WHAT

SHOULD LEADERS DO

IN A CRISIS?

GILD. October 2015

www.christostsolkas.com

Two thousand years ago, in ancient Greece, an historiographer named Xenophon joined a Greek army of 10,000 mercenaries and fought in Persia. After a major victory, allthe leaders of the army were trapped killed. Crisis.The troops elected new ones to lead them back home. The Uphill March.Xenophon, student of Socrates, was one of the new leaders …

Xenophon

The true test of a leader is whether his followers will adhere to his cause from their own volition, enduring the most arduous hardships without being forced to do so, and remaining steadfast in the moments of greatest peril.

“

”

TOUR OF 2014

wars

million refugees

Mudslides

Earthquakes

60Hurricanes

Polar Vortex

Floods

Oil price drops

Currency devaluation

Sony Pictures hacked

Ebola:

http://www.internationalrelations.com/wars-in-progress/

1

1

10

10$bio loss

Catastrophic crises might affect us and we then have to march uphill like Xenophon. How to prepare against low predictability / high impact events?

Developing our people and building extraordinary teams.

OUR STORY IN UKRAINE

My story happened in Ukraine, in 2014, when a series of unpredictable and dangerous events unfolded. I was managing an organization of 1,500 people through a great management team of 11.

Ukraine, 2014

PMI

people1,500

TATIANA

Comes from Ukraine. Intelligent, versatile, ambitious, and strong with people. Reliable, resourceful and hard-working.

ROMAN

Very creative, a lateral thinker and great problem solver.Patriotic Ukrainian, half his mind to leave the country and half to join the army and fight.

ARTEM

Very intelligent, looks tough but with surprising leadership skills.Artem is Russian. Big burden to carry.

NEW VISION AND VALUES

I was excited when I was assigned Managing Director in Ukraine in January 2012 Wanted to have a big win. We established a vision named ‘We Better’.

4

3

2

1

TEAM

CAPABILITY

ASSESSMENT

Mar 2013

Phil Harkins,

March 2013

4

Strongly agree

3

Agree2

Disagree

1

Strongly disagree

I brought in a team coach Phil Harkins. All committed to work building that team. Aligned and developed shared objectives and common dream. Almost a year before crisis.

GET ALIGNED

AS A TEAM

We spent a lot of time together to…

HAVE FUN

AS A TEAM

to…

BUILDING MEMORIES

AS A TEAM

With the return of our team coach we had shown big improvement. He suggested a crisis management case study to accelerate our development.

and…

PROTESTS

ESCALATION

Irony. We lived the crisis instead.

1. Discernment, judgment

‘KRISIS’

2. Chaos, upheaval

Greek; noun, [‘krisis]

I had experience from the Greek

crisis. Double meaning, need the

one to get out of the other:

UKRAINE:

VIOLANCE ERUPTED

The crisis escalated in winter. On January 22, 2014, the first blood. Snipers started killing protestors. People paralyzed. Team in emergency.

Following days horrifying. Hundreds of protesters wounded, 67 died.

BUSINESSAS USUAL

SECRETPLAN

PEOPLESAFETY

We stood by our priorities: Keep everyone safe and secure. Preserve normal business operations (if possible)

Develop the management team using crisis as a catalyst

WE LEARNED

HOW TO SHIFT FROM ‘FOG FEAR’

TO ‘TENT TIME’

Pervasive anxiety, fear for families & lives = Fog FearGood times together, calm and close = Tent Time

REFUGE FROM

THE OUTSIDE

Place of work to feel like escape

WE BECAME

A‘WHAT-IF’

MACHINE

What if open

war in Eastern

Ukraine

starts?

What if our

employees are

mobilized

into the army?

What if our

factory close to

the war zone

get taken?

How can we

safely transfer

our factory

workers elsewhere?

How can we persuade

the government to

create a buffer tax

stamp stock?

Develop contingency scenarios constantly:

KEPT

EVERYONE

HYPER - INFORMED

Straight talk is better than sugar-coated reality. Truth makes people stronger.

GAVE THE TEAM

AS MUCH RESPONSIBILITY

AS POSSIBLE

Different people from team came to lead.Appreciated the diversity.

Increased responsibility, more leadership in return.

4

3

2

1

TEAM

CAPABILITY

ASSESSMENT

Phil Harkins,

October 2014

4

Strongly agree

3

Agree2

Disagree

1

Strongly disagree

Mar 2013

Nov 2013

Oct 2014

Business results were exceptional. In October ‘14 Phil assessed the team for the third time. We became Category Type

One team in a world record time. Leadership stories focus wrongly on the leader, not on the team.

TATIANA:

MANAGING DIRECTOR

TODAY

ROMAN:

ON A PATH TO BECOME

GENERAL MANAGER

TODAY

ARTEM:

SALES DIRECTOR

TODAY

GILD. October 2015

www.christostsolkas.com

https://hbr.org/2015/06/what-it-was-like-to-be-a-manager-in-ukraine

Crises are likely.We must expect to face the unexpected.The most important is to develop our teams into teams ofhigh performing leaders. Xenophon would agree.Instead of one, we need 10,000.