Ten tips for leaders to navigate the current business crisis
The Covid-19 outbreak has created an intense crisis for many businesses, and employees are obviously expecting their leaders to successfully navigate their company through the storm.
Drawing upon his crisis management experience gained at the military, Matthew Maguire, a Managing Consultant at DMW Group, provides ten tips to leaders to help them kick-start their crisis management response.
Accept the crisis
Although your business may not yet be directly affected, recognise that the wider business environment has changed. Move quickly through the early stages of shock – denial, anger, frustration, depression – to acceptance so deal with it decisively. Don’t let your team dwell on the whys and wherefores – focus on the response.
Assemble the right team
Problems have multiple dimensions and need multiple perspectives, so assemble your best talent – not necessarily the most senior – from across each functional area of your business.
Assign key crisis management staff positions including a leader, Chief of Staff, secretary and spokesperson as well as empowered representatives to cover marketing, operations, finance, admin, HR, IT, logistics, facilities, legal & compliance, PMO and risk. Carefully time-box the first day and first week to focus on resolving the most pressing issues.
Evaluate information; focus on insight
To rapidly make the optimal risk-balanced decisions you need quality information to work with. Be sure to separate fact from fiction, clearly identifying known, unclear and presumed information. Always challenge assumptions. To avoid being overwhelmed, focus on information which provides insight and foresight over hindsight.
Define end-state outcomes, not near-term objectives
Ruthlessly focus on a single defined end-state, such as ‘generating sufficient revenue to sustain the business’ until the business environment returns to normal. Avoid setting near-term objectives which may or may not support the end-state. Define and refine the end-state through Root Cause Analysis, MoSCoW prioritisation or Eisenhower grids.
Fight for resources
Work to safeguard your resources including time, cash and human resources. Negotiate due payments with creditors and suppliers. Ruthlessly cut discretionary spending. Focus on funding key operations and transformation projects that will sustain the business until the crisis abates.
Plan for the worst case; hope for the best
Think creatively using brainstorming and other tools to understand both the most likely trajectory of events as well as the most damaging. Use the Scaled Agile ‘Plan,’ ‘Do,’ ‘Check,’ ‘Adjust’ approach to iterate towards the target outcome.
Regain the initiative
Act rapidly and decisively to get ahead of events and competitors. Instead of more problems, become a solution for your customers and suppliers. Strive for economy of effort by concentrating resources in key areas.
Empower your staff
Don’t micromanage; set clear objectives to your team then trust and empower them to deliver however they deem necessary. Delegated command and control reduces the burden on the leadership team, enables concurrent supporting activity throughout the business and best enables the specialist expertise and creativity of your staff. Delegation allows your people to fight back against the crisis, improving morale and team spirit.
Accept imperfection
Decisive action is more important the perfect action; accept the 80% solution now. Finer details, inconsistencies and errors can always be refined in due course. The focus must be on achieving the desired end-state at which point mistakes can be corrected.
Communicate, communicate
Be first with the facts; don’t allow a vacuum for speculation amongst staff, customers or suppliers. Maintain regular updates to all stakeholders; don’t leave anyone out. Use consistent language to avoid ambiguity and add a personal touch to emphasise your leadership.
