Feb 21, 2014

When you need to digest bad news

From time to time, organizational leaders need to face and digest bad news. There is always the temptation to become defensive, to want to minimize what we are hearing or to ignore it altogether. We may feel that we have failed or have not led well. This is precisely when we need some values to fall back on and I often fall back on four specific values that help me hear, digest and deal with bad...
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Feb 21, 2013

Never waste a crisis

I don't know who said it but I agree with the statement. Crises in organizations, even though not desired can almost always be used in  powerful, positive ways. Think about this:

A crisis can be an opportunity to clarify. Take major conflict in an organization that creates crisis. What has been brought to the surface are underlying issues that not only exist already but which are hurting the...
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Nov 23, 2012

The upside of crisis situations

I don't relish dealing with crises. As an organizational leader, however, I must do so from time to time and as a ministry consultant it is not unusual to be asked to help ministries in crisis. One of the things I have learned in the process is that while all crises must be managed and many are painful, if handled well there are also positive opportunities.My advice to other leaders is never to...
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