Leadership in a time of crisis

I’m realistic about our situation. We are not a rich country blessed with immense resources. The fact that we have only a few thousands of COVID testing kits comes as no surprise to me. The same is true with the organization that I am in. We have inadequate manpower. We have limited funds. The one thing that is good with our company is that the senior management, including the CEO, are all united in facing the crisis we currently have. We are constantly in touch with one another through Viber, sharing news, sharing developments, exchanging ideas on how to tackle the situation. We are discussing Work From Home (WFH) initiatives, emergency protocols, even seemingly minor things like disabling biometric devices. Our CEO on the spot makes decisions — IT should enable remote access, the Facilities group should locate secondary sites, HR should stock up on masks and alcohol, Administration should instruct service personnel to clean surroundings more often.

I have been through many crises before. Granted that it is not in the scale of the global crisis we are facing now, but whenever I encounter a crisis, people lament about the lack of resources. People always whine and complain that we should have this and we should have done that. Most of the crisis I experienced — and the companies I have been with went through government uprisings, civil unrest, strikes, fires, earthquakes, floods, cyber-attacks, prolonged system outages — were events that we were caught totally unprepared. Yes we did our share of contingency planning but experiencing the actual disaster is a different thing altogether. People panic. People scramble. People pressure you. That’s human nature.

Because of the management position I’m in, I opt to act or recommend rather than complain. Fortunately most of our senior management react the same way. We know that we have limited tools and resources. We know we have a crisis that is escalating in magnitude, probably at an exponential rate. We know that if we don’t act, the situation will only get worse. We can sense that people’s anxiety levels are rising. The question we ask ourselves is “what do we do?”

I’m not saying I am an expert in crisis management, but based on my experience, there is one thing that stands out that makes a major difference: LEADERSHIP.

Every crisis triggers the fight-or-flight response. A true leader fights. A true leader faces the situation headstrong. They don’t hide or cower in fear. They are decisive, portraying themselves as a bastion of confidence, with razor-sharp focus on the problem at hand. And people need to see that. If you want people to rally by your side, you need to stand up and take control of the situation. You need to be decisive. And for you to be decisive you need accurate information and expert opinion. You cannot rely on “hunches.”

Desperate times call for desperate measures. You can’t waste time whining about lack of resources or inadequate tools. You need to focus on the problem at hand. You need to make the hard, even the unpopular, decisions. If you are to be a leader of an institution, you have to protect the institution and keep the institution’s best interest in mind. You can’t allow the institution to devolve into a state of chaos and anarchy. You have to project strength, confidence, self-control, decisiveness. A crisis is not the time to protect your self-interest or the interests of a privileged few. During a crisis, you have to ensure that the institution survives and is able to continue.