8 Essential Steps for Managing a Crisis
A defining moment for a leader is often how they handle a crisis. When something unexpected goes wrong, people are going to turn to the leader and leadership team. How they respond can either bring people together or it can break down an organization.
These events are a challenge for any leader. It is important to have a plan for how you will respond before it happens. Each situation will be different but these steps will apply to most circumstances.
1. Get grounded - To properly handle what has happened you want to make sure that you are in a good emotional state and can think clearly. One strategy for this is to take a couple of minutes to connect to the breath. You can simply watch the breath or do a specific breathing technique. It can be useful to do this at several different points as you respond to what has happened.
2. Gather relevant information - Finding out exactly what has happened is critical for developing a response. This often requires talking with several people that were involved.
3. Meet with your leadership team and develop a plan - These situations aren't meant to be handled alone. Get your trusted leaders together and any other person that has expertise on the situation and identify what has happened and the course of action. For this be solutions focused and detailed with each step of the response.
4. Communicate clearly, consistently, and transparently - This is a key step for how successful your response is! It is also where many leaders fail. This needs to happen soon after the event and then throughout the entire response. When communicating make sure to take ownership of your role in it and clearly lay out the response.
5. Be visible - People need to see you and know that you are actively handling the situation. A great quote for this is "Show the face that your team needs to see." If you are portraying confidence and poise then others will pick up on that and be more confident and optimistic.
6. Execute the plan while giving continuous updates - The steps that you developed and communicated, need to be put into action. Make sure to communicate these so that people stay informed.
7. Adjust the plan as needed - Even the best thought-out plans will need to be adapted. See what is working and what is not and be willing to make the necessary changes.
8. Put in place a process to avoid the situation repeating - As a leader, you want to avoid repeated mistakes. Develop and implement a system to prevent this from happening again.
By doing the steps above you are showing the team that you are focused on the solution and that you have what it takes to lead the group through it. You are also showing everyone you value communication.
