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by Bruce T. Blythe
What would you do in the
following three situations?
Imagine that it finally hit! The avian flu
has just been confirmed to be contagious.
One of your traveling employees has
just been diagnosed with this dreaded
disease after returning home. Your
workforce is fearful that they might
have been exposed and most are not
personally prepared at home for an outbreak.
But, you need them to carry out
the company’s business continuity plan.
Employees in mass want to take time
off. What do you do?
You learn that one of your facilities
has been emitting low-level toxic substances
for an undetermined amount of
time. It is the company’s fault due to a
prior decision to delay replacement of a
faulty system in one of your facilities.
But, it is quickly remedied. Possibly,
employees, visitors and others have all
been exposed to a small degree. Most
likely, the exposure was minimal with
no harm.
Unfortunately, a similar situation
occurred at the same facility last year.
You reported it to the authorities and
the media, in learning about it, exagerated
the story, blaming the company
for putting people at risk.
If knowledge of the present toxic
emission were unveiled publicly it
would likely cause serious reputational
and legal damage to your organization,
now that it has happened again. But it
would be worse if discovered later that
you tried to cover it up. Possibly, your
position within the company is on the
line, as well. Only you and a couple of
trusted subordinates know about the
emission now. Do you proactively go
public and risk the feared personal,
reputational and legal damage or try to
resolve the situation quietly with (hopefully)
no public harm done?
Two bombs hit your facilities simultaneously
in different locations with
a note from an activist group taking
credit. Do you close all your facilities
throughout the enterprise as a safety
precaution? If so, for how long? If not,
what are alternative responses?
Each of these situations requires a “defining decision.” Initial information
is usually wrong. Rumors are rampant.
Action must be taken without time
for sufficient consideration. The consequences
are high. People are watching
your every move. The velocity of information
coming in is staggering. The
stress is numbing.
Now, make those decisions that may
have life and death implications. Act
in a manner that will be scrutinized
later. Take that risk that may define
your career as an excellent leader when
the organization needed it most...or
an inept manager with poor judgment
under pressure.
There are significant differences between
Tactical Crisis Management and Strategic
Crisis Leadership. The table below
gives some of the high level differences:
 Strategic Crisis Leadership involves
high-leverage skills that are vital to
corporate recovery in the midst of a
disaster. Crisis leadership skills are
needed that define the crisis beyond
the obvious, forecast the intended
and unintended consequences of decisions,
anticipate the effects of the crisis
on impacted stakeholders, assess the
impact of the crisis on core assets, and
follow the values and guiding principles
of the organization – and, your own
ethical standards that may be tested to
the limit.
Crisis leadership is more about who
you are than what you know. No learned
crisis leadership skill will overcome a
lack of character, ethics or integrity. An
effective crisis leader must act deliberately,
quickly, and effectively with
honesty, high moral values and ethical
standards.
In order to help assure their leaders
will act with good character in a
caring manner when crises hit, crisis
prepared organizations develop overarching
response guidelines for their
crisis managers to follow. I provide you
with five guiding principles for managing
crises:
- Well-being of people first, with
caring and compassion
- Assume appropriate responsibility
- Address needs of all stakeholders in
a timely manner
- All decisions and actions based on
honesty and ethical guidelines
- Available, visible and open communication
with all impacted parties
The U.S. Army defines the three basic
components of leadership as Be, Know,
Do. “Be” is about who you are. “Know”
is about the skills and knowledge you
have acquired. And “Do” is about the
actions that you take on a timely basis.
Purposeful attention to all three components
of Strategic Crisis Leadership
will increase the likelihood that you’ll
know what to ask, what to do and how
to do it. And more importantly, learn to
manage the unexpected.
Be, know, do...what are the skills
needed to meet these Strategic Crisis
Leadership responsibilities? There are
many. But here is a simple introductory
prescription for effective crisis
leadership.
What do you need to be? Caring.
Demonstration of caring is more important
than all other leadership traits
combined, according to research by
the Center for Risk Communications.
If you come across as uncaring, people
will become outraged. Caring during
crisis response is not a feeling. Caring is
a set of corporate and personal behaviors
that elicit the perception in impacted
stakeholders that you and your company
truly care.
What do you need to know? As a
leader, you must have a vision for crisis
resolution. Without a clear and compelling
vision for response and recovery,
you will not be able to adequately lead
your people during times of crisis.
