Under Pressure (Part 2)

More on crisis leadership

When the proverbial <bleep> hits the fan, will you be able to rise to the situation and lead your people through it to a successful outcome?

One of the biggest factors in many crisis situations is that people don’t know what’s happening.

Communication can be a problem. People need to know what’s going on, and they need to know that the problem is being addressed. If there is a plan, they’d like to know what it is, and what they need to do. This can be tricky because some people need to hear the details and structure to know that the plan is something that will work, and other people can’t deal with all those details right now and just need to feel the leader is strong, capable, and confident in success. Giving people the wrong version of this can make things even more stressful. Read the room.

Make sure that you are also listening. You might not have all of the information. Someone else might have thought of a better solution. And your people need to feel that they are being heard, so they feel less powerless.

(Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash)