Personal, work and large-scale: How to cope with crisis

Sue Musson

Light and shade
All the cliches and song lyrics are true: into each life some rain must fall; you have to take the rough with the smooth; joy and pain like sunshine and rain.

No one wants bad things to happen, but happen they do. Denial or wishing disaster away simply isn’t an effective strategy. The mature leader hopes for and expects the best but accepts that all manner of things can and will go wrong at some stage.

Cultivating the ability to manage the bad times calmly and effectively is therefore a fundamental leadership skill.

The good news is that the more experience you have of coping when things go wrong, the more confident you become in your own ability and the more intuition you develop about managing in the moment. The other benefit of becoming more proficient in managing a work crisis is that you find that far fewer crises actually arise. This is because your personal threshold for what constitutes a crisis is raised in proportion to your experience, capability and willingness to respond instinctively and appropriately.

Categories
In a leader’s life, there are many types of crises that can arise including work, personal and large-scale disasters. Some of these crises are predictable; some are unexpected. Some take ages to resolve, while others are blissfully short-lived. There are broadly three types of disasters you are likely to encounter: work disasters, personal disasters and large-scale disasters.

Work disasters 
There are some typical work crises that always crop up at some point. For newer leaders, experiencing a contract or an important performance goal teetering on the edge of failure can trigger feelings of panic. Similarly, the first time you implement change resulting in job losses can feel utterly overwhelming.

I have total recall of the first time I had to deal with both situations. The parts that I handled well I attribute to working with a great mentor who had shown me by example how to cope calmly and constructively with performance problems. Having observed this good practice, I was able to be calm, reassuring and curious to understand all aspects of the problem from others before starting the process of identifying solutions. On the latter issue, I did some things well, but I also made the mistake of giving into feelings of upset and overwhelm at moments of intense pressure.

I learned a lot from the mistakes I made and from the things I did well. Reflecting on both aspects provided valuable insights and increased confidence in the ability to meet future problems.

One of these occurred just a few weeks after I had taken up a role as chairman of a large teaching hospital. I received a summons from the regulator requiring me, the chief executive and the finance director to travel to London to account for the organisation’s poor financial performance.

It would have been easy to point fingers, blaming others for the situation and deflecting attention away from me. Clearly, my two-week tenure had not been the cause of the problems.  However, it was instinctive and appropriate to take personal responsibility and to stand with colleagues in owning the situation and committing to find a way forward.

Leadership means putting your hand up to resolve whatever comes your way even if it is a problem that is not of your making. Even if it feels unfair, the onus is on you to respond appropriately. Your colleagues certainly will not trust you if you seek to avoid accountability or show you are prepared to throw them under the bus.

Over the years, I have experienced many events that could be classed as crises, but in the moment, I just saw them as problems that needed to be resolved. Reframing these events as a problem requiring a solution – rather than as a catastrophe – is particularly important in managing your ability to cope. These are some key takeaways for coping with crises:

• There are always bumps in the road and surprises that will arise. The more senior you are, the more problems you will encounter. Accepting this fact helps you stay calm and clear thinking when the dreadful comes your way.
• No disaster is ever improved with panic or blame. Although it may not feel instinctive, the more you can dial into a calm setting, the easier you make it for other people firstly to share details of the problem, and secondly to identify solutions.
• All of your attitudes and behaviours as a leader are contagious. If you give way to feelings of overwhelm, anger and panic, you will spread this to others. If you remain calm, curious and clear thinking, you will encourage others to focus on understanding the situation and discovering how it can be resolved.
• It is important to keep events in perspective. The more you see them as a problem to be solved, the more likely you are to find solutions. If you label events as a crisis, a catastrophe, a disaster, you are more likely to feel overwhelmed and to sink into a negative emotional cycle. This saps you of the power and confidence you need to take action.
• Turning your personal setting to a calm, analytical mode enables others to share vital information so that you can understand all the aspects of the problem facing you.  Developing this clear understanding is the foundation of being able to identify and evaluate potential solutions.
• Remind yourself of the good practice you may have witnessed. Model your response on the example set by an effective leader or mentor in the past.  This will help you replicate the calm problem-solving skills and instincts that you have observed in others.

Personal disasters 
We are all human. Experiencing a personal crisis will always spill over into working life.

