When building an organization we should always keep in mind that when we plan for a company to establish and grow; we forget at times that the company will face some crisis as it is a corporate world. So, whenever a company starts building and growing they need to create a crisis management plan. You would ask why we need a crisis management plan beforehand. We need it so that when a crisis hits the company – we can emerge from it without damaging our reputation.
Furthermore, a crisis management plan doesn’t work until the leadership is healthy. Good leaders take their time in creating a crisis-management plan. They contemplate, explore, create an analysis and discuss before coming up with a solution. This doesn’t happen overnight – good leaders plan this beforehand and keep a backup for the time of crisis. Like, nobody knew how COVID-19 will turn out to be for the corporate world. The companies which had great leadership with operational crisis management plan survived through it while companies with no plan are struggling or they died down altogether.
Good leaders have qualities which are filled with hustle and they do not let their companies succumb to the hardships. While a leader with unhealthy management and traits will fuel to the crisis and panic when situation worsens this will result the company succumbing to the hardships and damage their reputation in the flow. Unhealthy leadership can destroy the companies in a long term spectrum; unhealthy leaders are shortsighted and they only want quick fixes.
A company leader will always make the creation of a crisis resistant culture their priority. A leader can create a crisis management team by training them on dealing with crisis as per the severity of the crisis and then present a crisis management plan. Leaders who are strong will always be ahead of the circumstances. They are always hustling and trying to get data and updated information from various resources – they are always learning as leaders.
Strong leaders do not put blame on their teams instead they take ownership of the crisis and lead the team instead of bossing around. They keep their teams aligned, keep monitoring the performances of the team and establish a culture where everyone is accountable. When it comes to the time of crisis, the first instance and the first trait a good leader shows is taking care of their team. Leaders with effective leadership skills will understand if there are any distractions or problems faced by the team during the crisis. They will always find a way to motivate their employees and engage them in different activities and moreover communicate with them to help them in the time of crisis.
Keep your focus on both clients and employees.
Client Support: Keep a research read on your entire client base and then reach out to them in times of crisis. You come last; your clients comes first — for example, propose a payment schedules to provide them ease during the crisis. This will also help you in a sustained income. Employees support: Lead with empathy and know that if crisis can hit your company so bad – how bad it would hit your employees on individual level. Your employees will always remember your compassion.
True leadership shines through at the time of crisis. Once the crisis calms down; look around and see if your boss was a good leader or just a boss. Look at the companies which sustained through the crisis and how did they sustain while some companies just died down. So, always remember a good leader is not only a person who knows how to build a company but also someone who knows how to sail the ship during the time of the crisis.