Crisis

Crisis situations present leaders with an unusually difficult collection of challenges. Leaders must simultaneously try to help maintain the positive outlook of those around them; assist people (often both workers and the public) in dealing with the emotional shock and trauma associated with the situation; maintain a high level of excellence in the cognitive processes of developing and maintaining an understanding of the situation, reasoning through and choosing among alternative courses of action, planning responses, and improvising based on available resources and routines; and direct the implementation of the chosen responses. Crises are by their nature highly stressful and demanding, both emotionally and physically, so such leadership challenges must be undertaken by people who are themselves under stress, and who are trying to organize, mobilize, and direct others who are under stress.

Part of the essence of a true crisis is that there can be no fully planned, practiced, and prepared response available—for if there is, the situation is not truly a crisis. Though a situation may be a severe and challenging emergency, the availability of a pre-planned response that can produce acceptable outcomes significantly changes the nature of the leadership challenge. Leadership in a true crisis requires an unusual degree of creative and improvisational cognitive work as well as the coordination of existing capabilities and the execution of available operational routines. Thus, leaders in true crises must help organize and direct a combination of intellectual, physical, and emotional work.