3 tips for managing crises successfully

There are many models for managing crises. You will behave differently if you are a doctor arriving at an accident, a manager solving a customer’s problem or if you are having a domestic argument with your partner. But there are certain common principles in each approach. It’s important to focus on calmness, clarity and concrete results. Let’s explore these three steps - and the steps within steps – for managing crises successfully.

* You can focus on calmness.

Calmness is crucial - whether you are arriving at the scene of an accident, solving a customer problem, counselling a distressed person or whatever. You need to get an overview of the situation, gather information and identify the key challenges to tackle. Sometimes you may also need to transmit calmness to other people. Think ahead to a possible challenging situation that you may face. How can you stay composed? How can you buy yourself time? How can you see things in perspective? Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to stay calm in a challenging situation are:

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* You can focus on clarity.

Clarity is vital. Whilst you may need to act quickly, your actions must - as far as possible - fit in with the longer-term goal. So begin by asking yourself: “What are the real results I want to achieve? What is the picture of perfection?” Imagine you are having an argument with your partner. What is the real goal you want to achieve in the conversations? Do you want to win the present argument or build a long-term ‘win-win’ relationship? Establishing the real ‘What’ will influence ‘How’ you tackle the situation. Of course, you may also have a mixture of short, medium and long-term goals. If so, brainstorm all the things you want to achieve, list these in order of priority – then focus on tackling them from the top down. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to do establish the real results I want to achieve are:

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* You can focus on concrete results.

The next step is to deliver concrete results. How to make this happen? Start by clarifying your strategy. Ask yourself: “Bearing in mind the results to achieve, what are the potential solutions? What are the ‘conventional solutions’ – the tried and trusted ways to achieve the goals? What are the possible ‘creative solutions’? What are the pluses and minuses of each route? Which route do I want to take? How can I build on the pluses and minimise the minuses?” Choose your way forward – then implement the strategy. Keep going until you reach the desired goals. Try completing the following sentence.

The specific things I can do to explore the potential solutions & then deliver concrete results are:

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Good crisis managers look beyond the present. After solving the problem, they take on-board the lessons and identify areas for improvement. Ask yourself: “What can I learn from the crisis? How can I prevent the problem happening again in the future? If it does occur again, however, how can I manage similar situations better in the future?” Clarify your conclusions – then put your action plans in place. Good crisis management can be the trigger for improving your quality of life in the future.