Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

1. Be Positive
But always use real facts to support your optimism and don't build false hope.

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

2. Engage Through Values
Your employees will be more motivated by a mission's worth, rather than by job security.

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

3. Be Accessible
An open-door- demeanor projects a sense of assurance.

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

4. Always "Have Their Back"
When higher-ups take shots at your staffers, take criticism seriously, but stand up for their performance to earn their loyalty.

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

5. Speak With Knowledge
A misstatement of fact may cause lasting damage to your credibility.

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

6. Encourage Employee Feedback
It's often what staffers don't say that will crush your efforts.

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

7. Present Bad News on Their Turf
When you go to an employee's physical space to give bad news, it conveys empathy.

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

8. Hire for Resilience and Integrity
Ask job candidates how they respond to adversity and how they treat others?

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

9. Empower Decision Making
Set big-picture direction and then allow your team to take ownership of how it gets there.

Ten Ways to Lead Your Department in a Crisis

10. Always Ask If It's Worth It
An effective leader knows when to cut losses, move on and extract lessons learned from a failed effort.