Crisis management is typically a reactive approach to maintain an organization's normal operations during a period of major issues or crisis. It involves adjusting procedures to ensure efficiency and stability, and that employees are able to keep doing their work while maintaining high morale.

Crisis leadership, on the other hand, covers all that is required as part of crisis management, while keeping an eye on the organization's business strategic objectives, preserving its core values, and prioritizing the needs of key stakeholders, to ensure positive public perception. Focuses more on incorporating them into the crisis plan.

Hence, the ability to exercise crisis leadership first requires a solid crisis management plan.

This workshop aims to help participants understand how to be on top of any crisis. Participants will identify ‘minefields’ and develop approaches to maintain or even increase confidence in the organisation.

The key is to have a crisis plan that has pre-approved as much of the decision making as possible prior to any crisis, so when it hits, leaders can focus on taking action and leading the organisation.

Objective

Upon completion of this 1-day workshop, participants will:

1. Recognise the interdependence between having a sound crisis management plan and how to be a crisis leader that anticipate crisis.
2. Appreciate the thorough use of various frameworks to recognise impending risks, ensure transparent communication with affected stakeholders, and inject optimism into the organisation’s responses by having the right expertise in their crisis team.
3. Learn to identify additional expertise within the organisation to carry out impact assessments.
4. Understand the need to assign responsibilities within the crisis team so as to be able to prioritise responses when a crisis happens.
5. Stage the wind down of the crisis team in preparation for the next crisis.

Outline

1 – Crisis leadership builds on Crisis management.
• Understand the relationship between crisis, issues, and risks.
• Appreciate that crisis leadership arises from the basis of sound crisis management.
• Keeping in mind the organisation’s values, prioritizing key stakeholders, and upholding its business strategic goals to preserve the public perception.
• Overlaying the 10 elements Crisis management plan with Fink’s Crisis model.

2 – Crisis leadership during the Pre-crisis phase.
• Ensuring DEI and the right expertise in your crisis management and leadership team.
• Recognise impending risk with appropriate warning signs and risk matrix assessments. (Elements 1 and 2)
• Manage your crisis stakeholders through the Power-Interest grid, and their communication needs through the Hazard-Outrage grid. (Elements 3 to 5)
• Your crisis communication plan – Channels, frequency, and spokespersons, to address your stakeholders communication needs. (Elements 6 and 7)
• Injecting optimism and transparency into the organisation through table top exercise and drills, and seeking feedback for further improvements. (Elements 8 and 9)

3 – Crisis leadership during the Crisis phase.
• Recognising the warning signs in your risk matrix assessment that a major issue / possible crisis is about to occur. (Elements 1 and 2)
• Carrying out the impact assessment to establish response priorities.
• Seeking additional support by drawing upon available expertise within your organization. (Elements 8)
• Leading your affected stakeholders through potential disruptions. (Elements 6 & 7)

4 – Crisis leadership during the Response phase.
• Responding to the crisis while keeping in mind a need to creating an upwards spiral of confidence. (Elements 3 and 4)
• Prioritising your responses through crisis resource management. (Elements 8)
• Centralise and monitor empathetic and compassionate communication with your affected stakeholders to ensure transparency. (Elements 6 and 7)
• Assigning responsibilities within your crisis team to ensure adaptability of responses to the issues at hand with the appropriate expertise. (Elements 3)

5 – Crisis leadership during the Recovery phase.
• Managing down your stakeholders communication needs by refreshing the Power-Interest grid, and their communication needs through the Hazard-Outrage grid. (Elements 5 to 7)
• Identifying lessons learned to add to your organisation’s knowledge bank, disseminating takeaways to internal stakeholders, and updating your crisis management plan. (Element 10)
• Conducting a crisis resource management review to determine effectiveness of pre-crisis resource allocation. (Element 10)

Who should attend

Senior leaders, Managers, Supervisors, and Team leaders who are part of a crisis management team, who may already have an existing plan in place, and are looking to get more out of it.

Methodology

Interactive and experiential trainer-led workshop with participant-led small group discussions and case studies.

Each participant will receive a copy of Daniel’s First Time Leadership book as a post-workshop resource. The book contains 30 leadership principles revealed in stories based off real-life experiences of successful leaders from 37 countries.

Daniel Lee's Profile

He Simplifies Employee Engagement for Team Leaders and Heads of Departments.

Over 20 years of working in Australia and Singapore, Daniel Lee has accumulated a vast experience and know-how in speaking, training, and coaching participants from different cultures and work backgrounds.

He started his career with the Singapore Police Force and achieved the rank of Staff Sergeant. After which he pursued his Masters in Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. During that time, Daniel started his career in Human Resources, eventually focusing on Learning and Development across the Manufacturing, Professional services, and Facilities Management industries in Australia, and with Banking and Finance in Singapore.

From 2017 onwards, Daniel did a career switch with a focus on the education industry working with youths, and later from mid-2018 onwards, to working with adult learners. Daniel has run both in-house and public programmes for Accenture, American Express, PPG Industries, Bank of Singapore, Marina Bay Sands, BNP Paribas, Daimler Trucks, Bollore Logistics, DHL, Shiseido, Standard Chartered, Telkom Indonesia, Beam Suntory, Cornerstone, Singapore Police Force, UTAC, Nexia Singapore, and many more.

Having become a published author in 2021 with his book ‘First Time Leadership’, he knows that leadership is simply an amalgamation of a range of skillsets and mindsets. The key to unleashing one’s leadership is to realise that leadership competencies are interrelated, and to know how to employ them across the various people-related situations.

Since 2022, Daniel has been interviewing Heads of Departments in his latest research, leading from the Middle, to uncover what it takes to be an effective leader of leaders.

With deep theoretical understanding on team and organization leadership and its practical real-world applications, he takes the view that learners already subconsciously know how to achieve the desired outcomes. His role is to bring awareness to the learners, so they can become intentional professionals in their own fields. Daniel has received many positive testimonials from the programmes and workshops he has conducted.