Leading in a crisis

The main difference between good and bad leaders is most easily observed during a crisis. A crisis like the current coronavirus pandemic is a time when you can show up as a leader or be shown up.

As we all find our way through these rapidly changing times I wanted to explore what the best leaders do well during a crisis, I hope this will add value to your leadership during the challenging times ahead;

So how should we lead during a crisis?

Put your people first;

This is quite a straightforward point, as putting employees first should always be the number one priority for leaders. This is the case through good times and bad times. The focus should be on keeping employees safe and well supported.

The role of a leader should be to help people get through this crisis, but not only that it should be to help people become better because of it.

Educate yourself;

Take the time to invest to find out what the issue really is, educate yourself using the proper resources so that you are knowledgeable and you know what you are dealing with as a leader – in this case, don’t just rely on the media – use Public Health England (gov.uk), World Health Organisation or NHS whereby you can depend on the accuracy. All of these sources give a daily update whereby you can depend upon the accuracy of the information.

Exaggeration and lack of knowledge of the virus can affect the mind, which could cause us to stray away from logical thinking and behaviours.

Be Flexible;

We all love when things go exactly as planned, but in a crisis, we are working through a lot of uncertainty and change. Many thanks happen outside of your control and the best leaders will know how to adapt to different situations. Good leaders will know how to approach problems from a different perspective and willing to seek advice from other team members.

Flexibility is important as it is the capacity to adjust to change, which is constant during the crisis period. This means being versatile, resilient, aware and responsive. Flexible leaders will stabilise crisis situations and achieve objectives despite these challenging circumstances.

In a rapidly changing work environment with new, challenging problems. You’re left with a choice: be flexible or be left behind.

Communicate

At times of heightened anxiety, people want to be properly communicated to. In a time of crisis leaders will use good judgement here and generally allow more thinking time to give a real informed story of what is happening. The common misconception is that people need more communication, whilst this might be the case in order to be visible the real emphasis should be on providing wise communication making sure you are connecting the dots.

Be Authentic

In times of crisis employees want authenticity more than perfection. For many leaders, this is the first time that they have led during a pandemic and therefore they will not know all the answers – which is fine. The key thing is to ensure you continually do the right thing and make the right decisions.

For me this means that good leaders will always tell the truth, they will always put their people first, they will stay close and visible to people, do the right thing and finally, they will look to encourage and lead by example,

Be clear with people about what you know, what you don’t know and what you are doing to learn more.

Manage yourself

Leading people is challenging and quite often the most challenging part of leadership is managing yourself as well as your employees. Effective leadership in a crisis requires physical, psychological and emotional strength. In an emergency, you must first take care of yourself so that you can care for others.

Everyone in the global crisis is impacted in some way and therefore it is important to lean on other leaders and seek out assistance.

Great leaders will recognise that you and your employees all have physical and emotional limits and therefore will demonstrate the importance of rest.

I hope that this blog will provide some help and some hope for leaders. Now is a time to remind yourself of what your people need you to do, and to pause and think about what type of leader you need to ‘be’ for others.

Good luck and be safe!

HR Blogger