Grow your business: Crisis management
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“In the midst of every crisis, lies great opportunity,” said Albert Einstein—arguably one of, if not the, most famous scientists of all time. While the thought of an opportunity even existing is hard to imagine for someone who is in crisis mode, Einstein was someone who was always looking ahead and planning his next move. He took into consideration what he did not know in whatever he did. Anticipating what crisis is right around the corner is the key to properly managing a crisis when one does develop.
It is of paramount importance to realize that there is a solution to every problem. It is just waiting to be discovered. For most businesses, a crisis of some form or another is inevitable. Be it financial, a natural disaster like a flood, tornado, or hurricane, a product failure or recall, a data breach, and the list goes on and on.
You, as an owner or manager of a business, need to be prepared to navigate and guide your firm through the event in order to ensure the continuity of your company and to maintain the confidence your employees, customers, and clients have in you and your abilities.
In a recent article by Sudarshan Somanathan, an expert on workplace productivity, he proceeded to succinctly state a crisis as “any event or situation that disrupts an organization’s normal operations. It can be minor, like a crucial resource being unavailable during an important customer meeting, or completely unexpected major events, like natural disasters, disease outbreaks, or political developments that can throw well-planned strategies off track. These events directly impact your company’s priorities, reputation, or operations. Crisis leadership is the ability of an organization and its leadership team to navigate challenging situations.”
There are two major areas to consider when anticipating a crisis; developing effective strategies and having the necessary leadership qualities:
Crisis Strategies
Contingency Planning: If your firm makes products, prepare for a potential product recall. If your company is in the service sector, develop scenarios that might involve data breaches. You can only be limited by your imagination when it comes to developing appropriate scenarios. As an aside, there can be internal crises, as well as, external ones.
Assemble a Crisis Management Team: Within your organization, create a team of people who are organized, good communicators, excellent listeners, and outcome driven employees.
Communication: When you communicate publicly or internally, show empathy. Be clear and consistent with your communication.
Look Beyond the Crisis: Encourage your team to look beyond the immediate difficulty, trying to envision what the outcomes will be from the crisis and how your firm will be able to manage around or through it.
Crisis Leadership Qualities
Maslan and Zimmerman conveyed several takeaways in a recent article for Inc. Magazine. “Lean on a mentor. No one should navigate a crisis alone. If you know someone who’s already braved similar storms— reach out to them.” Learn from their experiences. No one is perfect, but past experiences can be of benefit when someone is faced with a problem in the present.
Decision Making: The key for any leader is to make an informed decision. In order to make that decision, a leader needs to gather any and all the information that is available to them. Further, a leader needs to maintain stability and to stand firm in the face of adversity.
Instill Confidence: During a crisis, an effective leader needs be confident, but not overbearing. Empathetic, but not a pushover. They need to be a good communicator and have the ability to steer the crisis team to a positive resolution.
Be An Active Listener: Somanathan goes on to say, “Often crucial answers on mitigating a crisis come from those directly involved and affected by the crisis. An effective crisis leader focuses on active listening, ensuring that not just the senior leaders but even team members are heard and allowed to voice their concerns.” By being an active listener, the crisis leader will not only help build a collaborative team, they will be creating a super-highway of bilateral communication between the various employees.
Adaptable: During a crisis, leaders might have to change directions many times as the situation evolves. Once again, flexibility and adaptability will be keys for the leader to see and be able to adjust.
Finally, strive to be pro-active in recognizing and managing a crisis, as opposed to being reactive and finding yourself and your company behind the curve. Getting out in front of a difficulty and staying out in front of one, is far better than discovering a problem when it is too late.