Leading During Crisis
Our behavior during times of crisis, is the true test of a leader — especially widespread and prolonged external crises that are out of our control. We are all being overwhelmed right now with information and reading materials on COVID-19 and I don’t want to give you one more thing to read. Here’s a quick bullet list to help us nonprofit leaders stay focused on the right things when everything seems to be happening at once.
- Assemble emergency leadership team to take control of situation from every perspective
- Educate yourself and communicate with stakeholders frequently
- Identify and share resources available to support organization
- Conduct operational analysis to set priorities and make decisions related to:
- Ability to continue to provide critical services
- Ability to continue operations to support the critical services during the crisis and afterwards
- Consider quick short-term or temporary solutions that can provide some quick relief and allow you to make progress
- Allow some flexibility to remove barriers to timely resolution of issues
- Continue to focus on your key performance indicators and make sure the business operations continue
- Plan ahead for worst case scenario and be prepared to take action quickly
- Unite your team and stakeholders in such a way to provide reassurance and optimism around common goals
This is the list I use to keep me on track during times like this. Perhaps others will find it helpful in dealing with our current situation.
________________________________________________
Check out toni-pergolin.com to learn more. Toni’s book, Too Important to Fail ~ Leadership Lessons for Nonprofits, has just been released on Amazon. Click here to order.