AGL 013: Leading through a crisis – 10 takeaways

Things aren’t always going to be good as a leader.  As a leader we must learn to lead in the good times and in the bad.  Leading through a crisis is just a fact that will come along with being a technical leader.  I recently was able to both witness a good leader lead through a crisis and be the leader in a different crisis.  I want to share a few things that I took away from it.

  • Stay Calm. The best way to lead in a crisis is to stay calm. I try to tell my team that no one’s going to die here (we’re in IT not the military).
  • Understand that you’ll get through this and probably have a good story or lesson from it.
  • Don’t worry so much about the cause and never point fingers. Focus on the solution and moving forward.
  • Sweat the small stuff. During a crisis, celebrate the small wins in order to motivate and keep things moving forward.
  • Be overly transparent. Hide nothing about what’s going on.  Let your team know that you’re a human with feelings and emotions too and you’ve chosen to control them and not let them get the best of you.
  • Over communicate. This is a time when its okay to over communicate.  We talk about letting people be creative, but let’s make sure they are fully aware of all the details in in crisis mode.
  • Don’t be afraid to be a dictator. During a crisis is the only time I can currently think of where its okay to be a dictator.  When a decision has to be made and it must be made now, don’t worry about autonomy for motivation’s sake, focus on the task and issues at hand, and be a dictator if needed.
  • Be prepared to pivot. During a crisis, things don’t always go as planned and they usually won’t follow an easy path. Be prepared and expecting to pivot and deviate from you game plan.  Prepare your team for it as well.  Some personality types don’t handle rapid change and deviations too well, prepare them that its going to happen and to plan for the pivots.
  • Document, document, document. Keep track of what’s going on and when.  When you get out of the crisis, and realize you will, nothing is worse than to have no idea what you did to resolve it.
  • Never waste a good crisis. They don’t come around too often, so when they do come around, find what you can learn from it and make sure you and your team learn your lesson. Learning is the most important thing that can come from a crisis.  Celebrate your overcoming of it and communicate what you learned.

 

Now its your turn. What are other ways you can learn from a crisis or get through a crisis?  Tell a story where you wet through a similar situation.

 

Be sure to leave a rating and review in either iTunes or Stitcher Radio.  Also please check out my Surviving a 5K Race book to help you get in shape before the holidays.

Surviving a 5K Race

Surviving a 5K Race

 

I hope you enjoyed this show, please head over to iTunes and subscribe and leave me a rating and review, even 1 sentence will help spread the word.  Thanks again!

November 4, 2015

AGL 013: Leading through a crisis – 10 takeaways

Things aren’t always going to be good as a leader.  As a leader we must learn to lead in the good times and in the bad.  Leading through a crisis is just a fact that will come along with being a technical leader.  I recently was able to both witness a good leader lead through a crisis and be the leader in a different crisis.  I want to share a few things that I took away from it. Stay Calm. The best way to lead in a crisis is to stay calm. I try to tell my team that no […]
October 30, 2015

AGL 012: Being Successful in College, 14 tips for Students

As a Professor and a leader, I’m passionate about college student’s success both in and out of the classroom. I should be an expert at this, seeing as I’ve been either in college or working for a college (I’m a professor) for more than 15 years.  Here are a few tips that will help students be successful. Stay busy (get involved) – Studies show that students that are involved in more than 1 campus organization or student activity have higher GPA’s than students that are not involved at all (source Department of Health and Human Services).  Plus involvement helps you build social […]
October 28, 2015

AGL 011: The Art of Negotiation, get a better deal, better salary and more.

You’ll never have more opportunity for salary negotiation than you do just before you accept you job.  If you already have a job and you’re happy where you work and the idea of looking for something else scares the crap out of you, there’s still hope.  You can still negotiate your salary or other perks at your job. So let’s say job negotiation isn’t what you’re looking for, you can negotiate other things too, basically, everything is negotiable.  If you have skills, you can also barter, which usually requires some negotiation skills. Do your pre-work.  You have to be confident […]
October 22, 2015

AGL 010: Book Review: Daniel Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us

Dan Pink gave what might be one of my favorite TED talks of all time as he explained the puzzle of motivation (It’s also one of the most viewed with over 14 million views at the time of this posting).  This talk made me want to read his book Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us. This book changed the way I motivate my employees and teams.  It also inspired me to use the information in the book to motivate not only the people that reported to me, but others above me, and to the right and to the […]
October 19, 2015

AGL 009: Creative Rhythm – Focus, Relationships, Energy, Stimuli, Hours

In Todd Henry’s book “The Accidental Creative” he talks about five elements of Creative Rhythm.  As an IT Leader you’re called to make creative decisions and come up with brilliant solutions at a moment’s notice.  In a future episode I’ll do a full book review of “The Accidental Creative,” but I feel the 5 elements of creative rhythm is worthy of a show by it self. Creative Rhythms are important because as leaders we must understand that we can’t go all-in 100% of the time and expect to maintain our productivity, mind, and joy for our work. Consistency is important, […]
October 15, 2015

AGL 008: The Leadership Process, Leadership Training

If you do want to be a leader, you have to train. You have to work hard at it. It’s not just something that you can just try to do without work. Have you ever run a marathon? It’s not something that you can just go out and try. You have to put in a lot of time and effort to train for marathons. Becoming a leader is the same thing. You have to train hard. There is a difference between reading leadership books and training. Reading books is education, not training. Let me ask you this: Do you want […]