Introduction
During a crisis, you want your team to be resilient and able to handle themselves. But what if they aren’t? What if the stress of the situation is too much for them? It’s up to you to keep them calm, provide direction when needed, and empower them to help themselves. Here are five ways that successful leaders accomplish these goals:
1. Be The Source Of Calm.
- Be the source of calm
In times of uncertainty, your colleagues will want to know that you have everything under control and that they can trust you to lead them through the crisis. You must be a calm and steady presence who is confident in his or her ability to manage the situation. Show people that they can count on you by using your voice as a projection of confidence. As always, use active language: “I am here for you,” “I am listening,” “I hear what you’re saying.” If it feels too daunting to be all things at once (and believe me, it does), ask for feedback from those around you so that they can help share some burden.
2. Be Present And Available.
When you’re leading your team through a crisis, it’s important to make yourself available so that they know they can speak with you at any time. You also want them to know that whatever they say will be taken seriously and acted upon.
Be present and available for your team members during this stressful time. This will help keep everyone calm, prevent panic and nervousness from spreading through the office, and keep productivity high. It also gives employees the opportunity to express themselves without fear of judgment or reprimand from management—something that may have been difficult before because there was no time for such things in an ordinary workplace environment!
Your willingness as manager to listen rather than just speak is what really makes this point work well together with the next one (which we’ll get into shortly).
3. Examine Your Team Dynamics.
- Examine your team dynamics.
This is an important step in the process of crisis management, because it will help you to understand how your team works together and how well it’s able to handle difficult situations. The first thing you can do is look at strengths and weaknesses within the group and determine if there are any gaps that need to be filled by bringing on new members or training existing ones more effectively. You’ll also want to examine what skillsets each member has so that everyone can work together more effectively—for example, if one person is a great writer but terrible at public speaking, consider pairing them with someone who fills in where they’re weak (and vice versa). Another aspect of this step involves examining whether there’s a disconnect between what individual members want versus what they’re actually doing; by identifying these discrepancies early on rather than later on in the process, you can avoid problems down the road like resentment between coworkers who feel overworked while others seem underutilized. Finally, look at how well your organization fits within its larger context: What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? How does this relate back into your company culture issues?
4. Empower Them To Help Themselves.
In a crisis, you’ll likely be busy doing everything you can to help your team. However, if you want to empower them to help themselves, you need to make sure that they have the tools and resources they need.
- Give them the information they need: If your team has any questions or concerns about what’s going on in their department or with the company overall, make sure they’re getting all of the answers from someone who knows what’s going on. That could mean sending out an email explaining things clearly or holding meetings where people can ask questions directly. It also means making it easy for employees to get in touch with senior leaders like yourself whenever necessary—and not just when a crisis happens!
- Empower employees by giving them access to internal resources: In addition to providing information about what’s happening at the company level (or department level), give employees access to tools and resources that will help them feel more empowered during a crisis situation. For example, if there are funds available for employee assistance programs during employee counseling sessions due out-of-pocket expenses incurred while dealing with an emergency situation such as losing power at home during an outage due nearby flooding rains after Hurricane Irma hit Florida last year; empowering employees may mean offering reimbursement over time rather than immediately reimbursing every claim right away through traditional means like check out line items on company credit cards issued by corporate HR departments.”
5. Revisit Your Mission, Vision, And Values.
So, it’s time to revisit your mission, vision and values!
Why? Because in the midst of a crisis, these three things serve as a guide for your team. They help keep them focused on the big picture and prevent them from getting lost in the weeds.
You may think that revisiting these things is a waste of time since you already know them well enough. However, it can be easy for people on your team to lose sight of what matters most during times like these—and it’s important to ensure that everyone stays aligned with what you’re trying to achieve as an organization.
Your Team Is Looking To You During A Crisis For Stability, Guidance, And Support.
You’re the leader of your team. Your role is to guide the group through a crisis, providing stability and support as needed. You need to know that you are there for your team—not for yourself or your own career success—but for them. This can be hard when you feel like you’re under stress too (as everyone does), but try not to let it show too much, because your team will pick up on it pretty quickly if they haven’t already.
In addition, it’s important that you stay confident in your abilities as a leader during this time period. It’s easy to second guess yourself when things seem unclear or unstable, but remember that this is an opportunity for growth; don’t be afraid of making mistakes! If something goes wrong along the way (and sometimes things do go wrong), take some time after everything settles down before deciding whether or not something should have gone differently than it did–it’s easy right now with everything still fresh in our minds!
Conclusion
Leading your team during a crisis is an important and often difficult task. But it can also be a rewarding one—especially if you are able to help the people who depend on you through this difficult time. To do so, you need to take a few steps that will allow you to stay in control, remain focused on the bigger picture and provide necessary support as needed throughout the process.
RUCHI RATHOR
Founder & CEO
Payomatix Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
https://payomatix.com/
FOUNDER AND INVESTOR | PAYMENTS PROCESSING EXPERT | MERCHANT ACCOUNT SOLUTIONS | WHITE LABELLED PAYMENT GATEWAY | Dreamer, Creator, Achiever, Constantly Evolving
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