Crisis Leadership

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 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 current Covid-19 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 Sort by date Sort 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 competenc... Sign up

		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 tha... Sign up

		1 Hong Sun Management Consultant, Canada
	What Kind of Leadership do we Need in COVID-19 Pandemic? Based on what’s happening in different countries around the world about their responses to the incre... Sign up

		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 ... Sign up

		2 Yoav Weinstein CEO, Israel
	2-Way Communication I agree with the points already mentioned however I believe that one important thing is missing: COM... Sign up

		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 t... Sign up

		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 ghSM... Sign up

		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-da... Sign up

		1 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	What Kind of Leadership do we Need in COVID-19 Pandemic? My 'market research of one" over years of consulting has led me to believe that leadership from the ... Sign up

		0 Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar India
	The Kind of Leadership Needed in the Covid Pandemic Making decisions as tough as a DIAMOND, yet being sensitive to peoples' needs as tender as a FLOWER ... Sign up

		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 SUR... Sign up

		-1 Nassim Rabii Manager, Tunisia
	Leadership in Crisis I guess it is no longer the time to discuss leadership.. You have to be like the boss wants and say ... Sign up

		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 requ... Sign up

		1 Michael Norris Director, United States
	Breakdown of the Intended Discussion One must figure that it would only be a matter of time before this discussion broke down into a poli... Sign up

		0 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	The Crisis of Followership The demeanor, behaviour, example of visible leadership at any level during a crisis is an important ... Sign up

		0 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Leadership & Critical Visibility @Graham Williams: Agreed. Management-leadership, it may be argued, is somewhat like Caesar's wife, n... Sign up

		0 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 messag... Sign up

		1 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 shortag... Sign up

		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 ... Sign up