wallydownundy

This weekend Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd convened a crisis cabinet to develop policies in response to the global financial crisis. He came out Sunday night with a raft of policy changes with immediate effect. These include unlimited guarantees on bank deposits, bank guarantees and funds to purchase mortgages from non-bank lenders. By Sunday night he was on national news programs explaining the specifics - with releases and spokespeople sent out to ensure Monday’s newspapers were awash with the information.

(The Mayne Report offers an excellent synopsis and editorial on the importance of Rudd’s package.)

This is a clear example of how to lead in a crisis. Kevin Rudd has remained objective and practical without pulling punches:

“We are in the economic equivalent of a rolling national security crisis and the challenges are great.”
                                       - Kevin Rudd, 12 October 2008

Contrast this with the G7 and G20 meetings held at the weekend in Washington DC. As of 8:00 pm Sunday there were no group decisions or announcements. Prepare for Bloody Monday on Wall Street. The biggest outcome of the weekend meeting was a photo op with all the world’s finance minister’s posed on the steps of Capitol Hill. That’s supposed to reassure us?

In times of crisis what you do and what you say is magnified a thousand times over. If you tell staff not to be concerned then lt Mary in Accounting go because of discipline issues, they’ll put one and one together to get five. Be calm and consistent in crisis - and start telling staff now how you plan to ride out these challenges.