WHAT IS CRISIS LEADERSHIP?
JLBC Leading in a crisis can be challenging. Managers who have shown in such circumstances describe the experience as highly developmental—a benchmark in their professional careers. But what does effective leadership during a crisis look like? There may be as many descriptions of leadership, and crisis leadership, as there are executive coaches and management gurus. In some of its educational activities, JLBC has described leadership as a process of influence in which JLBC managers interact with direct reports and others in the organization to achieve a common goal. Given the emotionally volatile environment surrounding a crisis, which can contribute to ineffective or even counterproductive behavior, a proper working definition of crisis leadership may be this ability to influence others.
A Definition of Leadership
Influence is the ability to persuade, convince, motivate, inspire, and judiciously use power to affect others positively. Generally speaking, it's not the authority that comes from leveraging title, position, or regulations. But exactly how is this different from other methods of leadership that managers carry out every single day? After all, the ability to influence others is an essential part of leadership in reasonable and dire circumstances. The power of influence would seem to be a valuable leadership skill no matter the individual leader's style (some managers are more inclusive than others, and some are more autocratic, for example, in how they approach their work). The difference lies not in the importance of influence as a leadership capacity but instead in the particular context of the crisis itself, an emotional response!
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