Leadership in Troubled Times

It’s fair to say, we’re living in troubled times. We’re facing more and more disasters like earthquakes, fires, floods, wars, and domestic strife. With unprecedented access to information, we see these events as they’re happening. It’s easy to get overwhelmed and we all need help to make sense of it at times. Leadership in these times means being capable of breaking down this mass of information and bringing focus to what’s important. It’s like the old question goes “how do you eat an elephant? The answer, “one bite at a time”. So how do you tell the real leaders when disaster strikes?

The past 10 years, I’ve worked with fire, police, medical, and wildfire response teams. When disaster strikes, like the wildfires in British Columbia, its been strong leadership in these teams that led the response. These leaders are trained on how to manage under pressure. They practice and rehearse so they know what to do when the real thing happens. These leaders are the reason that a coordinated response happens and disasters are contained. Knowledge, training, skill, compassion, and truly caring for their teams make these people leaders. More important though, is people want to follow them because of those same traits. Leaders inspire their teams and this inspiration only comes from a focusing on what needs to be done. Leaders look for ways to engage with people who want to help.

During the wildfires in BC, this meant:

• Involving First Nations
• Engaging with technical specialists in to keep communication systems working
• Asking for help from police and fire agencies province wide to focus on saving properties threatened by the spread of these fires

What leaders do…

What leaders don’t do…

• Leaders don’t lay blame
• Leaders don’t demand respect
• Leaders don’t put others down

When disasters happen, it’s effective leadership that saves the day. Today we see real leadership in:

• The ongoing fires in LA
• The after effects of the devastating earthquake in Vanuatu in December
• War in the Middle East and Ukraine

So when you feel overwhelmed by what’s happening, look around at the people who are stepping up to save others. Read the stories of the everyday people opening their homes to people who’ve lost everything. Don’t focus on the negative, look for the positive. When you step up to a leadership role, whether by choice or circumstance, stay calm and trust your team!