How to Lead When Wahala Land

Phone go ring for di wrong hour. Deal go scatter, system go crash, di numbers go come back wrong, somebody go get injury. Whichever way e take shape, you go fit feel di whole room turn face you, dey wait. Maybe you get title wey make am your responsibility. Maybe na just you happen to be di person wey stand closest to di problem. Either way, di next few hours go depend, plenty of am, on how you handle yourself.

Na heavy tin to read when your own belle don drop. So make we first talk true about di situation. You dey fear, or at least di tin don shake you, and to dey pretend say e no be so go cost you energy pass wetin e go save. Di goal here no be to feel notin. Na to still dey function while you dey feel am, and to be person wey di people around you fit lean on hold body.

Real research dey on top wetin dat one take. E no dey mysterious like as e take look.

First, collect your own brain back

Under sharp stress, your body dey do sometin wey good for when you wan run from danger but no good for when you wan run meeting. Di part of your brain wey dey detect threat, di amygdala, dey fire fast and loud, and e dey do am before di slower, more careful part, di prefrontal cortex, catch up. Stress hormones go rush inside. Your focus go narrow. Di very thinking wey you need pass, to weigh options, read people, choose words, go hard to reach right when di stakes high pass.

So di first move for any crisis no be strategy. Na body. You gatz bring your own system down small before you fit lead anybody own.

Simple tool dey for dis one wey get surprising good evidence behind am. Name wetin you dey feel. One UCLA neuroimaging study wey Matthew Lieberman lead find say di plain act of putting a feeling into words, to label a face as "angry" or "afraid," measurably cool down activity for di amygdala while e dey bring di more reasoning part of di brain come online. Lieberman compare am to tapping brake. You no need announce am give di room. Talk am quiet quiet to yourself, "okay, I dey fear and my heart dey beat fast," e go start to give you back di controls.

Join dat one with one slow breath out. Foot for ground. Then take di next step instead of all of dem at once.

Wetin people really need from you

Once you fit think, di temptation go come make you perform say you sure. No do am. Di research on how to lead through hard times point di oda direction, toward honesty.

One review of leadership during di early pandemic, wey Beilstein and im colleagues publish for one clinical journal, pull out some communication principles wey stand under real pressure. Communicate more often than e feel necessary. Make e clear di difference between wetin you know and wetin you dey guess. Repeat di main message, because people wey dey under stress no dey absorb tin di first time. Make e safe for people to tell you wetin dey really happen, including di bad news.

Dat last one matter pass as e sound. For crisis, information na oxygen, and na only if people no dey fear to hand am give you, you go get di truth.

Name dey for di condition wey dey make dat one possible. Amy Edmondson, wey dey study teams for Harvard Business School, call am psychological safety: di shared feeling say dem no go punish you or shame you because you talk up with a question, a worry, or a mistake. Edmondson recent work make sharp point say when tins hard and budget tight, leaders dey often treat psychological safety like luxury wey to cut. She argue say na di opposite. Di harder di moment, di more you need people wey ready to talk "dis one no dey work" before e too late to do anytin about am.

For real life, during crisis, dat one dey look like some small choices wey you dey repeat under pressure.

• Ask pass as you dey assert. "Wetin I dey miss?" go give you better information pass "na dis we dey do."
• Thank di person wey bring you di bad news, loud loud, even when di news bad well well. You dey train everybody wey dey watch about wetin safe to talk.
• Separate di problem from blame. Time dey later for accountability. Right now na di facts you need, and fear dey hide facts.

Decide, then continue to dey decide

Crisis dey punish two opposite mistakes. One na to freeze, dey wait for a sure sure wey no dey come. Di oda na to lock for your first plan and refuse to look up.

Di pandemic-leadership research frame di better path like a loop rather than one big single decision. You dey anticipate wetin likely to happen next, you make di best call wey you fit with di information wey you get, you tell people clear clear wetin you don choose and why, then you dey humble enough to change am as di picture dey change. Good crisis decisions no dey often perfect. Dem dey on time, explained, and you fit revisit dem.

Some tins go make dis one easier for di moment:

1. Name di actual decision wey you gatz make right now, and separate am from di ten wey fit wait one hour.
2. Set time to decide, even rough one. "We go choose by noon" beta pass to dey wait for a clarity wey no dey ever come.
3. Talk out loud wetin go make you change course. E free you to commit now without pretending say you no fit make mistake.
4. Tell people di why, no be just di wetin. Decision wey people understand na one wey dem fit carry out when you no dey di room.

Notice say none of dis one need you to get di answer. E need you to keep di group dey move and dey think togeda.

Na you dey set di temperature

Na here di part wey easy to forget when you dey drown inside di details. Di people around you dey read you all di time, and your state dey spread whether you mean am or not. Calm dey catch. Panic too, and panic dey spread faster.

Dis one no be argument say make you wear a frozen mask. People fit tell when a leader dey fake calm, and e go read like either lie or denial. Wetin dey steady group na sometin wey strong pass: a leader wey you fit see say di tin touch am but e still dey function. Person wey fit talk "dis one hard, and na dis we dey do about am" for di same breath. Dat one dey give people permission to feel di fear and still act, which na di only version of courage wey really dey exist.

You no go do all dis one perfect. Nobody dey. You go talk sharp to somebody, or make a call wey you go wan take back, or keep quiet when you for talk. Wetin people dey remember from crisis rarely na whether dia leader perfect. Na whether di leader talk true, dey present, and ready to own di misses. "I get dat one wrong, na dis be di correction" na one of di most stabilizing sentences wey person wey dey under pressure fit hear.

When to reach for more help

To lead through one crisis dey tire person. To lead through a long one, or plenty of dem back to back, fit quietly wear you down for ways wey no dey show until later. If you no dey sleep, if dread don become your baseline, if you dey snap at di people wey you love or you feel empty even after di emergency pass, dat one worth to take serious. Talk to your doctor or a therapist. Lean on a friend wey you trust or a peer wey don carry sometin similar. To carry di weight for oda people na real work, and e dey okay for you to need support to continue to dey do am.

And if any time di tins feel like more than wetin you fit hold, to reach out for help na di strong move, no be di weak one. Di steadiness wey you dey give everybody else na sometin wey you deserve to receive too.

Where We Take Am From

• Harvard Business School Working Knowledge, In Tough Times, Psychological Safety Is an Asset, Not a Luxury (research by Amy C. Edmondson)
• Beilstein et al., Leadership in a time of crisis: Lessons learned from a pandemic (Best Practice & Research Clinical Anaesthesiology, via PubMed Central)
• UCLA Health, Putting Feelings Into Words Produces Therapeutic Effects in the Brain
• Lieberman et al., Putting Feelings Into Words: Affect Labeling Disrupts Amygdala Activity in Response to Affective Stimuli (Psychological Science)