Leading through a crisis, at work and at home

A crisis at work usually has a name. It might be a reorganisation, a serious incident, an inspection or a budget that has to shrink by a tenth before autumn. A crisis at home rarely has one. It arrives in a phone call or a doctor's appointment, and at nine the same morning you still have a meeting to chair.

I have worked in Swedish social services for more than twenty years, eight of them as a unit manager. Crisis is part of the everyday there, because the service exists for families in crisis. What I think about leading when the ground moves comes from that work, and from conversations with other managers who have been in the middle of it.

People need to hear what is happening#

When something big happens, a group looks for an account of events it can rely on. Two researchers who write about crisis leadership describe the leader as a sensemaker: how you understand the situation shapes what you decide and how you talk about it. Their article is theoretical and deals with heads of state during the pandemic, so I read it as a way of thinking. I find that it fits a small team well too.

In practice it comes down to three short things you say out loud: this is what we know, this is what we don't know yet, and this is when we meet again. The last one is the easiest to forget. You don't need the answers to give people something to hold on to. A fixed time on Thursday at ten, when you tell them what has happened since, often does more for a group's calm than a long email.

See the person behind the task#

A crisis pulls you towards planning, with lists, decisions and reports upwards, and that work is needed. When 155 employees in the Philippines described the managers who had helped them during the pandemic, their answers fell into three themes: the manager cared about them as people, took charge and showed the way forward, and kept the group's spirits up. It is one survey from one country at an unusual time, so I draw no big conclusions from it. What I notice is that care for them as people became a theme of its own, alongside taking charge.

Caring doesn't have to take long. Stop by the person who was there when it happened and ask how the night was. Tell them you have been thinking of them. It takes a minute, and after a hard week it is often what people remember about a manager.

What you can set aside for a while#

A crisis means choosing what to drop, which feels wrong if you are used to keeping every ball in the air. Split what is on your desk into what has to happen this week and what can wait or go. Then take that split to your own manager and ask for a decision.

It is a way of asking for help that someone can say yes to. The development project, the new routine and next year's operational plan can usually wait. People's safety, and the decisions that concern children and families, cannot.

When the crisis is at home#

Sometimes it is life outside work that falls apart. Someone close falls ill, or a relationship ends. You still go to work, and you still lead other people. It is no surprise that it shows. A review of 33 panel studies found that conflict between work and family and felt strain were linked over time in both directions, each predicting a little more of the other later on. The links were small, so nobody needs to believe that a crisis at home ruins their leadership. What you carry from home will still show at work, and there is nothing shameful about that.

How much you tell people at work is your decision. Often it is enough that your own manager knows you are going through something hard, and that someone in the management team can step in if you need to go home. I have written more about this in When life at home falls apart and you still have to lead.

Your recovery is part of the job#

Resting while everything is on fire is part of what you are there to do, even if it doesn't feel that way. In two diary studies of leaders, evenings when the leaders switched off from work were followed by days when they felt less drained and saw themselves more clearly as leaders. Evenings spent brooding over how work made them feel were followed by more tiring days. These are day-to-day associations within the same people, and they say nothing certain about cause. Even so, I take them seriously.

A simple place to start is a fixed end to the working day. Close the laptop at the same time every day this week, and walk for a while before you step through your own front door. Let the walk be the crossing from work to evening.

When it is time to get help#

A crisis wears you down, and sometimes it becomes more than talking to a colleague or a coach can carry. If you sleep badly week after week, find it hard to feel any joy, have a racing heart for no reason or cry more than you usually do, it is time to talk to a doctor. In Sweden you can call 1177, the national healthcare advice line, or go to 1177.se, day and night. If your employer has an occupational health service, you can turn to them too.

If you have thoughts of not wanting to live, call Självmordslinjen, the Swedish suicide helpline run by Mind, on 90101, or chat at mind.se. In an emergency, call 112 (the emergency number in Sweden and across the EU). If you live outside Sweden, call your local emergency number or a crisis line where you live.

Leadership coaching can help you think clearly about how you lead through something hard. It is not treatment, and it does not replace healthcare. If you are unsure where to start, we can talk it through and I will help you find the right door.

If you are in the middle of something now and want to talk about getting through it as a manager, you can ask for a free intro call.