5 Ways to Lead with Confidence in an Emergency
How to Show Strong Leadership Rather Than Leading from Fear
Knowing how to lead with confidence in an emergency will make a big difference to your leadership skills and status.
Whenever there is an emergency or a crisis, people want to be led. Those who can show strong leadership will separate themselves from those who are reactive and lead from fear.
The Importance of Leading with Confidence in an Emergency
Leaders are always dealing with challenges. If you can lead with confidence in an emergency, you will:
- Bring a sense of calmness to the situation.
- Unite others.
- Build a higher level of trust.
- Stay focused on what’s important and encourage others to do the same.
- Improve your leadership skills.
Signs You Are Leading from Fear Rather Than from Confidence
You can lead from fear or you can lead with confidence. If you are leading from fear, it suggests:
- You need to be right and find it difficult to admit your mistakes.
- You avoid making tough decisions.
- You portray yourself a certain way, which can come across as inauthentic.
- You are scattered and unfocused.
- You lack clarity and direction.
- You are afraid to make mistakes.
- You focus more on what’s wrong.
- You are reactive.
An important part of knowing how to lead with confidence in an emergency is being aware of what is going on around you and with those you lead.
5 Ways to Lead with Confidence in an Emergency
Here are five ways you can lead with confidence in an emergency, which will allow you to show strong leadership as you deal with your challenges.
- Know your strengths and weaknesses. As you have strengths and weakness, knowing how to leverage them is an advantage. If you experience self-doubt, know what you can do to overcome it. That may involve reaching out to mentors or peers to ask for help. You can use your strengths to help others overcome their obstacles.
- Reaffirm your vision, intentions and outcomes. To lead others implies you are leading them somewhere — to a destination. This means having a high level of clarity. If you are confused, it will affect your ability to make intelligent decisions. Sharing a collective vision and having clear intentions and outcomes will make it easier to take the right actions.
- Focus on helping others succeed. As a leader, it’s your responsibility to help others win. This can involve offering encouragement and guidance if others are struggling to progress. When others succeed, so will you. When others make progress or have wins, highlight them because people love to be acknowledged.
- Follow through on commitments. It’s important you do what you say you will because that builds trust. When others see you following through on what you say you will, that will cause them to do the same. Your role as a leader is to hold others accountable.
- Manage your emotions well. You will experience highs and lows in an emergency. Knowing your triggers will help you control your emotions better. As you lead with confidence, others will also manage their emotions better. No matter how challenging things are, maintaining a sense of humour also can go a long way with others.
Final Thoughts
Your leadership stock will go up if you show you can deal with an emergency in a calm, confident way. If you do, you will bring others together and deal with the emergency collectively, which means you will overcome it faster.
If you don’t lead with confidence, the level of trust others have in your ability to help them overcome challenges, will reduce. This means you won’t become the leader you’re capable of being.
Action Step: Next time you have to lead others during an emergency, pay close attention to how you are showing up. Notice if you are showing strong leadership or if you are leading from fear. Use the ideas suggested here to work your way through the emergency.
Question: What are other ways to lead with confidence in an emergency?
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