So many times, I have observed that performance problems or out-of-character behaviours at work are caused by the stress of a personal or a family crisis involving physical health, mental health, relationship breakdown, bereavement or financial pressure.

I experienced this myself when my son was ten years old and suffered a life-threatening illness. He was in hospital for endless weeks undergoing daily tests and procedures including eleven surgeries. I recall living in a tiny bubble that was just focused on getting through that day’s events: tests, surgeries, vitals checks, intravenous antibiotics and clinicians’ visits. It was all-consuming, and there certainly was no headroom for thinking about work or anything else.

Luckily for us, after several months, my son made a full recovery. When he was at last discharged, we could finally breathe a sigh of relief and re-enter normal life.

That time taught me so much. Having gone through such a stressful experience, I developed a huge well of compassion and empathy for others facing their own or their family members’ ill health.

Another key lesson came from my son’s response. When he was finally on the mend and about to be discharged from hospital, he told me it was a good thing that he had been so ill because he had found his vocation to become a doctor. He said, ‘I think I will be a good doctor because I know what it feels like to be the patient in the bed.’

Not only was that a mature and compassionate take on a terrible experience, it revealed the upside associated with every crisis: every crisis is always accompanied by an opportunity to grow. The 12^th century poet Rumi said, ‘the wound is where the light enters you.’ This was literally the case for my son. Having a profound ‘wound’ led to him finding his ‘light,’ in this case his purpose in life. Although it may not feel like it immediately, coping with a crisis also presents opportunities to build capability, resilience and growth.

Having first-hand experience or seeing the impact of a personal crisis on someone close to you can only enhance your ability as a leader to support others compassionately through difficult times and to identify – at the appropriate point – any opportunities for improvement or growth that emerge as a result.

Big-scale disasters 
Over the years, I have been in leadership roles affected by large-scale disasters caused by terror attacks, fire and, of course, the global COVID-19 pandemic.

Coping with these significant events created deep learning for all the leaders who were involved. Despite the significant scale of these disasters, the basics of addressing them relied on the same good practice elements found in navigating routine work and personal crises. Coping with these large-scale disasters reinforced the importance of maintaining calm, undertaking analysis, making decisions and communicating constantly.

Top tips for weathering the storm
There are a range of crises that you and your colleagues may experience at work and in personal life. Some events are long-lasting and some occur in the moment, without warning.  Recognising that crises are inevitable is the first step to building the skills needed to manage their arrival. Staying calm, curious and compassionate is the optimal setting for navigating a crisis of any scale or duration. The consistent threads of good practice in a crisis include:

1.    Keep calm – succumbing to panic, anger or a temptation to blame, distract or gaslight never helps. Your attitudes and behaviours are contagious so channel calm reassurance.
2.   Adjust your perspective and language –  see the event as a problem to be solved. Avoid catastrophising the situation which leads to feelings of overwhelm that sap you of the ability to think calmly and clearly.
3.   Take personal responsibility – even if the crisis is not of your making. If you are a leader, you need to step up and articulate a willingness to understand and address the root of the problem.
4.   Start with compassion and empathy – treat others with understanding and apply the golden rule. Recognise that your job is to reassure others that your focus is on resolution, not blame.
5.   Embrace your analytical skills – approach every crisis with curiosity and a desire to establish the facts. Listen carefully. Discuss your analysis with others to develop a shared understanding of the problem.  This makes it easier to unlock solutions.
6.   Role model good practice – think back to times you observed a leader cope well with a crisis. Identify the positive elements of their approach and consider how you can adopt these as your own.
7.   Remember, weighing the pig does not make it fatter – avoid getting stuck in analytical mode. Although you may not have perfect information, you must take action. Making the ‘least-worst’ decision is sometimes the best you can do.
8.   Communicate constantly – even if you have nothing new to say. Constant communication is reassuring and lets people know the status of the crisis and the action that is planned or underway.

Biography
Sue Musson holds a BA from Columbia University and achieved her first board-level leadership role at the age of twenty-seven. She is keen to share what she has learned to help other leaders build their confidence and capability.

For 30 years, Sue has held senior executive and non-executive roles in the business services sector, in her own successful businesses and in five National Health Service (NHS) trusts.  She recently completed her term as Chairman of Liverpool University Hospitals, one of the UK’s largest hospital trusts, with 14,000 staff and a turnover of £1.2Bn.