Leading Under Pressure Managing Organizational & Personal Crises

Objectives

• Build and develop leadership skills for handling stress, pressure and crisis.
• Become familiar with how the different personality styles respond to stress and pressure and identify your personal style in coping with stress.
• Learn how to lead others during times of crisis.
• Acquire an in-depth knowledge of the key aspects of Strategic Crisis Management.
• Learn how to generate ownership and responsibility by all stakeholders to ensure your organization responds efficiently and effectively.

Outline

LEADERSHIP EXCELLENCE IN HANDLING PRESSURE & STRESS
Personal Leadership Skills for Handling Pressure & Stress
• Stress and its effects on the body, mind and spirit
• Holistic response to stress
• Relationship between mind and body
• Personality styles and response to stress
• Understanding Introvert and Extravert responses to stress
Enhancing Communication Skills In Times of Stress
• Passive & aggressive responses
• Assertive communication during stressful times
• Managing conflicts during times of stress
• Giving and receiving criticisms during stressful moments
• Resolving conflicts constructively during times of pressure
Leading with Confidence During Challenging Times
• Coping with sudden change
• Leading others during sudden changes
• Recognizing the symptoms of short term and long term effects of stress
• Motivating yourself and others under pressure
• Building confidence during stressful times
Improving Leadership Effectiveness in Managing Crisis
• Utilizing creativity in crisis
• Recognizing opportunities for change in a crisis
• Helping the team look for creative opportunities
• Practicing creative leadership in facing a crisis
• Removing blocks to creative solutions in a crisis
Developing & Training Your Team to Handle Pressure, Stress and Crisis
• Training and developing employees to handle stress and pressure
• Stress handling techniques for you and your employees
• Helping the team to see the positive side of change in the workplace
• Implementing creative problem solving skills for your team when facing crisis
• Developing a personal action plan

STRATEGIC CRISIS MANAGEMENT
What should be in place before the event?
• Understanding Crisis Management
o How to manage a crisis?
o Virtually every crisis contains the seeds of success as well as the roots of failure
o The Rationale of the Crisis Manager
• Consider the range of risks: Natural/Environmental; Hazards; Technological – loss of utilities/product/process/plant; Human Error; Sabotage and Terrorism
• Crisis Managers – Roles & Responsibilities – manage the issue before it becomes a Crisis
• Who else inside and outside the organisation should be involved?
• Evaluating your risks and vulnerabilities; Consider the worse-case scenarios
• Understanding ‘denial-curve’ and ‘group-think’ syndromes
• Who decides who sits in the ‘hot-seat’?
o Case Studies, why some companies fail and others survive?
Pre-planning, who and what else should be considered?
• Who owns the mitigation process?
o Self-evaluating questionnaires
• Developing and Implementing Emergency Plans
o Twelve point check list covering the whole planning process
o Mutual Aid arrangements
o Company-wide strategic contingency plans
o Service or departmental plans
o Building evacuation plans
• Crisis Management and Communications Emergency Centre/s
• Developing and implementing a Business Continuity Management (BCM) strategy
• Business Impact Analysis. Case Study and Workshop
Dealing with a crisis – the ‘communications’ perspective
• Command and Control Issues
o Operational (at the scene)
o Tactical (at the forward control point/incident command)
o Strategic (boardroom level/emergency operations centre)
• On Scene Crisis Management, essential elements for success
• Reputation Management – Managing the Media. ‘How to’ sessions include
o Organising a Press Conference
o Conducting Radio and Television Interviews
• Case Study Exercise: Crisis Communications Strategy. Develop a crisis communications strategy and action plan based upon a given scenario
Incident Management & Aftermath
• Alerting and Warning. Case Studies. What can go right and what can go wrong
• Case Studies – Texas City Disasters 1947 and April 2005
• Major Incident Simulation – Role Playing Workshop
o Syndicate selection
o Reporting back
• Potential Psychological & Welfare problems in Crisis Management
o How to improve staff morale and confidence in the process
o The psychological effects during and after an incident involving injuries – and worse
o Looking after yourself and your staff
• Questionnaire, are your batteries in good condition?
Leadership Behaviour and Behavioural Safety
• Validating plans and procedures
o Discuss the four types of exercise
o How to get the most out of an exercise
• Post Incident evaluations
o De-briefing skills – managing the de-briefs – hot and cold
• Critique report writing, executive summaries and recommendations
o How to keep all ‘stakeholders’ informed
o Prioritising the Recommendations
o Examples of critique questionnaires
• Closing the loop. How to continue the process
• Case Study – Buncefield Oil Depot, Hertfordshire UK, 2005

Who Should Attend ?

Individuals with real leadership responsibility
Individuals being groomed for leadership
Individuals who have proved greater leadership abilities
Any person actively involved in interacting with others and involved with managing others in a supervisory role