Supervisory Leadership

On September 10, 2001, Rudy Giuliani was seen as a pretty effective but abrasive Mayor of New York City who was going through a tabloid-nasty divorce as he neared the end of his time in office. A month later he was "America's Mayor," a possible presidential candidate and leadership role model.

The difference was September 11 and Mayor Giuliani's response to that horrific event. It's the kind of event that public safety folks refer to as a "critical incident."

Critical incidents are incidents that don't happen often but have a big impact when they do. Once they hit, it's too late to plan.

It's too late to plan because good planning requires you to think through, carefully and logically, what resources you need, what you need to do and what order you need to do things. That kind of planning takes time, but critical incidents don't allow you to have time. That's not all.

Remember that "fight or flight" reaction, the one where adrenaline fills your bloodstream. It's likely to happen when a critical incident hits. And when it does it robs you of your ability to plan clearly.

Your psychological system gets your body ready to fight or run away, by sending blood to all the major muscle groups. The large muscles of your arms and legs get lots of blood. Guess where it comes from?

Since your body can't make more blood for emergencies, it has to send blood to those muscles from someplace else. That someplace else is your brain.

Normally the brain, which is just about two percent of body weight, gets about a fifth of the available blood. That's because the neurons that make up the brain need lots of oxygen-carrying blood to function effectively. As blood leaves your brain, bound for your arms and legs, you get less and less capable of rational thought.

You can't plan when a critical incident strikes because you don't have time and you don't have your usual brainpower. The only solution that works is to do your planning ahead of time.

Make a list of possible critical incidents that might come calling. Some might be natural disasters like hurricanes, earthquakes or floods. Some will be things like a fire. Some will be organizational critical incidents, like the loss of a critical customer or shortage of a critical supply or the loss of power that runs critical equipment.

Once you've got your lists, figure what you need to do to handle each one. Get help. Two heads or even three can be better than one.

Note what resources you'll need. If you can get some in advance, do it. Many folks likely to suffer weather disasters keep an emergency kit in the house with canned food, water, battery-powered radio and flashlights.

Determine who should be notified. Decide what actions you should take. Then turn those things into an action list.

Write the list down. You won't remember it. Your brain needs blood to remember, too.

Then put the list where you can get at it quickly. When a critical incident strikes, get your list and start working down it.

I've trained police supervisors for many years and I've taught this technique to hundreds of them. It's worked for many of them in natural disasters and tight tactical situations. It can work for you, too.

Remember, first make a list of the critical incidents that are likely to befall you. List what you'll need to have and do in order to deal with each one. Take whatever preparatory actions you can. Then create an action list for each critical incident and put it where you can find it.

Relevant Books

Rudy Giuliani: The Long View of Leadership. Wally's review of this book is also on this site.

The Prince Of The City: Giuliani, New York And The Genius Of American Life by Fred Siegel

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