SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 170,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each Tuesday in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How prepared is your organization for emergencies such as natural disasters?
- Very well prepared: 28.62%
- Generally prepared: 50%
- Not very well prepared: 16.98%
- Poorly prepared: 4.4%
Prepared, for the most part. Leaders don’t differentiate themselves during the calm. The place they set themselves apart is in the storm. During crises, your team looks to you for direction and they gauge their “freak out” factor based on your reactions. Preparing for the worst during times of calm only enhances the likelihood you’ll weather the inevitable storms ahead. Invest the time while you’ve got the time to think and plan otherwise you’ll have more than a natural disaster to deal with — you’ll have to rein in a team that’s panicked and terrified too.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”