More than ever your teams are looking to you and other managers for support, inspiration, and guidance during this challenging time. It’s not too late to make sure you are taking the right steps to be a great crisis (and post-crisis) leader:
- Provide consistent messages on a regular basis. This will increase employees’ confidence and sense of security if you present consistent information from day to day.
- Celebrate small successes. Use baby steps to measure success.
- Be patient. Remember that people are working hard under tremendous stress. Think twice before you criticize or complain.
- Tune into people’s emotions.
- Get input from your teams. Ask for help, feedback, and opinions; listen and learn.
- Don’t look back; focus on the future and help others to envision it.
- Trust your teams to do their jobs; don’t micromanage.
- Expect bumps in the road.
- A leader doesn’t have all the answers. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know,” then get information from a reliable source.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate.
- Be resourceful.
