"Don't have a cow!" -- Crisis leadership in three steps

Good executive management means dealing with all kinds people in all kinds of circumstances. Sometimes it's easy and sometimes it's hard.

It's easy when people do things right: "Thanks, Jim! You closed that billion dollar deal and now we're all going to be as rich as Bill Gates! Or Scrooge McDuck!"

Leadership is more difficult when people do things wrong: "Mortimer, how could you possibly forget that you locked that client in the bathroom? Now we've lost out on a billion dollar deal!"

When someone on you team makes a mistake -- especially a really stupid mistake -- out natural tendency is to be reactive. It's hard to resist that tendency. But being a leader means  doing what's hard. "LCS" is a simple algorithm that can help.

1. LIKE -- If a team member has done something that's truly malicious, that person has got to be an ex-team member very quickly. But cases like that are rare. Most often mistakes are made because of well-intentioned but misdirected action.  Start by acknowledging that fact when you engage with the perpetrator. It isn't always easy to do this but, again, leadership isn't supposed to be easy: "Mortimer, I do LIKE the initiative you displayed by locking the client in the bathroom, because it could have been embarrassing if someone had opened the door..."

 2. CONCERN -- Once you've pacified the situation by showing your team member that you're not going to bite his/her head off, you can segue closer to your indignation about what happened, but in a restrained manner with a practical orientation: "Mortimer, my CONCERN is that your focus on hypothetical problems can overshadow the imperatives of actual reality. Yes, it would have been embarrassing if someone has opened the door to the bathroom, but the reality is that you forgot the client was in there...."

3. SUGGEST -- Close with a proactive suggestion aimed to prevent similar mistakes in the future: Mortimer, when you're so enthusiastic about doing a good job, your excitement may cause you to make bad judgments to forget key details. So I SUGGEST you tell someone else about the situation who's less emotionally involved. For instance, tell Jim that the client is locked in the bathroom, and ask him to not let you forget that important fact."

LCS is a non-confrontational method for handling difficult circumstances and the people who bring them about. It can help defuse the present situation and it can prevent similar situations in the future.

Try it and see what happens. And above all, "Don't have a cow!"