In the same way that every dog has its day, eventually every organisation has a crisis. Whether it’s a critical drop in performance, adverse publicity, a hostile take-over or merger, downsizing - they all place additional demands on leaders.
During such times the leaders within an organisation come under the microscope, and the way they conduct themselves can make a huge difference to the speed with which the organisation moves out of crisis and back into a safe, steady and sustainable position.
There has been a lot written about crisis management, how to adapt, the way leaders should behave and respond, however most fail to understand that the way a leader leads on a daily basis decides the outcome of the crisis before it’s even identified. Let me explain…
Leadership is about relationships and the way that you as a leader choose to go about developing them is arguably the biggest decision and investment you will ever make in your people. Building relationships is a two-way process – it’s all about the way you engage with people and the response you get. Self awareness is essential, if you don’t get the response you need, then change the way you engage.
Why are relationships so important? Because if you build a tower block you make sure the foundations are strong - if not it falls over. Leadership is the same: get the relationships in place and they provide you with the foundation on which to build.
Once a crisis kicks in, it’s too late to start building relationships because the priority has to be in dealing with the situation in hand. You as the leader may have to step into a completely different style of leadership from your usual one - it has to be ‘command and control’ because often there’s no time for discussion.
This is why the daily business of leadership is so important - get it right and your people will follow you through the challenges the organisation is wrestling with and out the other side. Fail to invest in relationship building or get it wrong and you will struggle all the way, taking longer to emerge and weakened by the experience.
Crisis leadership may mean that it’s necessary to use style that is exclusive and not inclusive in nature; that style of leadership would not get you very far on an ordinary day because it’s too coercive in nature. The bottom line is that if you have previously invested time in developing effective relationships, people will trust you and if they trust you, they will understand why the style has changed and in my experience they rally round and deliver over and above expectations.
If this sounds pretty obvious, it’s probably because it is! I work with many different organisations and am constantly surprised that there are still leaders who don’t understand the value or the power that these relationships have on their business.
My last tip is this: when it’s all over, when you have gained control and brought order out of ‘chaos’, think about how you return to that relationship building style. Speak with as many of your people as you can, whether in groups or individually; include them and seek their views because building relationships is a continuous process. I call it ‘investing for the future’...
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