk mitigation. The best crisis managers get ahead of the trouble, have some basic responses plotted out and practiced, and so never get totally blind-sided.

Most leaders do not hear negative news very well. You must actively seek the truth – ask lots of good questions. Probe. Ask at different levels of the organization. If you hear potential trouble, seek corroboration.

?Pay attention to anonymous Employee surveys – especially the open-ended questions.

?Become a safe listener so that people are more willing to share their true thoughts and concerns. Respect their confidentiality. Show interest and humility in hearing their opinions.

?Never retaliate.

Once you become more attuned to the sources of potential danger, you can take steps to prepare yourself. Work out some what-if scenarios. Set up drills and rehearsals so that you are not caught flat-footed. Conduct some role-playing. Create some ‘holding messaging’ in case that scenario does actually happen.

A good everyday example is if a key employee quits. In the moment, it can feel like an overwhelming crisis. But don't panic. Don’t attack the decision. Don’t make promises you cannot keep.

?Have a confident, calm, well-prepared first response. “Ok I hear you and this is obviously really important to you and to me and the company. Let’s meet (soon) for a proper 1-1 discussion so that I can understand your concerns and see if there are any actions we can take.”

In a tough crunch, you are going to make some awkward, rapid, and sometimes painful decisions. It’s a massive help to use core values as a touchstone. Read the company mission statement. Get in touch with your own core beliefs and values.

Think about how you want to be remembered. If you had to explain your actions to parents, kids, mentors, or others you really respect, how would you feel about it?

Start with a larger group, representing all major stakeholders (like owners, employees, and customers) as well as potential subject matter experts.

?Create a list of who could truly help solve the problem, and which stakeholders really need to be involved. It will be a very big list.

?Once you know the true nature of the problem, you can focus on it and scale down the working team. Resist the urge to always get ‘more input’. The problem in a crisis is often too much data versus too little. What you really want is high-quality data from a diverse set of experts.

?Critical Stakeholders

Those who really need to know.

?Critical Experts

Those can truly add value to the solution

?Project Leader or Quarterback

Someone who can keep sight of the whole issue, not just the parts. A leader to assign work, corroborate inputs, and integrate the solution.?

Remember to include ‘cultural voices’ on your team – not just technical subject matter experts. Some of the best cultural experts are your front-line troops – not just very senior execs.

Don’t over-prescribe. Let the experts speak – and have them tell you why.

Decide who will speak on behalf of the group – overall, and on specific topics. If you let multiple contact points go unmanaged, chaos often ensues.

In a crisis, your body language and behavior are highly contagious. Others notice, and begin to follow your lead. Are you calm or panicked? Are you focused or in a frenzy? Are you still listening to reason and important new data?

?A wonderful leadership style in crisis is The Velvet Hammer –someone who is strong but warm, decisive but empathetic.

Leaders are often better at listening for good news than bad news. Part way through a crisis, you’ll often hear people say ‘OK, that’s solved, let’s move on.’ They declare victory – too soon. Look for real evidence that the problem is fixed, or clearly on its way to resolution.

Once you are really satisfied that the problem is well on its way to resolution, you can go from crisis mode to monitoring mode. Stay alert. Do not ignore warning signals. And ALWAYS conduct a post-mortem – not to find blame but to discover learning and to take corrective actions.

Brian Fetherstonhaugh is an executive coach and talent strategist who helps companies and leaders prepare for the future and a whole new world of work.

He is a former global CEO, Chief People Officer, and author of the award-winning book on career strategy, The Long View.??

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Contact [email protected]

A special thanks goes to Tom Davies of Kekst CNC for his insightful and generous contributions to this article.