|
Crisis
“When written in Chinese, the word crisis has two characters, one means danger, the other, opportunity” John F. Kennedy
Crisis can happen to the best of us and can be either at work or at
home, but the trick is on how we deal with them when they happen to us.
A crisis is something that you are confronted with that is beyond
the usual realm of your life or work that usually happens to you in a
bad way. Such a situation could be complex and hard to resolve and can
leave your emotionally drained.
For business, it is good to have some sort of disaster planning in
place. I read about a Limousine service that is in New York City. This
company had all sorts of back up systems in cases like a blizzard or
other disturbances. But then 9/11 happened, and since he got most of
his business from the airports this posed a very big problem. But
thinking quickly and on his feet, he cut loose some of his contractor
drivers, let go a few staff members and struggled through the lean
times post 9/11 only to become more successful than before.
So, we learn from that little story, how you deal with crisis is important!
-react to the bad news with a calm manner. (of course, this is not always easy, but do your best)
-the Boy Scouts hit right on the head with their motto ‘Be Prepared’
look at every possible scenario and go from there – some business even
have staff whose project is to do ‘disaster recovery’.
-develop steps for short term recovery (early action is best, but of course everything takes time)
-develop measures for long term recovery.
While crisis is generally not easy, it affects almost all of us at
some time or another, the key is to not worry about it before hand and
deal with it when it does happen. Perhaps, the serenity prayer is best
for this type of situation:
Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the
courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the
difference.
|
