Lessons In Leadership-What This Pandemic Has Taught Us About How Organizational/Business Leaders Respond To Crisis!

Leadership During Crisis

This is somewhat gross but when I was a kid, for many years we lived in apartments that had roaches. If you never experienced this I am so happy for you. Those little bugs were nasty and can invade a home quickly. I also remember another thing about those bugs, when you turn on a light-they scatter. The run and hide as fast as they can-for they have been exposed! This leads me to make my deep breath point, the COVID19 Pandemic has exposed how many people lead during a time of crisis. Instead of taking the time to breathe, pause, think and possibly innovate--many scattered. A plethora of leaders made rash decisions that impacted thousands of lives-and never took the time to innovate, try new things or go a new direction. Life has been good, no problems at all, a crisis hits-and panic ensues. It is not that we don't have REAL problems, my business is in the meetings industry so I know personally--but the response is what I am highlighting.

The point I am trying to make it how do we respond to a crisis? With leadership comes great responsibility. When the ship is sinking, the strong captain is still giving people a sense of hope that they will survive. Once the leaks are patched up and the ship is back on course, the people look at the captain with great admiration-because the captain provided his people with calm, focused and powerful leadership-instead of panic and fear. During this global pandemic, I have listened to interview after interview, read articles and interacted with many leaders. I would say that less than 10% were like that captain. I wonder what those who follow them will think about their leadership when the storm settles? Will people say, "We have a leader whom I admire deeply?" Or, will they say "Our leader did not respond well to the crisis--not sure if I have confidence in them anymore?" The outcome is very much dependent upon leadership response to the crisis.

A few sentences, not full-blown strategies but sentences to help your business or organization be like the latter.

1. Innovate, Innovate, Innovate-What have you got to lose? Why not create a think- tank, and analyze how you can do things differently? What have you got to lose?

2. Create Your Own Trauma Response Team-Our company would love to be a part of this. Create a "Think-Tank" to look into the future as to how you will handle another crisis like this. How will you and your leaders respond to trauma? What do you have to do differently in order to be better-prepared organizationally, financially, etc?

3. Join or Create A Peer Group-The worse place to be in a crisis is alone. Create a mastermind or trust group of peers within your industry or outside. Make trauma response a major part of your collective planning. Don't ever allow this to happen again.

4. Make Sacrifices-Just like people tithe to the Church, find a way to save a percentage of your money in a secure account just for times of trauma. Joseph in the bible took a percentage of the grain from his nation and stored it up for the famine. When the famine hit-the the nation was ready and it had little impact on them because he was proactive.

5. Stand Strong-One of my early mentors was Nathan Hill, former President of Greenwood Trust/Discover Card. One thing I loved about my mentor was I never saw him sweat. With all of the pressure of running a multi-billion dollar operation, he was always poised and under control!

It is my hope and prayer that this pandemic creates a nation of leaders who are leaders their teams can be proud of and look up to. This only happens when you have proactive, prepared and powerful leaders (Males and Females.) This is a great time (Most of us are homebound) to analyze what kind of leader we are. Are we like the captain that stands strong in the storm or are we the kind that says "abort", this baby is going down!

No doubt, this is very much a personal choice.

BTW-We are open for business (From our vast corporate home offices:) We (My team of associates and I) can create customized videos or webinars for your company or organization designed to help your designated group remain motivated, focused and on-task-while working at home. We can also facilitate think-tank innovation and out-of-the-box new pathways for your company, organization or education.