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Part I: False Conundrums My father used to say, “When in doubt do something.” I have modified the thought to, “Do it now,” “Say it now,” “Fix it now,
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Part I: False Conundrums
My father used to say, “When in doubt do something.” I have modified the thought to, “Do it now,” “Say it now,” “Fix it now,” “Change it now,” and “Question it now.”
The reasoning is that when there are crisis-caused victims, there is never a
satisfactory, believable explanation for indecision, silence, delay, or stalling; and
action and communication are clearly called for. Why leadership failed to promptly act and communicate are the two most common first killer questions asked of those apparently responsible for the crisis; thus, creating an irreversible perception.
Other timeless crisis management truisms:
1. Bad news always ripens badly
2. Every moment of indecision creates unseen victims and avoidable collateral
damage
3. There is no such thing as 20/20 hindsight because there is no such thing as
20/20 foresight
4. Silence is the most toxic strategy
5. Doing nothing in a crisis never passes the straight face test
6. Job one is stopping the production of victims
7. Job two is helping victims manage their victimization
8. Job three is prevention of further victimization
9. Critics, commentators, bloviators, bellyachers, back bench bitchers, and
victims accumulate from the start of the crisis
10. Victims and critics always outlive their perpetrators, have keen memories
and live to take the perpetrator down
11. Once a critic, enemy or victim, always a critic, enemy or victim
These truisms make prevention of victimization among the most important
functions of leadership and leadership survival.
These truisms make prevention of victimization among the most important
functions of leadership and leadership survival. |
Part II: To Act or Not To Act
Avoid management huddling, where leadership spends their time in a back room
somewhere discussing and debating how best to stall, delay, deny, or avoid dealing with victims rather than standing up, acting, and talking now. Stalling, delaying, or denying diminishes credibility, erodes trust, enhances victimization, and creates additional embarrassment and collateral damage. |
What America Needs Now More Than Ever |
Steve Harrison, co-founder of Lee Hecht Harrison, later LHH Division of The Adecco Group, died July 10th, 2021. We worked together for more than 30 years beginning in 1995. Our last task together, over 2 ½ years, was to co-author a book published by McGraw Hill in 2020 called The Decency Code, The Leader’s Path to Building Integrity and Trust. His business was outplacement, and his leadership style was of extreme humility, his passion, indeed his obsession, was finding ways to encourage others to perform, to rely on, and to teach others how to bring small decencies into everyone’s life at every opportunity.
His life accomplishments are on exhibit in the thousands of people, who with the help of Steve’s global company, LHH Division of ADECCO, found jobs for people after losing them. I will write more about what Steve stood for and accomplished in the coming days. I will use his words to help you remember who he was, what his life was about, and the legacy he left for the rest of us. |
This newsletter was edited by Anna Chu, a 2022 Macalester College graduate. As an avid reader and writer, she hopes to teach literature and creative writing in the future. She is currently working on writing her novel. |
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