McKinsey identified creation of EDGE teams, empowered leaders, agile approach, empathy, and transparent communications as top five practices leaders must think about to respond to the crisis

Summary:

On March 06, 2020, McKinsey published an article entitled “Leadership in a Crisis: Responding to the Coronavirus Outbreak and Future Challenges” that identified leadership practices CEOs and leadership teams can use to respond effectively to the coronavirus pandemic crisis, including:

• EDGE Teams – Form network of teams that can respond outside of normal operations, as well as make adjustments to business activities. These include: workforce protection, supply-chain stabilization, customer engagement and financial stress testing.
• Empowered Leaders – Give leaders decision-making ability to direct aspects of the organization’s crisis response. They must be able to unify teams, display deliberate calm as well as bounded optimism.
• Agile Process – Implement pause-assess-anticipate-act cycle, allowing for pauses to assess the situation from multiple vantage points, anticipate what may happen next, and acting.
• Empathy and Support – Demonstrate empathy by recognizing how people are struggling and take corresponding measures to support them.
• Transparent Communications – Communicate effectively by maintaining transparency and providing frequent updates.

For full details on McKinsey’s insight, you may visit their website for free: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/leadership-in-a-crisis-responding-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-and-future-challenges

Original publication date: March 6, 2020

Date last updated: April 3, 2020