Jim Lukaszewski on What Leaders Should Avoid Doing

Another question I'm often asked has to do with what managers should avoid doing or leaders avoid doing when crisis occurs. The top three, in my mind, are first, denial. It simply delays. It stalls. It makes the situation worse when it's a time we need to act decisively and humanely very quickly. The second is what I call victim confusion. It is the notion that somehow, as the perpetrators, we're also victims in this fight. You hear this all the time. We're victims, too. Actually, the only victims out there are the true victims from the public's perspective rather than yours. And the third one is what I call management by whining around. There's a lot of whining that goes on by managers when these things happen. Stop it, stop it, stop it. Get about the business of dealing with the victims and resolving the situation. It.