I never joined the Boys Scouts but I am familiar with their famous motto: Be Prepared. This motto implies that scouts are constantly alert to perform any duty. Scouts are prepared in mind, ready to be obedient, having foresight about situations and knowing how to respond. Leaders should similarly be prepared.
Bill George argues that a crisis is the ultimate test of leadership. Crises have taken down many leaders, sometimes with their organisations while other leaders have emerged stronger from crisis situations. Since crises are inevitable, leaders should be prepared for them. A valid leadership dipstick should test leaders for crisis-ready mode. After all, challenge is the crucible. Here are five prescriptions for leaders to be crisis-ready.
Anticipate crisis
To anticipate crisis is different from being pessimistic; it is, in fact, being wise. I suggest a new mode of thinking defined by the word “optrepemistic”. Optrepemistic connotes being optimistic and realistic with a healthy dose of pessimism. Leaders need optimism to achieve set objectives but optimism should always be balanced with a measure of the realistic. Unrealistic optimism may lead to disaster so it requires the protective device of a pessimistic note. Planners and strategists usually think of pessimistic notes as worst case scenarios when planning.
Leaders should take the view that events do not always work out as expected or planned. In the largely experimental real world, things actually go wrong more often than they go right. The simple question, “what could go wrong?” enhances the quality of thought about desired outcomes. Leaders should be well-versed in anticipating crisis.
Build appropriate safeguards
Leaders should build appropriate safeguards against crises or in preparation for them. Leaders, no matter how well-intentioned are not omniscient. Basic safeguards like asset-replacement sinking funds, insurance and IT security send messages to stakeholders that companies are protective of business resources. Without safeguards against unexpected occurrences, companies may sink from a single adverse event. Regular audit reports are silent protectors of executive tenure and CEOs in particular will do well to take them seriously. In the absence of relevant defences, organisations are left open to a greater probability of crisis moments.
Listen to bad news
Leaders who breed sycophants mostly want to be told only the good news. Such leaders generate for themselves a consistent flow of “see no evil, hear no evil” reports about the business. Reports may even be embellished to paint a better picture knowing that the boss prefers to listen only to the good news. Statements such as “I don’t want to hear about the problems”, “I don’t want efforts, I only want results”, and “Don’t tell me what you’ve done, tell me the results” prevent employees from disclosing niggling problems which can be swiftly resolved.
In this regard, leaders should be careful not to create climates of fear which prevent associates from sharing valuable, if sometimes unpleasant information. Today’s bitter pill may well be tomorrow’s safety net. It is also imperative that executives are open to criticism of their decisions or ideas. If leaders listen only to the positive, they will be evading the true challenges of leadership with dreadfully misleading consequences.
Don’t be a prisoner of the past
Investment advisers usually caution investors that the prices of securities may go up or down and that past performance is not an indicator of future performance. Smart leaders take the same perspective to business and do not get stuck in the past. Instead, they leave the results where they belong in the history of financial statements.
Organisational complacency is the first enemy of improved future performance and it stems from the mentality of leaders. Leaders who boast in current position or short term achievements and neglect the risk of falling behind will not last much longer on their jobs. Today’s first could be tomorrow’s last and leaders must be acutely aware of this possibility. Management writer and professor, Gary Hamel proposes that many previously successful companies “were taken hostage by heritage; they locked up themselves in prisons of precedent.” To be crisis-ready, leaders must not become prisoners of the past.
Develop resilience
Like well-rooted trees that weather storms and climatic changes, long lasting companies possess resilience. Resilience is not only organisational but it is imbibed by leaders and employees. Without resilience, leaders more readily fall victim to the unavoidable challenges of business, especially the individually overwhelming aspects. Organisations, teachers and parents should actively promote the attribute of resilience to cope with a competitive and demanding world. The increasing complexity of enterprise makes resilience a top priority for organisational leaders across industries. Failing hearts cannot build sustainable organisations. When turbulence comes, the resilience of leaders serves as fuel for survival and success.
Closing note
Leaders cannot afford to be simplistic about the reality of crises. Crises are often unpredictable and beyond the control of leaders. Therefore, leaders should be deliberately and practically crisis-ready.
Weyinmi Jemide
