My answer to How do CEOs stay calm?
Answer by Desmond Last:
I have always said to those who work for me when faced with ‘Doomsday’ situation that there is no Fairy Godmother’ who is going to wave a magic wand and make the crises disappear. I am it.
Then I would listen to the various solutions from the panicked to the Draconian and let each person know what how and when their role was to deal with the impending doom.
By analyzing the situation and breaking it down into component parts and by ensuring the priority is dealt with the CEO is ensuring that calm returns,
The hunt for these who allowed the situation to escalate should come later not during the situation. Then it should be a calm analysis with the view of prevention not retribution.
The best way to avoid a situation which can cause you as a CEO to leap out of a window is to ensure your company has a Quality System in place.
It may be laborious to install and it will increase documentation but it ensures job roles include the full scope of the responsibility.
I put ISO 9001/2 into an Engineering Company in Sydney. It ensured that inventory and stock control systems were operating efficiently, it categorized drawings and it ensured sales knew their roles.
We were certified by Lloyd's. I would recommend the ISO system to any CEO. It lends a certain pride and provides a marketing advantage. It also allows your customers to benchmark you.
Organisation and role responsibility are how a CEO will avoid committing commercial suicide.
There must be a system for everything and a total system for it all.
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