The Evolve Group of Companies

5 Keys to Effectively Lead Through a Crisis

As I have found with myself and building our brand there are going to come time where in you will find yourself in a crisis situation and how you LEAD through it can and will determine the course of your business. Although the process is the same, the style may change based upon the moment that you may find yourself in.

Establish a How: The key to leading through a crisis is to always be ready to respond. A leader should always be prepared to provide the necessary information at a very well targeted time. It should be accurate and timely as to not do so could lead to negative information being made available and you have a PR nightmare on your hands.

So creating a action plan and how to execute prior to a crisis will allow you to lead from the front rather than leading the cleanup crew.

Take Control: In any given crisis situation a leader MUST take control immediately. Why? If you are not in control someone else is. Having that control allows you to make proactive decisions rather than reactive. In a times of crisis, control of information along with timing is paramount.
Being in control of changes the question from— What do we say? to What do we do? It is that shift in the question that will position you for success in leading though a crisis. Simply put action is always greater than saying.

Always be prepared: In my years of playing, we would spend time practicing the same play over and over again. Then we would practice the play based upon different scenarios. When we messed up the coach would say do it again! Then when we did it correctly, the coach would say do it again.

Why?

He was ensuring we were prepared to run the play correctly no matter the situation.

The same for leading through a crisis; you must be prepared to run the play no matter the situation. You should be ready to answer questions like “Why did this happen? What are you going to do address it? How will you ensure that this will not happen again?”

Being prepared as you lead through a crisis will ensure that you are in front of the situation at all times. That could mean the difference between good and bad PR.

Always remain flexible: Leading though a crisis could mean that everything may not work according to plan. Many times, not being flexible could be the very thing to take down a leader without his knowledge. The crisis is one thing but not having the ability to shift or change lanes rapidly could be far worse than the crisis itself.

If you are to lead through a crisis, you must remain flexible as you may have to do something different in the process. Making that change may mean the difference in successfully navigating through a crisis.

Learn from your mistakes: It will ensure that you are always in control. It will ensure that you prepared to handle ANY crisis that you may find yourself in while giving you the tools to remain flexible enough to see what areas YOU need to change to ensure that it does not happen again.

Take a step back and review the situation and determine 2 thing, what you did right and how you can do better the next time around.

Crisis is bound to happen in any business and at any given time. However, if you are to lead your team through it, the above steps are essential to successful crisis leadership.

 

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