And do? The single most important
action is two-way communication. Simply
put, you will never be any better
at responding to crises than your communication.
That involves how well
you listen to obtain the facts, and how
well you speak openly to impacted
stakeholders.
So, how does this apply to real life situations?
I introduced three scenarios at
the beginning of this article of dealing
with avian flu, people exposed to a
toxic substance, and the simultaneous
bombing of two facilities by an activist
group.
In applying effective crisis leadership
principles, I recommend that you look
at three rules of thumb to focus your
response. First, identify the core assets
of the organization that are potentially
at risk. Are people in harm’s way? Is
there possible damage to your company
brand, reputation or shareholder
value? Will the ability to deliver goods
or services be significantly disrupted?
Secondly, identify all stakeholder individuals
and groups who are harmed (real
or perceived). Do your best to address
their needs and concerns. And third,
anticipate the potential progression of
events and reactions by stakeholders.
With the avian flu scenario, consider
first addressing the well being of your
most important asset, your people. Provide
masks, gloves, and hygiene protocol
within the workplace. Get your hands
on cash, food and water. If you don’t already have these things, move fast.
The early bird gets the worm during
crisis management. Once your people
are addressed, focus on stakeholders
who might need priority attention. It
could be customers, or your suppliers
and distributors. Prioritize and do what
you can to address the needs or concerns
of all impacted stakeholders. Those
stakeholders that you don’t adequately
address will likely be the problem areas.
Anticipate their needs by imagining
what you would want or expect if you
were in their position.
The toxic exposure scenario involves
information that is known to you, but
not to those who may be at risk. It would
be easy for uninvolved advisors to recommend
that you come forward immediately
and let the chips fall where they may. It’s
hard to hide damaging information and
is best to follow the guiding principles
of taking responsibility in an honest and
ethical manner. In general, good crisis
management will require protection of
the greater good over personal concerns.
With that said, there are times in the real
world of crisis management when the
decision is made to conceal known information.
Right or wrong, if the damage
of being forthcoming is considered too
much to bear, some people will decide
not to come forward. If you are tempted
to conceal, you must come up with a
rationale that will pass the “reasonable
person test.” Consider confidentially getting
a multidisciplinary group of advisors
to discuss your best alternatives. Possibly,
a specialist in toxic exposure should be
consulted. Anticipate the reactions of
people who perceive harm if they learn
of your concealment. If you do not feel
comfortable defending your rationale on
the front page of the newspaper, you are
taking a serious risk that could take you
and or the company down. Lying and
concealing information are two ways
to escalate the severity of your crisis.
Think: Arthur Andersen, Bill Clinton,
and Martha Stewart.
Finally, the scenario of a simultaneous
bombing in two work locations was
presented. Your employees and customers
(if they come onsite) will have the
natural fear of reoccurrence. The issue
emerges of not wanting to reinforce the
violent acts of a hostile activist group.
Shareholders may have fears that their
investments are not secure. The media
may sensationalize the story and even
look for ways to blame your company.
Your job of crisis leadership is to
anticipate these and other reactions
by impacted stakeholders and address
their needs. A strong physical security
response may be needed to help assure
employees and customers. Possibly, an
aggressive approach to help apprehend
the offenders would be effective, like
offering a generous reward for information
and arrest. Methods for efficiently
giving and receiving communications
would be a vital component for dealing
with this crisis.
With no prior notice, you must make
on-the-spot decisions and implement
rapid-fire responses when crises unexpectedly
strike. Your people will be
stressed-out and deadlines time-compressed.
Information will be inadequate
and the high-consequences of your
responses could determine if people
will be harmed, careers ruined and your
company seriously damaged.
Experience and empirical research all
seem to agree. It is best to prepare. Crisis
leadership planning, training, tabletop
exercises and simulations – they all
play an important part in helping you
become a crisis leader. Hopefully, these
guidelines will help you begin the
important journey toward personal and
organizational crisis preparedness.
About the Author
Bruce T. Blythe is the CEO of Crisis Management
International, a worldwide consulting firm
that provides corporate crisis preparedness
and response services, including Business
Continuity, Disaster Recovery, Emergency
Response, Crisis Management, Human Impact
Response, Threat of Violence Consulting, Workplace
Violence Programs, and Strategic Crisis
Leadership development. You may contact the
author at (404) 841-3402 or bblythe@cmiatl.com. |
