Strong Leadership Needed in Times of Crisis

Planning for a disaster costs nothing more than a few hours of developing and implementing a reaction plan. The time spent on developing your plan will be a small fraction of what it costs not to be prepared. Planning and preparation can help you recover quickly, and may just mean the difference between the survival or demise of your business.

One key to surviving a crisis is strong leadership. In times of uncertainty, your employees will look to you to take their lead. Communicating what you know, when you learned it, how you learned it, and what you're going to do about it should be done as quickly as possible. Always tell the truth. The facts are bound to come out eventually anyway, and people have long memories when it comes to such things.

Crisis leadership from the top
Good leadership and clear communication can help people cope during a crisis. It's important to direct people — staff, customers, suppliers, or anyone else affected by the crisis — to provide guidance. It's also important to inform them about what you know and what you don’t yet know.

People in crisis need more than just information; they also need "emotional leadership." As a leader, you can help people in crisis manage their expectations by conveying that, as much as possible, the very best is being done. Messages such as this can help people maintain perspective and tolerate uncertainty longer.

Competent emotional leadership is also about shared values — the values that bind us as a company or as a community. When we remind people what we are about, we inspire them to function at their best. And to do this, good leaders need to be visible. Strong leaders have the courage to share their reactions with the people around them, so that the people know they are cared about and feel an emotional bond.

Effective crisis leadership requires the same level of planning and commitment that it takes to run the rest of the business. Whether it's disaster planning or acquisitions strategy, product development, HR, or marketing, you need to create a reaction plan, practice it, and be prepared for the worst. And whoever in senior management is going to speak, must be prepared. That requires coaching and practice on a regular basis.

Neumann International offers customised Executive Consulting services and plays a crucial role in organisational development, optimising management resources in place. Our executive consulting teams develop customised solutions for leadership challenges built on three main pillars: coaching, evaluation and auditing. Our holistic approach enables us to identify gaps in the system, benchmark the strength and efficiency of existing teams, gauge the impact of mergers and acquisitions and implement strategic training modules to prepare individuals and corporations for the challenges to come.

Every organization needs to prepare for traumatic events by preplanning, training, and securing the appropriate resources in advance. That way, if and when disaster does strike, you'll be ready to respond quickly and decisively to help your people — and your business — move forward.

For more information on Neumann’s Executive Consulting services, please contact your local Neumann office or:

Contact

Lydia Wazir

Operations & Communications Coordinator

Schottenring 12 / 5. OG
1010 Vienna
AUSTRIA
Phone: 0043 1 401 40 458
lydia.wazir@neumann-inter.com