How to Stay Resilient During a Crisis

For business leaders, the safety of their employees, families, and customers is of the utmost importance. When it comes to any sort of crisis there are specific actions that can be incorporated in every organization to ensure you are offering direction, reassurance, and a plan to keep employees on track during uncertain times.

According to Deloitte, resilient leaders use an approach that is broken into three phases. The following summary explains some of the main actions that should be taken during each phase.

Respond. Prepare for the crisis if possible and manage day-to-day operations.

• Develop and launch a Communications Plan and Strategy.
• Review employment contracts for potential issues and implement flexible working arrangements if possible.
• Leverage government incentives while implementing cash conservation.
• Assess demand and supply needs.
• Engage with key customers to reinforce their loyalty with reward systems.
• Reach out to suppliers and communicate to them what you are doing.
• Address cyber vulnerabilities.

Recover. Learn from the crisis and come out stronger.

• Document your crisis playbook.
• Manage the rapid return to the workplace but also assess who can and should work from home in the future.
• Decide if any claims or contract disputes need to be resolved.
• Review orders versus inventory.
• Use advanced technology when communicating with customers and suppliers.

Thrive. Prepare for life and how it may change after the crisis is over.

• Create and maintain a vulnerabilities assessment and reflect on COVID-19 lessons learned.
• Consider working arrangement that transfers into our next normal.
• Provide educational training for employees on crisis and how to be resilient.
• Implement Industry 4.0 Digital Network Solution to improve optimization and agility.
• Strengthen customer communication by investigating alternate forms of communication. Evaluate what worked and didn’t work during the crisis.

Being a leader isn’t always easy. It is OK to accept that the situation is difficult and to share your frustrations with employees. Reach out to your workforce and use their strengths and experience. Give employees ownership in coming up with solutions and letting them facilitate those processes.

Remember not to place blame and instead ask what can be done to improve the situation now and in the future. Establish policies, plan reviews, and train management prior to a crisis if possible and to prepare for the next one. This is everyone’s time to shine, but as a leader your attitude and plan will set the tone for navigating this crisis. By using the ideas under the respond, recover, and thrive approach, you will have an outline for creating a more cohesive approach to challenges that are presented to you during this time.

Sources:

https://www.corporatelearningnetwork.com/leadership-management/articles/leadership-during-crisis

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/leadership-times-crisis-key-moments-truth-allison-bailey/

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niharchhaya/2020/03/23/here-are-the-top-five-leadership-challenges-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/#6b8bf4c65984

The Heart of Resilient Leadership: Responding to COVID-19 (March 12, 2020). Deloitte.