Leadership in a Crisis: How Hotel General Managers Should Respond to COVID-19
Albert BarraApril 17, 2020 · 5 min read
There is no easy path through the crisis. In addition to the obvious challenge of choosing the right course, leaders also face the monumental task of reassuring the public and persuading them to follow government decisions, even when measures such as social distancing are adopted, with their indirect impact on employment, at great personal cost.
One wrong move could erode trust and trigger unrest that exacerbates existing dangers. But it remains to be seen whether our leaders will rise to the occasion with the appropriate response.
Recognising that a company is facing a crisis is the first thing executives must do. It is a difficult step, especially at the onset of crises that do not arrive suddenly but emerge from familiar circumstances that mask their true nature.
Once leaders recognise a crisis for what it is, they can begin to organise a response. But they cannot respond as they would in a routine emergency, following plans that were drawn up in advance.
During a crisis, governed by unfamiliarity and uncertainty, effective responses are largely improvised. They may encompass a broad range of actions: not only temporary measures (for example, introducing remote-working policies) but also adjustments to ongoing business practices (such as adopting new tools to support collaboration), which may be beneficial to retain even after the crisis has passed.
What leaders need during a crisis is not a predefined response plan, but behaviours and mindsets that will prevent them from overreacting to yesterday’s developments and help them look ahead.
When it comes to taking action, leaders must judge precisely how much they can rely on individual cooperation through persuasion, and when they need to move to tighter control—an option, incidentally, that can quickly prove counterproductive if not approached with appropriate caution. All of this will determine how to limit the damage caused by an emergency.
However, it is often the content of a leader’s messages that can ultimately determine the public’s trust. Effective crisis leadership cannot be achieved simply by doing the right thing. During a crisis, leaders must abandon the belief that a top-down response will create stability.
Leaders must encourage collaboration and transparency across the network of teams. One way to do so is by distributing authority and sharing information—in other words, demonstrating how teams themselves should operate. In crisis situations, a leader’s instinct may be to centralise authority for decision-making and control information, providing it strictly on a need-to-know basis. Doing the opposite will encourage teams to follow their example.
Another crucial part of a leader’s role, particularly in the emotionally charged and tense environment that characterises a crisis, is to foster psychological safety so people can openly discuss ideas, questions and concerns without fear of repercussions. This enables the network of teams to make sense of the situation and determine how to handle it through healthy debate.
Leaders must also ensure that the right people are empowered to make crisis-response decisions throughout the network of teams. Since decision-makers are likely to make some mistakes, they must be able to learn quickly and make corrections without overreacting or paralysing the organisation.
At the beginning of a crisis, leaders will need to appoint decision-makers to lead the crisis response. But as the crisis evolves, new crisis-response leaders will naturally emerge within a network-of-teams structure, and they will not always be senior executives.
Leaders must be able to unite teams behind a single purpose and ask questions that enable them to investigate.
Another important quality is bounded optimism, or confidence combined with realism. At the start of a crisis, if leaders display excessive confidence despite obviously difficult conditions, they may lose credibility. It is more effective for leaders to project confidence that the organisation will find a way through its predicament, while also showing that they recognise the uncertainty of the crisis and have begun to address it by gathering more information.
Finally, it is vital that leaders not only demonstrate empathy, but also remain open to the empathy of others and attentive to their own wellbeing. As stress, fatigue and uncertainty build during a crisis, leaders may find that their ability to process information, remain balanced and exercise sound judgement declines. They will have a better chance of counteracting these functional declines if they encourage colleagues to voice their concerns and heed the warnings they receive. Investing time in their wellbeing will enable leaders to maintain their effectiveness throughout the weeks and months a crisis may last.
A crisis is when it is most important for leaders to uphold a vital aspect of their role: making a positive difference in people’s lives. Doing so requires leaders to recognise the personal and professional challenges employees and their loved ones experience during a crisis.
The coronavirus pandemic is testing business and organisational leaders across every sector worldwide. Its consequences may last longer and present greater difficulties than anyone anticipates. Prolonged uncertainty is all the more reason for leaders to adopt the right practices. Those who do will help establish or reinforce behaviours and values that can support their businesses throughout this crisis, however long it may continue, and prepare them well for the next large-scale challenge, should another arise.This article ends here. The archive does not.
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