Crisis Leadership

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Crisis Leadership

Publilius Syrus already wrote in the 1st century BC: "Anyone can hold the helm when the sea is calm". This crisis management axiom is so important to leadership and management that we have it on the mouse pads we give to new PREMIUM members of our management platform.

Leadership during a crisis is arguably the most difficult challenge any human being could ever face. Let's keep our heads cool and focus on the key things leaders should do in any crisis.

An excellent starting point is the framework of Boin, 't Hart, and van Esch, who researched the proceedings of the global financial crisis of 2008 and have come up with a framework of 7 key challenges of crisis leadership:

1. SENSE MAKING: Diagnose confusing, contested and often fast-moving situations correctly, a necessary condition for effectively meeting the other challenges.
2. MEANING MAKING: Provide persuasive public accounts of what is happening, why it is happening, what can be done about it, how and by whom; in other words, 'teaching reality' aimed at managing both the general public's and key stakeholders' emotions, expectations, behavioural inclinations, as well as to restore their crisis-eroded trust in public institutions and office-holders.
3. DECISION MAKING: Make strategic policy judgments under conditions of time pressure, uncertainty and collective stress.
4. COORDINATION: Forge effective communication and collaboration among pre-existing and ad-hoc networks of public, private and sometimes international actors.
5. CONSOLIDATION: Switch the gears of government and society back from crisis mode to recovery and 'business as usual', without a loss of attention and momentum in delivering long-term services to those who are eligible.
6. ACCOUNTABILITY: Manage the process of expert, media, legislative and judicial inquiry and debate that tends to follow crises in such a way that responsibilities are clarified and accepted, destructive blame games are avoided.
7. LEARNING: Make sure that the parties involved in the crisis engage in critical, non-defensive modes of self-scrutiny and draw evidence-based and reflective lessons for their future performance.

The way in which crisis challenges are taken up, when and by whom determine how crises will determine their course and what sort of impact they will have. Let's see if leaders will follow the above sensible advice from science rather than spreading fake news themselves, blaming other countries or using the crisis for their own personal or political interests.

Source: Arjen Boin, Paul 't Hart, and Femke van Esch (2012), "Political Leadership in Times of Crisis: Comparing Leader Responses to Financial Turbulence", Researchgate

		Comments by date▼ Comments by rating Rating
		6 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Familiar or Proficient in Crisis Management? All of these 7 are critical things in crisis management. Perhaps there should be an eighth competency added: 8. PRACTICE. Any organization wanting success in crisis must gather its staff and cooperators and drill through scenarios they are vulnerable to, and even those that they are not. Until multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional competencies are mastered becoming "muscle memory", organizational and infrastructure losses will rise until mitigation activities become second nature. However, most agencies and organizations will not practice for emergencies; they gamble that the crisis will never come. They falsely justify their pre-incident non-participation by rationalizing it under financial constraints. They usually learn post-crisis that practicing would have been far less expensive than the secondary losses incurred by their utter mismanagement of the disaster. "We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training." ― Archilochus .

		2 Nassim Rabii Manager, Tunisia
	Comments on Key Challenges of Crisis Leadership I guess that the most difficult thing is telling the truth to the public, and if we decide to do that, how shall we make it easy to accept, to understand, and how to avoid panic. On the other hand, and especially for the COVID-19 case, amplifying the facts (I don't want to say lying) could have a positive effect on public behavior so that they take things more seriously from the beginning. I'm talking especially about the Italian case.

		1 Alessandro Cerboni Strategy Consultant, Italy
	System Thinking and Complexity Another requirement or challenge is being able to think in a COMPLEX SYSTEMS way. As long as we try to act following a reductionist approach in conditions of crisis and uncertainty, the effectiveness of the choices is compromised by the increase in complexity deriving from linear cause => effect relations.

		2 Yoav Weinstein CEO, Israel
	2-Way Communication I agree with the points already mentioned however I believe that one important thing is missing: 9. COMMUNICATION. In times of crisis, it is critical to be able to communicate to the people the company strategy and the actions that the company is planning. At the same time, the management must be able to receive reliable fast information from the field on which it is possible to plan and to react to the events. Ultimately the only thing that really matters are the decisions taken by the people in the first line and they must base their decisions on their proper understanding of the situation.

		3 Michael Norris Director, United States
	The Problem with Crisis Communications @Yoav Weinstein: Communication in crisis is indeed essential, however quite often one of the first things to break down in a crisis is also communication. Many if not most organizations do not have a...

		2 Hong Sun Management Consultant, Canada
	4 Behaviors that Help Leaders Manage a Crisis Based on more than 21,000 leadership assessments among C-suite executives, the research team at ghSMART have learned that leaders need to cultivate four behaviors in themselves and their teams to succ...

