Resilient Leaders: Leadership Before A Crisis

Every employee of NASA should known the tragic event of Apollo 13; At that time in 1970 the three astronauts James Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert had to abort their mission to flight to the moon due to an explosion of an oxygen tank. They had to fight against, carbon dioxide, coldness, a lack of energy and the almost certain death. Despite of a distance of 205,000 miles the three men made it back to earth alive in the Lunar Module Aquarius (Lovell et al. 2006). This was only possible with the help of the Mission Control and the Flight Director Gene Kranz which worked together as an excellent team and came up with a richness of ideas to save the

The reading this week covered chapters 3-4 of Resilient Leaders by Robert F. Dees. Dees (2013) summarized that character is formed by a three strand cord consisting of selflessness, integrity, and courage. Chapter three discussed the importance of integrity and courage in leadership. Dees (2013) provides definitions and comprehensive overviews of leadership integrity and courage. Chapter four discusses the importance of wisdom in leadership. Illustrations of leadership without wisdom were brought to light. Additionally, the chapter differentiates a leader from a wise leader along with the importance of growth in attaining wisdom, knowledge, in character and competence. Dees (2013) says that wisdom is the bridge

My mother always told me, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ When times get rough it is important to not waste time sitting in self-pity, instead you need to take charge and change things for the better. I believe that being a good leader does not wait around just hoping, instead they make things happen. There are many elements that I believe make a good leader, but just being genuine and passionate towards a cause is what I believe is most important.

A crisis apparition is an apparition that appears at a time of crisis, normally when that

Crisis intervention is emergency first aid for mental health (Ehly, 1986). In this paper, I intend to show you a brief overview of what crisis intervention is, describe what school psychologists do and summarize the steps they may use to identify, assess, and intervene with an individual experiencing crisis.

Leadership refers to the act of leading a considerable number of people within an establishment or the capacity to do this. Leadership has to do with coming up with a vision that is crystal clear and the ability to spreads that idea out in a manner that makes individuals, given the information, knowledge, and methods to understand, willing to follow. Subsequently, balancing and coordinating the conflicting interests of all stakeholders and members. It is typical for any good leader to step up in the event of a contingency, with the potential to imagine and act creatively in situations that prove to be difficult. Different from management, leadership can never be taught, in as much as it may be learned and bettered employing mentoring and coaching (Servant Leadership Based on Robert Greenleaf’s Writings, 2010).

argue that the leader should have ability to cope with uncertainty’ , ‘ to persistently improvise around obstacles’ (P.97).

Being a leader required a person has lots of different traits. One of the important characteristics is leaders should have the ability to lead people through a crisis. In today’s society, organizations are facing a variety of different crises. Management strategy in a crisis situation is different from the normal situation. Thus, a good leader should know how to help the organization to overcome the difficulties they faced. Some crises are even big enough to influence the future of the organization. Hence, the crisis leadership is a significant part in the organization. However, what are some qualities that a leader should have in a crisis?

In discussion forum 9, leaders are challenged through situations of crisis and are given ways to confront those challenges which allows them to overcome setbacks and face adversity. In the book “Resilient Leaders”, written by Major General Robert Dees, he provides leaders with his personal experiences of the battlefront and home front and what he had to do in order to cope as well as overcome each situation he was placed in. Major General Dees discusses his foundational ideas on leadership in Chapters one and two. The three concepts that our group decided on are Selfless Service, Character and Risk Management.

first and foremost, the very most important aspect in any emergency preparedness situation. Without leadership, the masses of people act under their own accord, and this is when chaos tends to break out. Leaders must necessarily and appropriately analyze and understand a situation (D&D p. 323). In the case of emergency management preparedness, what lacked throughout history was the present of a sound leader in what became the Federal Emergency Management Act. Even as FEMA had been developed and had been made into a government agency, it lacked the leadership required, until President Bill Clinton recognized this and implemented a program that started with leadership as the focal point.

The topic of leadership evokes curiosity about our leaders and their approaches in decision making, leadership styles and the effectiveness of their leadership. At time leaders are critiqued for their actions or views on different business affairs. In today’s working environment leaders set the tone, vision, and goals of any organization. Leadership has a huge impact on the culture of an organization and how people communicate within the organization (Northouse, 2009). The actions of leaders should inspire and positively impact their followers. The approach of leaders in handling adversities highlights many features of their character.

It is essential that we adjust our application of leading when subjected to external pressure induced by the uncertainty of the outcome. To enhance our understanding and successfully capture the changes in behavior and or direction we must first address the significance of outside stimulus in the form of stress on our cognitive abilities. Without further research in this area, we can only speculate as to the thought process of leading during a crisis and the impact that has on leadership abilities.

Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) asserts that a leader’s effectiveness is dependent upon the readiness, or ability and willingness, of the leader’s followers to complete a task. This leadership style is an amalgamation of task-oriented and relationship-oriented characteristics that are employed depending upon the situation and the followers involved. According to the SLT, as followers increase in readiness the leader’s style is to adapt accordingly (Kinicki & Kreitner, 2009).

Change is when a person does not follow their everyday routine. They may want to try something different, or be forced to. Change can be for the good and the bad. Places can deal with change ranging from the weather, to the animals present, or the seasons changing. Also, objects can deal with change too. Objects like an iceberg can start to melt, or a forest fire can kill many trees in an area. As a human, we are the ones deciding on change. We are in a position to make big decisions and possibly even become a leader in order for change to happen. If one person starts to change, others will follow and hopefully, the change benefits all.

As we all know, leadership is very important. However, its effects are not always visible. In crises, high quality leadership tends to be both visible and decisive for a positive outcome. Leadership requirements and expectations change over time, responsibilities and roles must be review at regular intervals. In all nations and countries today, good leadership is important on day-to-day bases. Leadership involves working together with employees, their organizations and other parties to achieve results. Most leadership functions and roles vary according to level, framework conditions, and type of responsibility, competence requirements, and degree of autonomy. After doing research we have come to realize that different cultures have