Thank you for listening to The Champion Forum Podcast with Jeff Hancher! Every leader will have to deliver bad news to their teams. No matter how hard you try, business can be unpredictable, and even businesses that seem to do everything right must navigate a crisis from time to time. What do you do first when faced with a crisis? And how do you ensure your team does not react in a way that worsens the situation? Everything starts with how you respond. Today on The Champion Forum Podcast, we discuss how leaders make good decisions in high-stress situations and collaborate with their teams to create positive outcomes.
How to Lead Well During a Crisis
1. Phone a friend
Make time to talk to someone who is not emotionally attached to the situation. Use this time to slow down and really listen to their perspective. Opening yourself up to their insights will help you see the bigger picture and separate yourself from the emotion of the situation. You may just discover potential blind spots or areas where your emotion was affecting your judgment.
2. Bring composure and calm to your team
Once you have had time to process the situation and calm your emotions, you can deliver that same calmness and composure to your team. Speak slowly and with a low tone of voice. Focus on what is happening and what will happen while validating how people are likely feeling. Communicate how you will get through this situation together.
3. Shift your focus to what you can control
Influential leaders shift the focus to what can be controlled. Show people how they can be a part of the solution and what the company is doing to correct the situation. When people understand that there is a path forward, they can turn the devastation into a battle cry.
4. Actively listen
Connect with your team members one-on-one as soon as possible. Find out what they are thinking and feeling. Your goal is to ask lots of questions and express empathy, not to try to change their thoughts or feelings. Listening carefully to concerns without interrupting helps people feel heard and has a calming effect. Having these conversations as soon as possible will help keep people from creating their own narratives and sharing them at the water cooler. High communication and feedback are critical to overcoming the crisis and ensuring that bad doesn’t turn to worse.
Q: Describe a time you experienced a crisis at work. How did your leader respond? How did their response affect the team? Based on this information, what do you think the leader could have done differently?
Q: How do you respond when faced with a crisis? Which of the four tips in this episode do you think will help you improve at responding to a crisis? Why?
Application Activities:
Taking care of your body and practicing stress reduction techniques can help you calm down more quickly in a crisis. Consider adding one habit to help you reduce stress in your mind or body. Reflective journaling or meditation has been shown to help leaders stay calm in stressful situations, while regular exercise like walking, running, or weight training can help the body reduce stress. Martial arts and yoga have been shown to positively help the mind and body.
Role-playing crises can help you practice your communication skills without the emotion of a real issue. You can workshop your skills with your peers, boss, or mentor. Ask them for feedback on how you presented the challenge and how you made them feel throughout the process. You can use these four steps to help you get started with role-playing.
Decide on the problem. What crisis could your team face? What unwanted news might you have to deliver?
Brainstorm some solutions. How could you respond to this crisis? What factors are in your control?
Practice communicating with a group. How would you present the situation? What tone of voice will you use? How will you help the team adopt a constructive mindset toward the crisis?
Practice one-on-one follow-up conversations. Take turns presenting possible ways employees could react to the crisis and expressing empathy by asking good questions.
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