What does strong crisis leadership look like? What makes a strong crisis leader?  How do you develop a strong crisis management team? What role does emotional intelligence play in crisis leadership?

In this episode of the Managing Uncertainty Podcast, Bryghtpath Principal & CEO Bryan Strawser, along with Sr. Consultant Jenn Otremba and Consultant Bray Wheeler talk about crisis leadership and their experiences coming up in this field.

Topics discussed include emotional intelligence, crisis leadership skill sets, how to train & develop new crisis leaders, the Harvard National Preparedness Leadership Initiative (NPLI) program, educational and learning opportunities for crisis leaders, and more.

Some relevant previous episodes and blog posts include:

* Top Business Continuity & Crisis Management Executive Programs

* Managing Uncertainty Episode #5:  Leading during an Active Shooter Situation

 

Episode Transcript

Bryan Strawser: Hello and welcome to the Managing Uncertainty Podcast this is Bryan Strawser, Principal and CEO at Bryghtpath. Joining me today are –

Jenn Otremba: Hi, this is Jenn Otremba, Consult at Bryghtpath.

Bray Wheeler: Hi, I’m Bray Wheeler, Consultant at Bryghtpath.

Bryan Strawser: So this is our long form episode for the week and we’re going to be diving into a round-table discussion about Crisis Leadership. Since the three of us are here, a few weeks back I had done a solo episode on our podcast about characteristics of strong Crisis Leaders, and we’ll link that in the show notes but I think we want to talk just more openly and with a couple of different opinions about what we see as strong and not strong Crisis Leaders, and some of the things we’ve learned along the way. I think between the three of us we’ve got a good thirty-plus years of experience in Crisis Management, and we may have learned a few things along the way.

Jenn Otremba: One or two.

Bryan Strawser: One or two things along the way. So what makes a good crisis leader? We start there.

Bray Wheeler: What makes a good crisis leader? I think it’s a lot of things. I think some of it comes a little more naturally to people. Some of it’s learned for folks, but I think some of the key things are really having that ability to kind of see the incident for what it is, and not get too … not overact to it, not get too flustered by it, kind of see it as an opportunity to kind of jump in and manage the situation for what it is, and make sure that you’re trying to do the right things. And make sure that you’re bringing the other people along with you, because it’s not a solo sport by any means.

Jenn Otremba: That’s a good point, it’s not a solo sport at all so I think it’s developing that team around you to work through a situation. It’s being careful to not get too emotionally involved with what is going on. I think it’s like you said it’s really keeping a level head as you’re managing through the situation. And then I think also recognizing when you’re beginning to escalate or when the people around you are beginning to escalate and get stressed and separate yourself or separate others as necessary. So it’s really being able to read the room and understand kind of where everybody is at.

Bray Wheeler: That self-awareness is a huge piece of it.