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Seven Habits Of
Leaders In Crisis
A leader’s purpose is the foundation on
which crisis outcomes are achieved
By Wesley Payne McClendon
On an autumn September
morning in Mrs. Sandra Kay
Daniel’s second grade classroom,
students’ took turns reading
“The Pet Goat” aloud. Parents,
local dignitaries, press corps
and the President of the United
States listened and smiled, while
the secret service looked on
stoically. Just after 9am, White
House Chief of Staff Andrew
Card walked into the room and
whispered in President George
Bush’s ear. “A second plane
hit the second (World Trade
Center) tower. America is under
attack.” Over the next 10 minutes,
President Bush, preoccupied with
what he had just learned, listened
to the students, took pictures and
talked to parents before leaving
the room.
Awaiting the President next door
was a makeshift situation room
that had already established
communication with national
and world leaders. The President
walked in, sat down and took the
phone in one ear while getting
briefed from staff in the other.
When leaders come face-to-face
with crises, the dynamic it
generates is revealing. In
practical terms, the crisis
doesn’t change leaders; it merely
reinforces who they are. As
Maya Angelou suggested, “When
someone shows you who they
are, believe them the first time.”
Go-to responses leaders use to
lean in, freeze up or fade away in
the midst of crisis are baked into
their leadership muscle memory.
Notwithstanding nuances played
out in unique circumstances
(e.g., enterprise-wide digital
transformation or national
government policy reform), the
core of leadership is largely
etched in semi-dried stone.
Incompetence rarely evolves into
capability nor will decisive leaders
deteriorate into indecision. To
game out how leaders are likely
to respond to crises in the future
is to consider what guides their
behavior today. The decision to
lead this way or that is embedded
in well-established habits of
leadership. And, what underpins
the habits of leaders is purpose.
A Hard Habit to Break
While leaders may differ widely
in their approach to the crisis, a
leader’s purpose is the foundation
on which crisis outcomes are
achieved. Purpose is defined
as a deeply held commitment
that motivates the habitual
routine necessary to achieve an
objective. In practice, leaders
routinely display habits of
leadership that are guided by
purpose. Purposeful leaders are
profoundly deliberate and their
commitment to achievement
obvious.
When applying purpose to
crisis, good leaders align habits
and resources into positions
of greatest need to achieve
an objective. Great leaders, in
contrast, exercise consistent
habits of leadership that motivate
others to achieve a common
purpose so compelling that it
becomes their own. As people,
teams and organisations align
themselves to the purpose, the
habits of leaders in crisis become
synonymous with the habits of
others. The outcome achieved
evolves from an objective for all.
Leadership Excellence presented by HR.com JULY 2021 18 Submit Your Articles
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