Review - 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis
I was recently offered a copy of Bill George’s latest book, 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, to review. I heard Bill speak at the Leadership Summit in 2008, so I jumped at the chance. Just in case you don’t know who he is… Bill George is a professor at Harvard Business School and former CEO of Medtronic, as well as being an author and blogger.
In 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis, Bill uses the recent financial crisis to explore how leaders should respond when faced with a crisis. Perfect timing! This recession has put a lot of people in some tough spots.
While I don’t think there are any Nobel-prize winning ideas in the book, there is a lot of very useful and challenging advice. Leadership isn’t rocket science, but it’s not easy either.
It’s important to know how to effectively lead in a crisis, because a crisis is a sink-or-swim situation. As Bill points out, there exists both danger and opportunity. The key to succesful leadership in crisis is being able to seize the opportunity without succombing to the danger.
Here are some of my main takeaways from 7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis:
- Leaders must be willing to face reality in a crisis
- The best leaders are not afraid to fail. (While I’m not afraid of small failures, I have to acknowledge that I’m afraid of failing big…)
- Leaders need to be able to express vulnerability.
- Assume that the situation is going to get worse.
- Things will probably never return to the “old” normal. Stop waiting for normal to return.
- Don’t declare victory too soon. Bill points out the epic example of George W. Bush landing on the USS Lincoln back in 2003 to declare the War in Iraq over.
- “Never waste a good crisis!” A crisis provides the opportunity to create major change in the organization.
- “Keep your head up during a crisis rather than hunkering down.”
7 Lessons for Leading in Crisis is definitely a must-read for any leader. It’s inexpensive and only 127 pages. How can you beat that? Be sure to check out Bill’s blog too.