Navigating through a crisis

No matter how hard a business works to avoid them, disasters can happen. When it comes to managing them, some businesses may simply bury their heads in the sand and hope that nothing bad will happen.

However, it is crucial that businesses are able to steer themselves through a crisis and be able to come out on top. Here’s a brief guide on how to to this:

Look and listen
Regularly reviewing your business’s environment and listening to what employees, customers and clients say about the business will help keep owners in the loop regarding their business’s internal and external systems. This can help identify and solve problems or consequences before they intensify.

Create an action plan
Preparation alone does not guarantee crisis prevention. Creating a crisis action plan can help address possible crisis scenarios, how situations might evolve and identify a business’s response options.

Choose a crisis management team
Businesses can address problems early if they have a team ready to respond when disaster strikes. These people should be responsible for gathering information to define any underlying problems or assess who the crisis will affect.

Notify people
One of the worst things a person can do during a crisis is to keep their stakeholders in the dark. Putting off communicating with others will only contribute to growing speculation or even imply that an owner is unable to control the situation. The quicker the response time, the better.

Remain accountable
If a crisis is a result of your fault, it is best to assume full responsibility for your actions, apologise and provide corrective initiatives. While crises may damage your image in the short-term, acknowledging that you are at fault and fixing the problem shows that have your business’s and customers’ best interests at heart.

Categorised in: Firm journal

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