The Complete Manager 3 of 14: Crisis Management

We're continuing our examination of the profile of a 'complete' manager - one who daily achieves Predictable Success® for herself, her team, and the organization she works for.

In the previous two articles in the series, we first took a bird's eye view of what a Complete Manager is, then started our detailed review of the 14 characteristics, beginning with time management.

In the immediately previous article, we looked at the second of the 14 characteristics of 'The Complete Manager' - Priority Management.

Crisis management, or managing by crisis?

Whether self-imposed or genuine, (and Operators are very prone to generating their own crises - but that's another article...) every day brings the opportunity to have your management agenda (assuming you have one) hijacked by a screaming customer, a pouting employee, an obstructive co-manager, an unreasonable boss...you know the drill.

Of course, we all succumb occasionally to a genuine 'all hands on deck' emergency, but why is it that some managers engage in 'management by crisis', rather than exhibiting crisis management skills?

Click on the image at left to download a 3-page worksheet from the members-only resource area.

The handout includes five key questions to assess how effective you (or your managers) are at crisis management.

1. Lack of a time and priority management infrastructure

Suffice it to say, there's a reason why they come before crisis management in the choreography of 'Complete Manager' skills development: put simply - if you don't have time and priority management nailed, any crisis - even the simplest - will derail you in the blink of an eye.

2. "I fix things: It's what I do!"

This isn't really the fault of the manager - it's the fault of whoever appointed them as manager in the first place. All too often someone is promoted into management because of precisely this skill: the ability to 'fix things' and solve problems.

This type of employee always knows how to calm the angry customer, how to get the job finished on time, how to soothe their co-workers or apparate resources out of thin air. They never come to you with problems - they just...fix it. And we love that, right? She's no trouble, she's a problem solver, she's a self-starter. Hey! I've got a great idea - let's make her a manager!

So, when they are appointed manager guess what they see their job as doing? That's right: fix things.
...And what does someone need, who fixes things? Problems to fix.
...And if I'm going to be the best 'fixit' manager possible, what's the best type of problem to fix? A crisis!

So before you know it, our new manager is racing from crisis to crisis, genuinely believing that she is dong a great job.

Fear: The Dark Side

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Get everyone on the same page - click here to email them a copy of this article So far, the manager we've been discussing has acted out of positive (though misguided) beliefs: they know they're good at 'fixing things', and they genuinely believe that 'fixing things' is what they're there to do - so they do it.

But there is a dark side to this. There are also managers who spend their time 'managing by crisis' for negative reasons: not because they're good at it or because they believe that's what their job is, but rather the opposite.

These managers know what a manager should really be doing: Planning, delegating, mentoring, motivating, etc., but they know that they are not good at those things, and fear that if they're not in a perpetual whirl of activity, they'll be 'found out'.

The first type of manager has a lot of development potential - with the right coaching, all that positive energy can be directed to genuinely 'managerial' activities. The second type - those who are managing by crisis out of fear - tend not to be coachable, and often have a track record of leaving organizations just before they get 'found out', before their lack of management skills catches up with them.

(Weird thing: these managers (those who fear being 'found out') often interview really well. Go figure.)

3. The art of triage

When you arrive at the hospital, fixing your agonizingly throbbing broken finger may seem urgent to you. If you're lucky enough to be the only person in the joint at that point in time, you may get some agreement on this. If, on the other hand, the on-call doctor is faced with say, a heart attack patient, a stoke victim and you, you may find your case for immediate treatment harder to plead.

This isn't entirely or always the manager's fault: sometimes an organization simply hasn't taken time to develop protocols that clearly delineate what is urgent and what is important, leaving managers to try to work it out on a case by case basis. And while a competent manager should be able to use her judgement to do just that in many cases a lot of anguish can be saved by simply detailing in advance what constitutes a 'crisis', and what doesn't.

Triage can be taught!
In The Predictable Success® Complete Manager Program we encourage (and assist) participating managers to develop their own triage protocols that provide them with clear guidelines that can be used in any situation, to establish an appropriate response.

The next launch date for the Program is March 1st. If you would like to enquire about The Predictable Success® Complete Manager Program for yourself or your managers (or make a no-obligation pre-registration), just use this simple form and we'll get back to you with the details.

4. The ultimate get out of jail free card: the customer.

Essentially, in early growth, whatever the customer wants, the customer gets. This is an entirely appropriate - indeed, vitally necessary part of the organization's culture at that stage in its development.

The problem is this: later in the organization's growth, when (because of scale and complexity), process, procedures and systems are desperately needed to provide a consistent and dependable customer experience, the managers are still trapped in the 'legacy' mindset, that when a customer screams, everybody jumps.

Instead of 'trusting the process' and working the system, the manager drops everything whenever a customer shouts, and instead of being a positive asset to the organization, the customer becomes the key source of 'management by crisis'.

You know you're experiencing this when you hear comments from your managers such as:

"Which would you rather I do: make this customer happy, or go to this meeting?"

"I haven't time to fill in these forms because [customer x's project] is in the weeds and I have to fix it."

5. Poor delegation skills

The fifth reason managers end up managing by crisis, rather than exercising crisis management, is because of poor delegation skills.

And guess what the next article is...? Yep: next time, we'll look at the fourth and final skill in the Complete Manager's 'Productivity' category - Delegation: How do you build a team that together can accomplish more than you as an individual?

Then pre-register for our upcoming Complete Manager Program - a distance learning program based on all 14 'Complete Manager' characteristics, launching later this year.

There's no obligation whatsoever in pre-registering, and the Program is open to members and non-members alike (although members will receive a discount on the Program registration fee (which we haven't set yet). Just complete this simple form and hit 'Submit':

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