TODAY’S CHALLENGES – LEADING THROUGH THE DOWNTURN

To understand what it takes to manage today’s challenges and leading through the downturn, I would like to invite you to come with us on a journey in our sailing boat. 

Our little sailing boat faces its worst moments in its life : a heavily damaged boat, a badly functioning compass, an extremely turbulent sea and a crew of 10 people frightened to death. Imagine, you are the captain and you will need to steer our boat safely to its destination. So, what do you have to do?

First of all, you will need to know where the destination is. Failing this, you may sail for a long time with very remote chances that you will ever reach the right destination.

But, knowing the destination is not enough…
… You will need to know where you are and which options you have for the crew and yourself to a) survive and b) get to the destination, where new opportunities will be waiting for your crew and yourself.

But, knowing where you are and where you want to be is not enough…
… You will need to assess the current situation: What is the issue? What is good in the current situation that you can exploit?

But, knowing where you are, where your destination is, having assessed your options and knowing what you have got that you can use to complete your mission is not enough…
… You will need to know your environment: you will need to know where the rocks are, you will need to know the tides, you will need to know where the sharks are.

But, knowing where you are, where you will be, having assessed your options, knowing about the good things that will help you to steer your boat safely to its destination and knowing your environment is not enough…
… you will need to be able to communicate. You will need to be able to communicate with your crew inside the boat and you will need to be able to communicate with the outside world, with the security guards, with the people from the control centre, with other boats that may pass by and can potentially help you.

But, knowing where you are, where your destination is, having assessed your options, the current situation and your environment, knowing that you will be able to communicate is not enough…
… you will have to know yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your ability to act decisively, to focus on your goal, to communicate, to plan for different scenarios, to lead the crew, recognising the value of each of them, to take advantage of each opportunity that arises and to steer the crippled boat safely to its destination.

Knowing how to handle each of the above steps successfully, should give you the tools necessary to steer your boat through the downturn and lead your team to its opportunistic  destination.

There are several possible outcome scenarios in any Crisis…

Which one do you choose ?

At the beginning of each Crisis, you must understand the Context of the Crisis:

• Where are you today? What does the current context look like?
• What are the internal and external factors that can influence the context of the crisis ?
• What are the various scenarios : worst case, medium case and Best Case (Opportunity) ?

A Crisis can be compared with a hurricane.

Similar to a Crisis, a hurricane is influenced by internal and external factors that can change its course unexpectedly.

However, in a Crisis the internal factors can be managed to:

1. navigate towards a new opportunistic Goal / Reality.
2. reduce the effects of the external factors on the company.

Once the Context of a Crisis has been analysed and the opportunistic outcome scenario assessed, you must develop a New Vision and a Strategy for Managing the Crisis successfully.

The leitmotiv to retain at this point is:



In a Crisis the internal factors can be managed to:

1. navigate towards a new Opportunistic Goal / Reality.
2. reduce the effects of the External factors on the company.

Once the Context of a Crisis has been analysed, the opportunistic outcome scenario assessed, the New Vision and a Strategy developed, we recommend 7 levers to manage a Crisis successfully.

These 7 levers to Manage a Crisis are :

1. Crisis Leadership
2. Understand the Context of Your Crisis : get the data
3. Identify the Opportunity and Develop a Vision
4. Establish a Strategy and an Action Plan
5. Communicate Internally and Externally
6. Align the Infrastructure
7. Time and Stress Management

The leitmotiv to retain remains :



In a Crisis the internal factors can be managed to:

1. navigate towards a new Opportunistic Goal / Reality.
2. reduce the effects of the External factors on the company.

Should you desire further information or FURTHER PRACTICAL HELP TO MANAGE THE CRISIS IN YOUR ENVIRONMENT successfully, please write to contact@tack-training.ch.

Our valuable highly interactive training course on

‘Win Any Crisis and Secure Your Future : Be the First out of the Storm’

will help you to understand and apply a proven solid methodology to manage your crisis with success and lead your team to the Opportunistic Goal.