That’s OK.
It happens to all of us.
How we handle it is what’s important.
When it happens, do you look for the culprit?
Do you seize on the first available scapegoat?
Are your people willing to level with you?
Do they take care of your business as if it was theirs?
Did you answer yes to any of these questions?
Now is the time to re-examine your leadership style.
Find and fix the problems - not lay blame.
Sometimes stuff happens and it’s no one’s fault.
Let me give you an example
We were en route to Scotland.
A thunderstorm blew in from the west.
We waited on the tarmac two hours for it to pass.
Finally at 1 a.m. the pilots gave up.
They went back to the terminal.
Several hundred passengers were stranded.
We waited in line over an hour to get rebooked.
The airline had only three employees to help us.
OK. It was in the wee hours of the morning.
But management should have anticipated a problem.
Twice that many people should have been available.
It damaged the airline’s reputation with passengers.
Finally at 3 a.m. we took a shuttle to a hotel.
We slept until noon and went back to the airport.
Finally at 9 p.m. that night, our plane took off.
We were 24 hours late reaching Edinburgh.
The thunderstorm was nobody’s fault.
Stuff like that happens all the time all over the world.
Crises are not the issue. Management is.
Management should have expected the storm.
Weather forecasting is nothing new.
They could have called in emergency personnel.
They could have offered meal and hotel vouchers.
They did none of that. They let themselves down.
We will never book that airline again.
I’m not scapegoating the airline personnel.
They took care of business under stressful conditions.
But it’s clear what kind of management they have.
They showed no foresight or concern for passengers.
Do you treat your clients and patients like that?
Of course not or you might be out of business.
So fix the problems. Don’t scapegoat your people.
Talk with your people about worst case scenarios.
Decide how all of you will respond.
All of us need a crisis plan for our businesses
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