Principled and on Purpose Crisis Management
By: Ken Sutterfield, Senior Consultant / Hueston Consulting Group / ken.sutterfield@gmail.com
Life comes at you fast; therefore, in order to respond appropriately and timely you must be principled and on purpose. While we would like to imagine we will never face heart-pounding difficulty, the opposite is more likely to be the case. This is especially true as a leader of people in whatever sphere you may find yourself – nonprofit, business, or the church. It has been said that you don’t change the world by the way you live in it; you change the world by how you choose to live in it. The same could be said for how you respond and lead in times of crisis.
Recently, I have carefully watched a few well-respected small and large organizations find themselves challenged externally and internally with both founded and unfounded criticisms. These criticisms have knocked these successful organizations into a spiraling stupor. Sadly, the issue causing the difficulties, while serious, became seemingly untenable for the leader(s) to navigate in a principled manner, and they turned to the voices of compromise and dismissive posturing. I imagine some actions came by counsel and some by our given human frailty of defensive hiding to avoid further embarrassment and pain. In other words, instead of facing the music head on and with full disclosure and truth telling, they chose deceit, denial, and the ever-popular game of blame born in the garden.
Yet in the end, this only stirred up more turmoil. When trust is lost or questioned, this will undoubtedly initiate an even deeper examination and scrutiny of the person and the organization. Don’t fall back into a defensive position or the ever-popular Ostrich approach of just keeping your head down assuming it will all just go away. It will not!
I urge all leaders when preparing their Crisis Management Plan to be forthright and principled and on purpose in their communications from the beginning. When you face hardship and crisis no matter the size and scope, I urge you to embrace your calling to lead with principled action. This will allow you to lead the narrative with clarity and truth and retain or regain the trust that is so imperative. I have kept this mantra at my desk side for many years as a reminder of my leadership responsibilities, and I encourage you to do the same:Walk to success and run to problems.