Here’s a quick-take for leading in crisis. These may be a BGO (blinding glimpse of the obvious) for most leaders, but perhaps helpful amid chaos. (NOTE: Also effective in non-crisis situations.):
Address what problems can be solved
AND
Leverage the unsolvable polarities in the best ways you can
(And, navigate problems and polarities without blame or judgment.)
Be a calming presence
AND
Be a force for urgent action
Share information/Reassure
AND
Ask important questions/Listen
Show command of factual data
AND
Communicate factual data
Be grounded in reality/Short-term needs
AND
Be visionary/Hopeful for the long-term future
Show humility/Defer to experts when needed/Own mistakes
AND
Show confidence/Be resolute about difficult decisions for competing needs
Lastly, a couple of quotes:
“A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner.”
English proverb
“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, — but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.”
Chinese proverb
“Tears are often the telescope by which men see far into heaven.”
Henry Ward Beecher
“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.”
Will Rogers
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”
Charlotte Bronte
“The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.”
Robert Cushing
