"No plan survives first contact with the enemy"  -Military maxim

We often spend enormous amounts of time and money on emergency planning or crisis management.  Very rarely though do we invest in crisis leadership training. In other words, very rarely do we focus on preparing and training the human element of crisis and disaster, the very aspect of catastrophic situations that often causes the failure of even the best-laid plans. Given that crisis and change is a constant these days, leadership and management teams need to understand how to create sustainable organizations and learn the ability to lead their people through periods of recovery and resilience. The good news is, resilience can be learned and great leadership before, during and after times of crisis can be developed and practiced.  

When someone has attained the positional authority to lead a crisis response, that leader needs to develop additional skills to effectively address the leadership challenges of a crisis, namely:

  1. The psychological challenges of leading the response to and recovery from a traumatic event
  2. The challenges of making decisions quickly in the absence of complete information
  3. The challenge of effective internal and external communication
  4. The challenge of assuring the ongoing prevention and minimization of a crisis
  5. The challenge of creating organizational and human capital resilience, recovery and sustainability 

These leadership skills are important in every stage of crisis - but particularly before the incident or problem actually occurs. By drawing from the fields of neuroscience, psychology and business, leaders can develop the skills necessary to develop sustainable cultures and more importantly, cultivate a culture of resilience within their organization before crisis hits.  Learn more about this development program.