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WHAT
SHOULD LEADERS DO
IN A CRISIS?
GILD. October 2015
www.christostsolkas.com
Two thousand years ago, in ancient Greece, an historiographer named Xenophon joined a Greek army of 10,000 mercenaries and fought in Persia. After a major victory, allthe leaders of the army were trapped killed. Crisis.The troops elected new ones to lead them back home. The Uphill March.Xenophon, student of Socrates, was one of the new leaders …
Xenophon
The true test of a leader is whether his followers will adhere to his cause from their own volition, enduring the most arduous hardships without being forced to do so, and remaining steadfast in the moments of greatest peril.
“
”
TOUR OF 2014
wars
million refugees
Mudslides
Earthquakes
60Hurricanes
Polar Vortex
Floods
Oil price drops
Currency devaluation
Sony Pictures hacked
Ebola:
http://www.internationalrelations.com/wars-in-progress/
1
1
10
10$bio loss
Catastrophic crises might affect us and we then have to march uphill like Xenophon. How to prepare against low predictability / high impact events?
Developing our people and building extraordinary teams.
OUR STORY IN UKRAINE
My story happened in Ukraine, in 2014, when a series of unpredictable and dangerous events unfolded. I was managing an organization of 1,500 people through a great management team of 11.
Ukraine, 2014
PMI
people1,500
TATIANA
Comes from Ukraine. Intelligent, versatile, ambitious, and strong with people. Reliable, resourceful and hard-working.
ROMAN
Very creative, a lateral thinker and great problem solver.Patriotic Ukrainian, half his mind to leave the country and half to join the army and fight.
ARTEM
Very intelligent, looks tough but with surprising leadership skills.Artem is Russian. Big burden to carry.
NEW VISION AND VALUES
I was excited when I was assigned Managing Director in Ukraine in January 2012 Wanted to have a big win. We established a vision named ‘We Better’.
4
3
2
1
TEAM
CAPABILITY
ASSESSMENT
Mar 2013
Phil Harkins,
March 2013
4
Strongly agree
3
Agree2
Disagree
1
Strongly disagree
I brought in a team coach Phil Harkins. All committed to work building that team. Aligned and developed shared objectives and common dream. Almost a year before crisis.
GET ALIGNED
AS A TEAM
We spent a lot of time together to…
HAVE FUN
AS A TEAM
to…
BUILDING MEMORIES
AS A TEAM
With the return of our team coach we had shown big improvement. He suggested a crisis management case study to accelerate our development.
and…
PROTESTS
ESCALATION
Irony. We lived the crisis instead.
1. Discernment, judgment
‘KRISIS’
2. Chaos, upheaval
Greek; noun, [‘krisis]
I had experience from the Greek
crisis. Double meaning, need the
one to get out of the other:
UKRAINE:
VIOLANCE ERUPTED
The crisis escalated in winter. On January 22, 2014, the first blood. Snipers started killing protestors. People paralyzed. Team in emergency.
Following days horrifying. Hundreds of protesters wounded, 67 died.
BUSINESSAS USUAL
SECRETPLAN
PEOPLESAFETY
We stood by our priorities: Keep everyone safe and secure. Preserve normal business operations (if possible)
Develop the management team using crisis as a catalyst
WE LEARNED
HOW TO SHIFT FROM ‘FOG FEAR’
TO ‘TENT TIME’
Pervasive anxiety, fear for families & lives = Fog FearGood times together, calm and close = Tent Time
REFUGE FROM
THE OUTSIDE
Place of work to feel like escape
WE BECAME
A‘WHAT-IF’
MACHINE
What if open
war in Eastern
Ukraine
starts?
What if our
employees are
mobilized
into the army?
What if our
factory close to
the war zone
get taken?
How can we
safely transfer
our factory
workers elsewhere?
How can we persuade
the government to
create a buffer tax
stamp stock?
Develop contingency scenarios constantly:
KEPT
EVERYONE
HYPER - INFORMED
Straight talk is better than sugar-coated reality. Truth makes people stronger.
GAVE THE TEAM
AS MUCH RESPONSIBILITY
AS POSSIBLE
Different people from team came to lead.Appreciated the diversity.
Increased responsibility, more leadership in return.
4
3
2
1
TEAM
CAPABILITY
ASSESSMENT
Phil Harkins,
October 2014
4
Strongly agree
3
Agree2
Disagree
1
Strongly disagree
Mar 2013
Nov 2013
Oct 2014
Business results were exceptional. In October ‘14 Phil assessed the team for the third time. We became Category Type
One team in a world record time. Leadership stories focus wrongly on the leader, not on the team.
TATIANA:
MANAGING DIRECTOR
TODAY
ROMAN:
ON A PATH TO BECOME
GENERAL MANAGER
TODAY
ARTEM:
SALES DIRECTOR
TODAY
GILD. October 2015
www.christostsolkas.com
https://hbr.org/2015/06/what-it-was-like-to-be-a-manager-in-ukraine
Crises are likely.We must expect to face the unexpected.The most important is to develop our teams into teams ofhigh performing leaders. Xenophon would agree.Instead of one, we need 10,000.
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