The Art of Leading through a Crisis: Part 2

In part one of this series on managing a crisis, we covered the critical foundational steps for how to prepare yourself and your team as a crisis is unfolding. As a refresher:

• Get on the same page quickly

• Decision making chain

• Communicate immediately

• Ask for help and coverage

• Quickly build the right team

• Re-assess regularly

Now let’s move on to the crisis itself. Once you have your house in order, the real work begins. In terms of managing clients through a crisis, I also have a few tips to deliver the best counsel and services possible. A sampling of those include:

• Bring the calm: Be a neutralizing presence for your client, keeping them level-headed and effective through your tone, demeanor and counsel.

• Download quickly: Concisely distill the information you have received around the situation and create messaging, a timeline and communications plans accordingly.

• Appoint a single voice: Appoint a single leader for communication to be the voice and face of the response, someone near or at the top of the ranks who is articulate and respected.

• Rip off the band-aid: Quickly acknowledge the situation empathetically to key stakeholders, even if you don’t have all the answers. This will buy you time as you gather more information and formulate a plan.

• Inform: Develop clear, concise and simple communication and responses as information and action plans become available.

• Monitor: Carefully watch the situation, both as it develops and as sentiment from social media, employees, the public, etc. (if needed) come in, respond accordingly (if warranted).

• Continued assessment and engagement: Continue to assess and respond with honest and transparent communication until resolution – or a clear plan towards resolution – has been reached.

Working through a crisis is never easy, and of course there is a lot more to it than the tips I outlined above. But if done well, you and your client can come out stronger and more respected.