Leading Effectively e-Newsletter - January 2008 Issue

Crisis Leadership: Making a Difference When Disaster Strikes
Who's in Charge? Balancing Formal and Informal Leadership

Jennifer Vidrine lives in Ville Platte, Louisiana, a small town 170 miles northwest of New Orleans, and 75 miles west of Baton Rouge. Following Hurricane Katrina, Vidrine and her neighbors found themselves giving shelter and support to nearly 10,000 people who fled their homes.

Vidrine was not trained in emergency management. Ville Platte was not officially an evacuation site. Nevertheless, when thousands of exhausted, hungry, overwhelmed people made their way to the town's small civic center, Vidrine "went into emergency mode." She began organizing the crowd by level of need. At the same time, she placed a call to the local radio station and made a plea for the community to help. Within an hour, people were at the civic center with food, clothes, blankets, medicines and a willingness to help.

In times of crisis, formal leadership — often played by emergency management, relief groups, government and crisis teams within organizations — has much capability but also has limitations. Similarly, in businesses, schools and other organizations, the formal management structure has a role to play in crisis, but individual and informal leadership often rise unexpectedly to meet the challenge.

Effective crisis leadership, then, isn't the exclusive right or role of a select few. Instead, effective crisis leadership is about the "what." It is about accomplishing three tasks:

• Setting direction. Where are we going? What are we going to do? Why are we doing it?
• Building commitment. How can we stay together? How can we work better as a group? What can improve cooperation?
• Creating alignment. How can we develop a shared understanding of our situation? How can our actions be better coordinated?

Back in Ville Platte, the civic center shelter remained opened for four months. Jennifer and an army of volunteers provided food and shelter, beds, clothes, medical care, haircuts, laundry and communication. The people of Ville Platte and Evangeline Parish "gave and gave and gave," according to Vidrine. "We went from chaos and no plan to about 40 services at the end. We became a one-stop-shop for people dealing with distress and seeking some normalcy."