For Immediate Release:

Monday, March 24, 2014

By Susan Battley
Crisis situations, whether they’re man-made or natural disasters, are the ultimate leadership challenge. Intense public scrutiny and 24/7 media coverage mean that leaders’ actions are both high-stakes and high-visibility.
When executives and managers are under pressure, they – like all people – are at greater risk of behaving in ways that are defensive and maladaptive.
Five Deadly Leadership Behaviors
1. Denial: outright rejection of unacceptable facts or feelings. (“There is no problem.”)
2. Minimization: lessoning the importance of a fact or situation (“It doesn’t matter.”)
3. Rationalization: justifying an action or stand (“Everybody’s doing it.”)
4. Black-white thinking: all-or-nothing approach (“We’re right, they’re wrong.”)
5. Projection: redirecting an unacceptable attribute to someone else (“We’re not the problem, they are.”)
These behaviors are dangerous for three reasons:
First, they can be triggered unconsciously as a kind of automatic “fight or flight” reaction.
Second, they produce exactly the opposite of the desired effect, which is restoring trust. Instead, the public sees these behaviors as self-serving, which reinforces skepticism and further erodes leader credibility.
Third, they distort or limit how leaders interpret critical information. This in turn can compromise their ability to take accurate corrective action.
Public trust in CEOs and government leaders is at extremely low levels, with only one in four reporting trust in business leaders to correct issues and even fewer ? one in five ? to tell the truth and make ethical and moral decisions. (Source:  Edelman Trust Barometer, 2014)
How can leaders behave in ways that restore trust in themselves and their companies?  I will discuss specific actions in a second installment.

Copyright © Susan Battley. All rights reserved.
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