Leadership Fitness in 5 Minutes with Gary Slyman

Crisis Leadership: NASA Case Study

We currently have a front row seat of NASA's crisis with the Starliner mission.

Early June NASA launched the Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station. They were faced with immediate problems. They have decided to bring back the spacecraft unmanned. Their eight day mission has become eight months as they crew stays at the International Space Station.

Crisis leadership, let's go through the following steps in this specific case.

1. Identify the specific problem.
2. Damage control & containment
3. Who is going to solve the problem and how are they going to solve it?

What can you learn from your own crisis walking through the above steps?

How to be a Crisis Leader during Recovery Phase.

I have en executive client that started working with me just two weeks after her home was destroyed by a tornado.

Let me walk through how she has been an incredible example of how to lead during the recovery phase.

Think about yourself and your team.

What do you need to focus on?

1. Analyze crisis from multiple dimensions.
2. What is team or people are needed for recovery?
3. Communicating with transparency and clarity.

Folks want to feel grounded and get back to normal, you have the ability to help them do that.

You are now a crisis leader!

What do you focus on in this third phase?

1. Early Warning
2. Preparation/Prevention
3. Damage Control & Containment

What do you focus on? Here are some questions to ask.

What is the degree of the crisis? Is this a crisis for your team? Or organization? Or your industry?

Define it. What type of crisis is it? Does it need to be contained? Usually financial, reputation or operational.

The problem is___________.

This is the degree____________…

Focus on containing the right damage to continue to be operational and find the right people to make that happen.

If you're a leader you have a crisis coming your way? Can you prevent it? Can you prepare for it? This is phase 2 out of 5 in crisis leadership.

Crisis Leadership: Prevention & Preparation

Think of your yourself, team, and your organization. What would be a crisis for your team? I walk through a few common ones. A common one I see is a single point of failure for the capability on her team. Also in the arena of IT and data storage.

Can you prevent these? Can you prepare for it? A large part of crisis leadership is in the preparation.

If you're a leader, you have a crisis coming. Are you ready?

Let's talk crisis leadership. In the book "Prepared Leader" the author talk about 5 phases of crisis leadership.

1. Early warning/Single detection
2. Preparation & Prevention
3. Damage containment
4. Recovery

Lesson learned and reflection Today I will talk about early warning and single detection. Let's walk through an example and see how you can work through this phase.

It's July! How are your annual goals going? Let's check in!

1. Leadership
2. Financial
3. Overall Team Development

Think about yourself and your organization. Think about January and think about what your goal was, and where you now? Are you way ahead? Do you need to adjust? Go back to your mission.

Crisis Leadership: How prepared are you to be a crisis leader? 3 areas you can look at: 1. Trust 2. Values 3. Predict & Practice How do you build trust? Do people come toward you or away during a crisis? Define your values and practice them every day. Values are really important. You can predict problems that might arise, people, money or a business plan. Practice building trust and embracing your values. There are plenty of little crises that you can work through that will build your muscles for larger crises. How are you as a crisis leader?

Triggers & Burnout

What messaging or signals are your triggers telling you about where you are on the path to burnout?

Burnout it's out there, it's a syndrome that has been out there for a while. I'm going to connect the dots between burnout and triggers.

Triggers - any impulse that causes you to take action

Burnout -

1. physical and mental exhaustion

2. cynicism about work

1. lack of efficacy in impact

How can triggers show you where you are on the spectrum of burnout. Use yourself and someone you are leading.

Let's work through some questions and scenarios.

4th of July by Numbers

Committee of 5 that was tasked with writing the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the writing the rough draft.

Adopted and voted in on July 4th, 1776

12 of the 13 colonies voted yes, New York abstained, but eventually adopted it.

It was signed on August 2nd. 56 individuals signed it, two didn't sign it. The oldest signer was 77 years old, Ben Franklin, the youngest 26, Edward Rutledge. Average age 44, 15 of signers fought in Continental Army.

Listen for more.

Anything surprise you?