Leading Your Team Out of a Crisis

From time to time, every supervisor or manager will find they are in charge of a team in crisis. Crises come in many shapes and sizes. A few we have seen supervisors struggle with include: team members who do not get along, company financial problems, morale or motivation at an all time low, quality problems, customer service problems, departments at war with each other, and top management not supportive of a team or department.

The deeper the crisis, the more challenging it is for supervisors and managers to figure out how to solve the problems and put the team back on track. Many times, supervisors and managers do not know what action they should take. Because of this lack of definite action, the supervisor or manager “hopes” that the situation will get better on its own. We can say that very seldom does the team come out of crisis on its own when the supervisor or manager is using the action of “hope.” The following ten action steps will help you lead your team out of a crisis:

1.  Face reality. When a crisis hits and supervisors/managers are not sure what to do, the first inclination is to deny that the problem is as big as it really is. The animal that comes to mind is the ostrich. If we bury our head in the sand, the problem will not seem as large as it really is. But just like the ostrich, when we stick our head in the sand, we leave other parts of our body exposed. Face reality—the problem most likely will not go away unless you do something to solve the crisis.

2.  Take action. If you wait until your boss helps to solve the problem or until team members decide to help solve the problem, you may wait forever. Be empowered. You have the ability to take responsibility to make decisions and actions that will lead the team from crisis. If you are not empowered to do this, then there is a good chance your team is going to remain in crisis.

3.  Prioritize. When teams fall into a crisis, there are usually many problems that may be impacting the team. You cannot fix all the problems at once so it is in your best interest to get the team involved and prioritize the actions that need to be taken. If the team is unwilling to prioritize actions, then you will have to decide which problems to solve and in what order.

4.  Focus on results. When teams are in crisis, there is a tendency to focus on trying to fix the relationships that have broken down. While the thought or attempt is good, we have found it much more productive for floundering teams to focus on results. When everyone is focused on the purpose of the team and the results it must produce, many of the relationship problems will resolve on their own. If the team is not productive, there will always be relationship struggles.

5.  Recruit the cream of the crop. When teams go into crisis, it is usually the very best team members who leave. Unfortunately, the most challenging team members never seem to leave. In a crisis, analyze your people assets and spend time asking the top performers to band with you and help solve the problems. Most people will stay in a bad situation if they know they can help improve the crisis, feel valued, and have a positive vision that tomorrow will be better than today.

6.  Praise and recognize your people often. The reason we emphasize this as a specific point is because when a team goes into crisis mode, and you are the leader of this team, you tend to focus your energy on what is going wrong instead of recognizing all the things that are going right. When people do not feel valued, and the team or organization is in a crisis, you start to hear team members say, “I don’t get paid enough to put up with this garbage.” One way we can minimize this feeling in our team members is to value their contributions and recognize them for doing things right.

7.  Tighten discipline. When teams go into crisis, there are usually many things happening that are not conducive to good teamwork. When a crisis occurs, it is in your best interest as a supervisor or manager to tighten, not loosen discipline. This means you need to hold people accountable for coming to work on time, providing high quality service, or producing quality parts. Without tightening the boundaries or setting detail standards, you send out messages to all team members that negative behaviors are acceptable.

8.  Identify who is responsible and what role that individual will play. In a moment of crisis, it is critical that you clarify who is responsible and what role that individual will play in leading the team from crisis. This point helps to keep focus on the results. When a team is in crisis, you will usually find that team members are clear on what is wrong and who is to blame, but they are not clear on what needs to be done and who is responsible. As the supervisor, you can assign roles and responsibilities.

9.  Overcommunicate. When a supervisor or manager is “in” over his or her head with team problems, there is a tendency to focus energy on operational, rather than leadership, tasks. You begin to utter these words, “All I do around here is put out fires.” As a supervisor, your primary role is to support others. Increase your communication to team members, both information provided by you and information given to you from the team. Most of the time, your team has the ability to solve the problems if you utilize them as a resource. Increase your communication in a crisis and it will lessen the negative impact of the crisis.

10.  Maintain a positive mental attitude. If you throw in the towel because you feel the situation is hopeless, then most likely your team members will view the situation as hopeless also. Not having a positive mental attitude can have a negative impact on a supervisor’s or manager’s career. If you have no hope of the situation getting better, but someone else does, either on the team or in the organization, your team members will begin to follow someone else. A supervisor or manager with no followers is not a leader.

We are the first to agree…teams are not for everyone or every situation. Nonetheless, teams usually outperform other groups or individuals. And, teams perfect individual members’ strengths and overcome their weaknesses.