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	The Time of your Crisis It seems to me that all of the points noted in the above postings are equally relevant for day-to-day management. The factor that seems critical to a crisis situation would seem to be one of speed of ...

		1 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	What Kind of Leadership do we Need in a Crisis? My 'market research of one" over years of consulting has led me to believe that leadership from the inside out is the way to leading with genuine authenticity, compassion, deftness. Especially during ...

		2 Helen Strong Business Consultant, South Africa
	Requirement for Leadership in a Crisis Great advice already. One of the most important leadership qualities / most needed is INSIGHT IN SURVIVAL FACTORS. During a crisis period leaders need to recognize the key factors that could close the...

		1 Nassim Rabii Manager, Tunisia
	Leadership in Crisis I guess it is no longer the time to discuss leadership.. Unfortunately you have to be like the boss wants you to and say what he wants you to say and share his same point of view even if you do not ag...

		3 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	The Crisis of Followship @Nassim Rabii: We talk about ethical-moral leadership & so on but it seems that we even more so require people to decide that a PERSONAL ethical-moral mindset is even more important. If people decide ...

		1 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	The Crisis of Followership The demeanor, behaviour, example of visible leadership at any level during a crisis certainly is an important and challenging issue Maurice....

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Leadership & Critical Visibility @Graham Williams: Agreed. Management-leadership, it may be argued, is somewhat like Caesar's wife, not only that it 'be but that it be seen to 'be'? However, it may be equally argued that a "true" le...

		2 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	Leadership and Critical Visibility @Maurice Hogarth: Yes. I read (a while ago, so I've forgotten the source, yet believe in the message) that quite extensive research in the UK showed that employee PERCEPTIONS of leadership trust, cre...

		2 Shubhi Kotiya CxO / Board, Germany
	Leadership Lessons in Times of Crisis (Pandemic) There are several issues that are keeping CEOs and their leadership teams worried, as talent shortages, politics and cybersecurity have given way to managing a remote workforce, cash flow management a...

		1 Parag Utekar Student (MBA), India
	7Cs of Leadership During the Coronavirus Black Swan The Coronavirus Pandemic is now being called the "Black Swan of 2020", after its disastrous impacts on societies and global markets. A "Black Swan," for market prognosticators, is an unpredictable, ra...

		3 Hong Sun Management Consultant, Canada
	Wartime Leadership. Strategies and Examples A related term to Crisis Leadership is: "Wartime Leadership". Political instability, climate change, technology disruption, economic recession, and pandemic are creating global crises that are challe...

		2 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Wartime Situation and the Need to Plan @Hong Sun: What I would add to your points (from my own experience) is that in times of instability, of rapidly changing, i.e. a "wartime", situation, it is essential that you are clear on what your (...

		2 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Outcomes or Objectives? @Maurice Hogarth: Maurice, thanks for continuing to contribute to this thread. I totally agree with you that no plan survives first contact with the enemy and also on the need for contingency planning...

		1 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Comprehensive and Applicable Contribution @Hong Sun: Hong Sun, thank you for your outstanding contribution to this thread. It is very comprehensive and it shows your hard work in putting it together. It was well researched. It is applicable t...

		3 Hong Sun Management Consultant, Canada
	Planning and Outcome Expectations @Michael Norris: Thank you, Michael, for your kind words. I like your added points about planning and outcome. Strategic planning is more for "peace time" and tactical planning is better suited for "w...

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	The Art of Managing Objectives for Crises @Michael Norris: thank you for your comments and likewise for enabling the sharing of thoughts, opinions, ideas, I do like confirming as well as learning new points of view on them. I'm not 100% cert...

		1 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Clarifying Differences in Vernacular @Maurice Hogarth: Hello Maurice, Thank you for helping to make this one of the most successful threads in 12manage. The continuing dialogue has been educational and entertaining. It is demonstrating ...

		2 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	From Aim to Goal to Objective | PRAMKU and SMART @Michael Norris: thank you Michael and agreed. At the risk (if we haven't already done so) of going off-topic I understand your points on goals etc. However, it seems particularly important that in ...

		1 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Continuing in Vernacular @Maurice Hogarth: Hello Maurice, thanks for continuing. It becomes more clear that we are on the same page, but in different dialects. Again, coming from a California public safety background where we...

		2 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Critical Communication for Crisis Management @Michael Norris: trying to keep these points on communication barriers relevant to the main topic, I'm picking up on your comment re "aircraft communications" this requirement that instructions are re...

		1 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Crisis Communications by Leaders and Professionals @Maurice Hogarth: Hello Maurice, Yes, "Parrot-phrasing" can be a problem. I guess being in a profession that routinely deals with crises and has standard operating procedures, protocols, algorithms, ...