Crisis, noun, meaning; turning point for better or worse OR radical change of status, it is sudden-just hits you. Whereas, Change when used as a noun means transformation, alteration, its gradual over a period of time. Both, Crisis & Change, transforms alters and brings in a NEW Normal.
The event, Covid-19, of the year gone by was
sudden, caught all of us unaware. It created existential crisis for all –
Individuals, and Institutions. Best laid plans, strategies and visions have
been derailed leading to unprecedented challenges’ for the leaders. No business
school ever teaches you how to handle a situation like Covid-19. And no one is
ever ready or has plan to handle the arrows that starts flying thick and fast
from all directions. To top it the leader must search for insights and guidance
on how to keep the flock together and keep them safe from all the negativity
that starts building up both on the inside and out.
History is peppered with stories were leaders
have faced life-an-death situations and yet they have managed it with aplomb
and come out a winner. Be it President Roosevelt to lead US out of great
depression, Churchill to lead UK in WWII, artic explorer Ernest Shackleton,
Apollo 13 Commander James Lovell, Capt. Sully Sullenberger etc… the list is
long and winding. Each of this leader lead the team out of crisis without
getting consumed by negativity.
Common Trait # one: observed in a leader that leads a team during
crisis – he/she has what Simon Sinek say an infinite mindset (https://www.forbes.com/sites/sap/2019/04/18/five-leadership-lessons-how-to-build-an-infinite-mindset/?sh=198104fb11f5). An infinite mindset
provides leader with “Calm Confidence”. Confidence in one’s ability in finding
solution to the present crisis. When you read the stories of the leaders that
have successfully taken their team, company, family or country out of woods all
this leader had that calm confidence when everything around them was in deep
chaos.
Second Trait: emotional stability or emotional
equanimity. Do watch “Sully” or “Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure”. Crisis
creates massive turbulence, it like getting caught in the midst of raging
storm. Immediate focus of the leader is to steer his ship to a calmer water. A
mind caught up in emotional frenzy will not be able to think clearly nor focus
on how to use available resources in the best possible manner. Capt. Sully had
few mins to take the decision to steer his ship to La Gaurdia or Land it on
Hudson. Do watch “Sully”, the movie, his voice is clam and matter of fact when
he informs the passengers “Brace for impact”.
And once on shore the first thing that he ask is “Need to know who is
hurt, how badly and need the count”. An emotionally stable mind will help
leader to remain focus on the task at hand.
Third Trait: Flexibility and Agility in response. Crisis calls for change. Change from the
original goal / objective of the project. Leader has to be quick in his/her
response to the crisis. Being quick or agile should not be compared with “speed
to decision making”. Quick or Agile means using all your intellect to process
the available information, adapting to the change and acting decisively. Speed
is recklessness, it’s impulsive. Once
again Capt. Sully immediately takes the charge of the plane when the engines
fail. He does not go by the book…he processes the information coming to him,
analysis it quickly and takes decisive action. Flexibility is the ability to
respond to constantly changing circumstance. When his ship “Endurance” is
frozen in solid ice, Shackleton immediately reframe the goal of the expedition
– from being the first man to walk across the Antarctic to South Pole TO Saving all lives(https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2004/01/shackleton-in-business-school/). In Simon Sinek words Shackleton
was “Be willing to make a profound strategic shift, and [take a] short-term
loss, to stay in game.”. The same goes for Apollo 13 mission https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLMDSjCzEx8
Trait # 4: Innovate/improvise. When you are
300,000 km away from earth in a spacecraft that is en route to Moon that is
just 200,00km away and the spacecraft suffers explosion that badly disables the oxygen supply. The
situation calls leader to innovate and improvise within the available
resources. Crisis demands innovation on a smaller scale. Watch Apollo 13 or
read the book. Team under the leadership of Mission Director Gene Kranz improvise an innovate by the hour to rejig
and fit a round pipe in a square hole that will absorb carbon dioxide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6F6MzMT2g8) and how the space crew under the
leadership of Capt. Lovell used their spacecraft window to navigate.
And last most important Trait of a Leader in
crisis – Take Full responsibility and accountability. When US Airways
Flight 1549 is hit by bird and loses both the engine Capt. Sully takes over the
command and based on all the available data decides to land in Huston.
Similarly, Shackleton orders his crew to abandon the ship and only collect
essentials required to survive. When Apollo 13 transmitted “Huston, we have a
problem”, mission director Gene Kranz called team meeting https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLMDSjCzEx8.
Some other traits that can be found in
leadership during crisis are managing anxiety of the team..do not let the mind
of the team stray. Focus on the next moment and not let the mind drift too far.
Capt. Sully did this to his co-pilot https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHQmkJjwNqs
Similarly, Gene Kranz https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0h2Wk6-C_I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbBS8sHrDgA
And the most important is for the leader to
have clear and empathetic messaging. No loud, romantic or self-serving
messages. Communication/messaging is at a premium in crisis. Tone, content and
frequency at which leader communicates with his team is of prime important.
FootNote:
"Houston, we have a problem" is a
popular but erroneous quotation from the radio communications between the
Apollo 13 astronaut John ("Jack") Swigert and the NASA Mission
Control Center ("Houston") during the Apollo 13 spaceflight in 1970,[2]
as the astronauts communicated their discovery of the explosion that crippled
their spacecraft.
The words actually spoken, initially by Jack
Swigert, were "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here".
After being prompted to repeat the transmission
by CAPCOM Jack R. Lousma, Jim Lovell responded, "Ah, Houston, we've had a
problem." (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houston,_we_have_a_problem)
