Here are eight steps to help you to prepare for a sudden and unexpected threat to your organisation.
1. Stay calm – keep a cool head. Give yourself time to gather your thoughts and to take an objective look at your situation. Take a deep breath – and another!
2. Get your right people in place – an efficient, disciplined team is much better able to function effectively in difficult circumstances.
3. Expect the unexpected – the business landscape changes constantly and sometimes change is sudden and unpredictable. If you embrace that challenge, you’ll likely be better able to manage any potential crisis.
4. Have a plan. What is the problem, how will it affect your business, and what can you do about it? Then consider what things might derail your coping strategy, and what you need to do to prevent them having a negative impact. Finally, when all this is over, what will you need to do to get back to ‘business as usual?
5. Plan Effective Communication – it’s an important part of crisis planning. Effective, swift and concise communication can calm and reassure team members, customers and other stakeholders.
6. Lead from the front – your staff may be worried or emotional, so stay positive and confident. Your team members will take heart from the calming presence of someone who’s organised, prepared and decisive.
7. Be supportive – while you need to be assertive, don’t feel you need to be dictatorial or demand immediate actions. Try to remain empathic and aware of everyone’s fears and concerns (without feeling the need to bow to peer pressure)
8. Finally, be resilient. Resilient people have a positive image of the future, have solid goals and, most importantly, resilient people never think of themselves as victims – they focus their time and energy on changing the things that they have control over.
