Leading Under Pressure: Managing Organisational & Personal Crises

Course details

This highly participative seminar will help you to develop your leadership skills to lead others in times of crisis, pressure and stress. You will obtain the latest insights into what makes a leader able to manage themselves and others during times of crisis. The best way of dealing with a crisis is to avoid one in the first place. But if crises are inevitable due to a growing number of factors then your organization needs to identify their vulnerabilities and map out possible crisis scenarios. By applying these skills to the tasks and challenges you face in your work, you will begin to experience breakthroughs you never thought possible.

The Structure

Module 1 - Leadership Excellence in Handling Pressure & Stress

Module 2 - Strategic Crisis Management

The Goals

This seminar aims to enable participants to achieve the following objectives:

• Build and develop leadership skills for handling stress, pressure and crisis.
• Become familiar with how the different personality styles respond to stress and pressure and identify your personal style in coping with stress.
• Learn how to lead others during times of crisis.
• Acquire an in-depth knowledge of the key aspects of Strategic Crisis Management.
• Learn how to generate ownership and responsibility by all stakeholders to ensure your organization responds efficiently and effectively.

The Process

Participative lectures will involve the use of slides, handout material, work manual with all instructor notes and slides, examples of best practice and appropriate video/DVD material. The use of flip-charts, syndicate work-shops and reporting back sessions will encourage a fully participative and enjoyable event. Delegates will be encouraged to participate actively in relating the principles of stress, pressure and crisis management to the particular needs of their workplace.

The Benefits

• Understand and better appreciate the importance of managing stress and pressure.
• Learn how to cultivate a positive mindset for in times of crisis.
• Understand the anatomy of a crisis and what should be in place before, during and after an event.

The Results

• Discover how to handle crisis in the organization.
• Implement creative leadership for leading others in times of stress.
• Guidelines on how to validate plans, to improve staff ownership, to augment training programmes and to raise awareness.

The Core Competencies

Participants will develop the following competencies:

• Implement leadership skills to manage crisis with confidence
• Use effective communication to lead others during times of great pressure
• Help your team find creative solutions to workplace difficulties & challenges
• Enhance your leadership skills and improve your abilities to cope with stress
• Identify what is a crisis
• Develop and implement contingency plans for crisis management

The Conference Content

Module 1:

Leadership Excellence in Handling Pressure & Stress

Personal Leadership Skills for Handling Pressure & Stress

• Stress and its effects on the body, mind and spirit
• Holistic response to stress
• Relationship between mind and body
• Personality styles and response to stress
• Understanding Introvert and Extravert responses to stress

Enhancing Communication Skills In Times of Stress

• Passive & aggressive responses
• Assertive communication during stressful times
• Managing conflicts during times of stress
• Giving and receiving criticisms during stressful moments
• Resolving conflicts constructively during times of pressure

Leading with Confidence During Challenging Times

• Coping with sudden change
• Leading others during sudden changes
• Recognizing the symptoms of short term and long term effects of stress
• Motivating yourself and others under pressure
• Building confidence during stressful times

Improving Leadership Effectiveness in Managing Crisis

• Utilizing creativity in crisis
• Recognizing opportunities for change in a crisis
• Helping the team look for creative opportunities
• Practicing creative leadership in facing a crisis
• Removing blocks to creative solutions in a crisis

Developing & Training Your Team to Handle Pressure, Stress and Crisis

• Training and developing employees to handle stress and pressure
• Stress handling techniques for you and your employees
• Helping the team to see the positive side of change in the workplace
• Implementing creative problem solving skills for your team when facing crisis
• Developing a personal action plan

Module 2:

Strategic Crisis Management

What should be in place before the event?

• Understanding Crisis Management

             - How to manage a crisis?

             - Virtually every crisis contains the seeds of success as well as the roots of failure

             - The Rationale of the Crisis Manager

• Consider the range of risks: Natural/Environmental; Hazards; Technological - loss of utilities/product/process/plant; Human Error; Sabotage and Terrorism
• Crisis Managers - Roles & Responsibilities - manage the issue before it becomes a Crisis
• Who else inside and outside the organisation should be involved?
• Evaluating your risks and vulnerabilities; Consider the worse-case scenarios
• Understanding 'denial-curve' and 'group-think' syndromes
• Who decides who sits in the 'hot-seat'?
• Case Studies, why some companies fail and others survive?

Pre-planning, who and what else should be considered?

• Who owns the mitigation process?

             - Self-evaluating questionnaires

• Developing and Implementing Emergency Plans
• Twelve point check list covering the whole planning process
• Mutual Aid arrangements
• Company-wide strategic contingency plans
• Service or departmental plans
• Building evacuation plans
• Crisis Management and Communications Emergency Centre/s
• Developing and implementing a Business Continuity Management (BCM) strategy
• Business Impact Analysis. Case Study and Workshop

Dealing with a crisis - the 'communications' perspective

• Command and Control Issues

             - Operational (at the scene)

             - Tactical (at the forward control point/incident command)

             - Strategic (boardroom level/emergency operations centre)

• On Scene Crisis Management, essential elements for success
• Reputation Management - Managing the Media. 'How to' sessions include
• Organising a Press Conference
• Conducting Radio and Television Interviews
• Case Study Exercise: Crisis Communications Strategy. Develop a crisis communications strategy and action plan based upon a given scenario

Incident Management & Aftermath

• Alerting and Warning. Case Studies. What can go right and what can go wrong
• Case Studies - Texas City Disasters 1947 and April 2005
• Major Incident Simulation - Role Playing Workshop

             - Syndicate selection

             - Reporting back

• Potential Psychological & Welfare problems in Crisis Management
• How to improve staff morale and confidence in the process
• The psychological effects during and after an incident involving injuries - and worse
• Looking after yourself and your staff
• Questionnaire, are your batteries in good condition?

Leadership Behaviour and Behavioural Safety

• Validating plans and procedures

              - Discuss the four types of exercise

              - How to get the most out of an exercise

• Post Incident evaluations
• De-briefing skills - managing the de-briefs - hot and cold
• How to keep all 'stakeholders' informed
• Prioritising the Recommendations
• Examples of critique questionnaires
• Critique report writing, executive summaries and recommendations
• Closing the loop. How to continue the process
• Case Study - Buncefield Oil Depot, Hertfordshire UK, 2005
• Open Forum Time Permitting