The Most Effective Crisis Leadership Advice? Just Lead

I have been speaking with many C-suite leaders and other senior executives these days who ask for my advice on "crisis" leadership. I work as a personal and corporate crisis manager, and my answer seems to mystify many of those leaders who ask for my perspective. "It's simple; you just lead," I explain.

The operative word is “lead,” not "crisis." Crisis response exposes our weaknesses and vulnerabilities as individuals and leaders. The questions and methodology I use to help "solution" a crisis provide a pretty accurate picture of one's leadership skills and workplace culture.

The crisis is often a direct result of poor leadership by a particular individual or team of leaders. The solutioning steps used to deal with and resolve the situation address fundamental leadership principles like honesty, integrity, empathy, listening, and self- and situational awareness. Crisis leadership is no different than day-to-day leadership. 

I have founded multiple professional services organizations, and like many other leaders, I have to make the tough choices and decisions each day that will determine our post-pandemic survival strategy. How do I do it? I lead the same way I always have. We’ve been through several crises as a team before, just on a much smaller scale and with a much smaller scope. The last thing I need my employees and partners to think is that I'm no longer the caring and empathetic Stephynie they have always known me to be. 

President John F. Kennedy once observed that the Chinese character for “crisis” is written with two brush strokes. One represents danger and the other opportunity. The Covid-19 pandemic provides each of us with a chance to transform our leadership skills and company cultures to the next level of extraordinary. Let’s forget about returning to normal or embracing the “new normal” mindset and instead take a look at some things that will increase your capacity to credibly and authentically "just lead." Here are four steps you can take to build your crisis management skills:

1. Check yourself. 

Are you an influencer or a control freak? Leadership is completely behavior-based, and it's the unique ability to leverage influence to guide outcomes. Arrogance, ego and relying solely on the authority your position provides is often used to control and dictate outcomes. However, it can ultimately be destructive when it comes to building your brand as a leader, given the toxic workplace culture that is sure to follow. It’s this spiral effect that often leads to a variety of internal crises. The only way to ensure your leadership intentions align with your leadership behaviors is to ask those you lead. The reason many avoid this step is they know what the honest answer will be.

2. Engage your employees.

If you ignored step one, ignore steps two and three. Leading transformational change requires “real” employee engagement. Leaders must inspire the hearts and engage the minds of every employee to make that happen. It’s hard work that will require patience, persistence, and your complete and absolute presence. It’s work that could be delegated to external coaches and consultants with ease, but in my experience such an approach will always fail given its lack of authenticity and, more importantly, the lack of “you.” True leaders lead and develop their teams to deal with any business challenge, contingency or crisis, and they do it themselves.

3. Build credibility.

The most significant barrier to real employee engagement comes when the actions and behaviors of the leadership team are disingenuous or not authentic. Years of research and data prove that point. Credibility is every leader's greatest capital, and people ultimately judge you on what you do, not what you say. The higher you are in the organization, the more you are at risk to be judged, making it extremely easy to quickly lose credibility should other leaders below you and the organization as a whole deem you inauthentic — or, even worse, disengaged. Credibility is real, and it most certainly drives engagement.

4. Keep everyone accountable.

Accountability is essential to business performance — period, full stop, end of story. Front-line employees embrace accountability. They understand that feedback, coaching and attention to exceeding performance expectations are differentiators that lead to promotion and developmental opportunities. The lack of coaching and development, however, is a massive driver of employee disengagement, and the fact that “top performers” often get different or special treatment is also a huge issue. Unless you're the CEO, every manager has a boss. Doesn't their job as a leader include manager development and accountability as a critical responsibility? Keeping accountability in place throughout the entire organization is imperative and will naturally increase both performance and engagement.

I have always been a practitioner of collecting feedback and data to ensure my intention and behaviors align. Feedback and data are the only sources of information I use to assess my leadership skills. If we're honest, our cognitive biases and varying levels of emotional intelligence "mastery" make us the least reliable sources to judge ourselves on anything. Every interaction we have is an opportunity to listen, learn and maximize our capacity to "just lead," crisis or no crisis.

How do you assess your leadership skills? What best practices can you share to help others learn how to "just lead"?