Leading Effectively e-Newsletter - January 2008 Issue

Crisis Leadership: Making a Difference When Disaster Strikes
Build Culture; Build Capacity

A Coast Guard helicopter pilot for 23 years, Captain Bruce Jones was assigned to New Orleans when Katrina hit. Immediately after the storm came ashore, his helicopter unit headed into the devastated city.

From the sky, the levee breeches and flooding in the streets indicated the scope of the mission that was before them. Even so, Captain Jones would not have predicted that seven thousand people would be rescued by Coast Guard helicopters during the nine days after the hurricane. The Coast Guard crews, well-trained for maritime search and rescue, had to adapt for urban search and rescue.

"Our air crews did an extraordinary number of rescues," said Jones. "One rescue service rescued 150 people in four or five days - usually you might rescue 20 people in an entire career."

How does an organization prepare people to do what it takes during a crisis? What is it that allows people to do extraordinary, unexpected things that are outside of their experience and training? When it comes to facing a crisis, according to Jones, "It's not about the plan. It's not about organizational charts. It's not about your processes. It's about your people and your leadership. It's about organizational culture."

In the Coast Guard, instilling a culture of empowerment and improvisation is as critical as technical training. Jones' colleague, Captain Dave Callahan, explained, "Everything we do is based on four principles: adaptability, flexibility, clear objectives, on-scene initiative ? In crisis, people have to be able to act. Sometimes what they are doing may seem to go against objectives and plans, but it will nearly always be meeting the overriding principles and objectives which are what the plan was intended to accomplish."

Organizations and individuals will be better equipped for crisis (and daily operations) when executives and managers act and speak in ways that:

• Forge relationships. Personal connections and good relationships are literally lifesavers in a crisis. Build quality relationships with a broad base of stakeholders before a crisis. Make it a priority to behave in ways that build trust in you and in the organization. Show respect for others and demand others to behave in ways that show respect, too.
• Develop flexibility. Build in a culture of flexibility and adaptability. Emphasize action-taking and good judgment.
• Encourage courage. Show you are willing to stand up for the courage of your convictions. In military lingo, are you courageous enough to "bet your bars" for what matters? If you are, others will have courage and confidence, too.
• Support risk-taking. People make mistakes; they will make mistakes during crisis, too. Establish an organization culture that supports good-faith risk taking. When people act with integrity for the organization and the mission, the need to know they will not be penalized or made scapegoats.
• Enable empowerment. Insist that local leaders make decisions based on the situations they face. Educate them and support them along the way. You can't hold on to authority when times are good and then assume people will be empowered in a crisis.