There are some jobs where the primary role is to manage crises. For example there are the jobs of the fireman, the doctor in an emergency department, the corrective maintenance team. People working in these jobs know that their duty is really to handle crises effectively as and when they arise. Their training is aimed at handling these crises effectively.

Then there are persons whose style of working is akin to a crisis manager. Such a person hates planning and preparation; cannot wait to get hands-on; enjoys facing up to and solving crises (so much so that sometimes one creates them just for fun of solving them!); is very decisive; takes pride in swift reaction to changing situations; is entrepreneurial in spirit; is an intuitive thinker rather than deductive thinker.

The positive qualities of a crisis manager are qualities that we would all like to have. Yet this should not tempt us all to become crisis managers. This temptation also arises from the fact that the ability to initiate, manage and promote change is a skill that one would expect persons in a leadership position to have.

Not every setback that one has in an organisation should be construed as a crisis

This is the consequence of the conviction that the biggest force shaping the world around us is the fact that it is changing faster and faster and more and more. In such a scenario, where leadership drives change and the world is changing more, it is quite easy to fall into the temptation that one just has to react swiftly to this change as it cannot be anticipated.

So it should come as no surprise that leaders have started to fall in love with crisis management, their ability to hit the ground running, their ability to get off from the starting blocks in the shortest time possible.

We have even heard several times the claims that: “A crisis is an opportunity” and “We do not have problems but we have challenges”. Little have we realised that fostering a sense of constant uncertainty is after all very counterproductive.

Admittedly crises require action. They help us to concentrate on key issues and weed out the trivialities. They help us to take a fresh look at things and even help us to initiate the change that is required. As Barack Obama’s chief of staff had said, we should “never let a serious crisis go to waste”.

However there is a big difference between learning from one’s mistakes, that would have caused the crisis in the first place, to falling in love with crisis management, as if it has become the most important skill for a leader to have. If one is not careful, then one starts to believe that unless there is a crisis nothing gets done.

This attitude leads one to simply shoot rockets at one’s staff who are working normally and producing what is expected of them. Such an attitude is disruptive and is wrong. One needs to manage crisis well when they are really crisis, which one could not have foreseen. However the ability to manage crises should not be seen as a replacement for the ability to anticipate issues before they become problems.

Not every setback that one has in an organisation should be construed as a crisis. Not every missed profit target should be seen as a threat to the existence of an organisation that would make us want to jump ship. One seasoned chief executive had once said that genuine internal crises happen around once every 15 years. Very few would agree with that; and it is a moot point whether he or those disagreeing with him is correct.

On the other hand, any person in a leadership position should be aware that falling in love with crisis management becomes an excuse for self-inflicted failures. A leader is truly effective not when one resolves a crisis but if one avoids the crisis in the first place.