Page 156 - Anne Bruce - Building A HIgh Morale Workplace (2002)

136 Building a High Morale Workplace

Prepare for the Worst, Hope for the Best
According to Steven Fink, president of the crisis manage-
ment firm Lexicon Communications and author of Crisis
Management: Planning for the Inevitable (New York:AMACOM, 1986,
hardcover; Campbell, CA: iUniverse, 2000, paperback), it is the element
of surprise that is most unsettling to leaders when confronted by sud-
den catastrophe.“The savviest chief executive in the world often falls
victim to a kind of paralysis when a crisis strikes.” His suggestion:
every major executive and manager should prepare by reading at least
one book on crisis management.

addition, this chapter will focus on a handful of real workplace

crises and describe how courageous managers have chosen to
effectively lead their employees through the toughest of times.
The fact is that workplace disasters are ever increasing. It’s
my hope, therefore, that if one day you find yourself faced with

leading your workers out of disaster, where emotions run high
and morale is severely impaired, you will be better equipped to
handle such a situation because of the information and exam-
ples provided in this chapter.

The Day That Changed the World

It became a new Day of Infamy, more terrifying than the attack
on Pearl Harbor in 1941 or the savage Okalahoma City federal
building bombing of 1995 or the World Trade Center basement
bombing in 1993. Our nation’s symbol of military might, the
Pentagon, was attacked and the once gleaming twin towers of

the World Trade Center, a signature skyline of American finan-
cial strength recognized the world over, are gone forever. But
this nation’s human spirit showed the strength of a people unit-
ed in patriotic pride and unshakeable resolve.

The tragedy of 9/11 awoke a sleeping giant within each of
us. A giant that many of us might have forgotten lay asleep
until the horror we experienced caused it to rise up in the form
of extraordinary valor and heroism demonstrated daily by fire-
fighters, police officers, service workers, medical personnel,
construction workers, clergy, and ordinary citizens. The nation