Will your organisation survive or dive?  The value of Crisis Management Leadership

The world has become increasingly complex and interconnected, and managing crises has become a critical skill for leaders.  Crisis management leadership is fundamental to building and maintaining an organisation’s crisis management capability.  It requires leaders to respond to unexpected events considering how they manage the consequences and understand that the organisation is a system of co-dependent elements available in preparing for a crisis, during the crisis, and recovering from it.  An appreciation of this will lead an organisation to survive and thrive after a crisis.

This role’s criticality requires building trust and confidence among stakeholders, communicating effectively, and cultivating a culture of resilience and flexibility throughout the organisation. Essential is to be transparent with communication to key stakeholders internal and external to the organisation. To succeed, it is vital to recognise potential crises, implement prepared plans, and be agile in modifying plans as the situation evolves.  Additionally, one must be able to act promptly and confidently trusting your team by sharing power in decision making when a crisis arises.

A key element of crisis management leadership is identifying potential crises before they happen.  An adaptation of experience, knowledge and situational awareness of the environment surrounding the organisation aids in recognition of a pending event.  Acknowledging potential risks and having the corporate knowledge of predetermined plans can instigate mitigation toward the crisis.  For example, a leader in the financial sector might recognise the risks of a currency crisis, with predetermine trigger points initiating a response plan to protect the company’s assets from devaluation.

Another vital element is acting quickly and effectively when a crisis strikes.  This involves gaining valuable situational awareness of all the inputs contributing to the crisis event that allows for decisive decisions that manage the environment to ensure the organisation will survive, thrive, and recognise opportunities that will strengthen the organisation as a consequence of dealing with the crisis.  For example, an organisation’s IT system crashes, debilitating the organisation, and forcing it to explore alternative systems until its existing broken system can be fixed, only to realise newer technologies exist that better serve the organisation’s needs.

Any person responsible for crisis leadership understands the tremendous value in exercising their crisis management team’s plan(s) to reveal the organisation’s vulnerabilities without the consequence of real-time damage to the organisation, thus building resilience.  Insights realised provide recommendations for an organisation’s board or top management to consider and provide direction toward their implementation. Crisis management leadership is an essential competence for any organisation.  It encompasses realising the importance of building a crisis management capability before the event occurs, creating a culture within the organisation that respects the potential for a crisis having debilitating consequences on the organisation, having plans in place with a team that is resilience enough to be flexible and able to adapt to the crisis event as it unfolds quickly and effectively while having the organisation’s core values at the forefront.

Reference

Edmondson, A. C., & Nembhard, I. M. (2009). Product development and learning in project teams: The challenges are the benefits. Journal of product innovation management, 26(2), 123-138.

Wooten, L. P., & James, E. H. (2008). Linking crisis management and leadership competencies: The role of human resource development. Advances in developing human resources, 10(3), 352-379.