Leading in a crisis presents an entirely new scope of challenges, and leaders of all kinds need to be prepared. I have given numerous workshops and keynotes in the past year, where I share my leadership experiences from the army and my response to disasters.
Leading in a crisis
There is one question that comes up at the end of almost every booking: How do you lead people during emergencies when they are scattered all over the place, and you have no idea what is going on?
The short answer? Trust and chance.
In 201,1, there was a wildfire that tore across the bush in northern Albert, forcing the evacuation of 17,000 people. By the end, over 500 homes were destroyed, 300 of which were in the town of Slave Lake.
During the days of the main destruction, I had a dozen teams of employees and volunteers deploying to the affected area to support the evacuation of all these people.
The geography covered thousands of square kilometres of northern forest that covered most of northwest Alberta. Roads were closed, and cell-phone coverage, spotty at the best of times, was down due to the raging fire. My people were driving into this maelstrom to deliver humanitarian services.
In this day and age of instantaneous broadband and high-speed communications, I was utterly in the dark for most of the beginning days of the operations. My biggest fear was that my people were driving into the fires. My only instruction to those I could get a hold of was this: No one gets killed.
Chance was on my side, and no one on my team was hurt. In fact, there was not a single fire-related casualty among all those people forced from their homes.
Trust was on my side because of the work we had done to build our teams. Knew that these people would do the best job they could and knew that I had their back as they made decisions and took actions in the field.
How to build trust when leading in a crisis and beyond
There is little you can do to control chance, but there is everything you can do to build trust.
Here are the top three:
- Train your people well, and in challenging situations, Military leaders have learned that repetitive training builds muscle and memory triggers that prevail over panic when emergencies arise
- Never, ever discipline someone for making a decision, even if it is one you wouldn’t have made. Remember, they were there, and you weren’t. That said, when things have calmed down, it is fair to review the actions taken with a coach’s mentor around what lessons could be gained from that experience.
- TALK to your people in calm tones. Imagine they are in front of you; imagine putting your hand on their shoulder and guiding them through a complex and scary situation.