Leading In a Crisis

Imagine this scenario – you are the leader of a successful business in Kelowna. You moved to the Okanagan for lifestyle reasons, perhaps to spend more time with your growing children. Since moving here success has not come easy. You have had to work very hard to grow your business, perhaps harder than you ever could have anticipated. Your business’ growth continues but you are starting to reap the rewards of a well run business. So far so dreamy.

You are on the golf course when you receive the bad news. A key competitor has just taken your largest client, representing 30% of your revenues. Everyone working for you is wondering if your business can survive – will there be job losses, etc. Panic is a natural reaction.

How you handle this "crisis of leadership" will define what your business will look like for the next 10 years. If you crater under the whole "woe is me" attitude permeating your staff, you may significantly limit your ability to lead your company. People will lose hope and faith in your abilities. So, what do you do?

I am going to say what is unnatural for most leaders to hear. I am going to suggest to you that you stop leading the way that you may have in the past – perhaps with a little bit or arrogance, perhaps lots of pride and perhaps appearing like you have all of the answers. Let's face reality head on – you don’t have all of the answers and you need to admit it.

When is the last time that you heard from a business leader "I don't know", "I am not really sure what to do next?" These words are almost foreign in our culture because we are too proud to admit when we are out of options, when our reservoir of knowledge is at its capacity.

Don't misinterpret me. I am not saying that you need to give up, shrug your shoulders and hide. Quite the opposite. You still need to instill a sense of vision and purpose into your team but I am going to suggest that you strip away the veneer of the "answer man" and become the person that admits "I really don't know" or "I really need your help". Since most leaders are driven, Type A personalities, admitting when we don’t know something or when we really need help is extremely difficult for us. However, may I suggest that what is needed most from a leader in a crisis is a strong dose of authentic humility?

Humility does not mean that you have low self-esteem or nothing to offer. Rather, I suggest that it means that you know exactly what you have to offer and no more. You know your limits and are freely willing to admit what you don't know.

While much can be said able what it means to be humble, I prefer some simple action steps to help you through a crisis:

1. If you don't know what to do next, just say so. Humility is more highly valued by your team members than blind arrogance.
2. Face the crisis head on with your team with the same courage and conviction and belief in your company's capabilities and ability to prevail that you had when you first started your company.
3. 3. Take the crisis seriously enough to recast the vision for company, rethink your products and services and, if necessary, reposition yourself in the marketplace.

If you respond to a crisis with humility, you can only prosper. Remember to humble yourself in a crisis or the crisis will humble you.

Steve Burns, CA, CMC, CFP, is the President and CEO of the Burns Innovation Group Inc. and Steve Burns Inc. Chartered Accountant, which provides consulting and accounting services to entrepreneurs. If you have any questions or comments, contact Steve at 763-4716 or e-mail at steve@burnsinnovation.com.

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