I was walking through Barnes & Noble the other week, killing a few minutes while I was waiting on a friend, strolling through the books. I ran across what looked to be an interesting book…”7 lessons for leading in crisis” by Bill George!
Instead of impulse buy only to put in on my shelf for “later,” I used my 5 minutes to scan the introduction and see what I could learn. Apparently, a lot! He had a lot of great things to say and is definitely very experienced.
So, while still giving all the genius credit to him, I’m going to see if I can share these “7 lessons” in my own words. We’ll look at a few today and then the rest of them tomorrow with some closing thoughts… 
1 ] FACE the FACTS
Denial of the problem and/or spending time attempting to hide/deny any part we had in creating it prohibits moving forward. Face facts, move forward.
2 ] SHOULDER the WEIGHT, SHARE the LOAD
Although the weight of things getting done correctly will (ultimately) always fall on the leader, they can’t do it alone. Reach out and empower/engage the team. Share roles. Teams are strengthened in crisis.
3 ] BANISH BAND-AIDS
The temptation of “quick fix” (band-aid) solutions plagues us all. It only provides momentary relief and rarely truly fixes the problem. Invest time & energy in finding & solving the core problem.
4 ] PACK a LUNCH
Solutions take time and a crisis is rarely ever short lived. Prepare for a long journey and keep the team encouraged along the way. Run the race with perseverance & diligence regardless of when the crisis might “end.”
More tomorrow…
April 6th, 2010 at 9:09 am
[...] Part 1 [...]