When we were growing up and there was a problem we usually had someone we trusted to turn to. It may have been your parents, brother, sister, uncle or a teacher. The comfort of having someone to trust and believe in was very comforting.
Whatever your occupation is there will be crisis, some will be small and easily resolved and others will require you to really reach down and use your all of your character and leadership experiences and skills. The failure and success of any organization is dependent on the leaders stepping up and making the right decisions.
People that work with you everyday will be looking for you to lead them through any crisis as you are the one they trust. I have served with leaders that were excellent under favorable conditions but couldn’t handle adverse conditions. If you have never experienced really tough decision’s in the past then use your intelligence and call on your mentors or leaders that you have respect for.
No one was born with all the answers to problems in life; they are learned through personal experience or being taught by someone that has experienced them. This once again supports my personal belief that training your team is the key to success.
If you have experienced a major crisis in your life then you have a wealth of knowledge and personal experience that is invaluable. You should share these experiences with everyone that is in a leadership position in your organization. The time to share these experiences isn’t at the midnight hour but during weekly or monthly training.
I was in a company in the past and presented my case to unexpectedly shut down the entire computer system. I had leaders look at me like I was insane, how can we perform our job without computer support they asked. I then asked them if they had ever experienced a natural disaster: hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes. I lived in Atlanta at the time and everyone advised me there were no such possibilities in Atlanta. We did my drill and failed miserably but we also learned a lot. Less than a year later a tornado hit downtown Atlanta and although they weren’t perfect at least they had experienced the crisis and made some very intelligent decisions.
Please don’t think you are so safe and will never face a crisis as I assure you that you will. If you haven’t any idea of what to do then trust your instincts and leadership experiences to make the best decisions possible because you will have a lot of faces looking to you for Leadership.
