As Hurricane Sandy makes her exit, she highlights the challenges and pitfalls of leading through crisis. My first turn-around assignment was my very first management role, as Director of Research at Bernstein (a job I think almost all my colleagues turned down before I was naïve enough to accept). Since then, I’ve done well more than my fair share of leading businesses through turn-arounds and crises, and made plenty of mistakes (and seen other managers make some career-ending ones). These are a few of the leadership lessons learned:
Be available. Be heroically available. It feels a lot better during times of turmoil to close your door and work things through. This only adds to an organization’s stress level. The most notable act of leadership that I saw during the downturn was when one of my colleagues hosted a call for Financial Advisors on some investment products that had gone very bad; he offered to stay on the open-mike call until every last question was answered. He was on that call for six solid hours, until well after 10pm. And many of the “questions” were not questions, but simply venting. It was uncomfortable, but it was ultimately appreciated.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Lessons Learned In Leading During A Crisis - Business Insider
