Managing businesses in crises that nobody wanted or expected

Recent years drastically rewrote the job descriptions of managers and executives. This event is a virtual discussion with leadership coach Gabor Holch about adapting management methods to crisis-time uncertainty, negative emotions and the isolation of previously integrated markets.

We will focus on three behavioural challenges (in practical terms, daily dilemmas) that executives have shared with me recently.

A shift from long-term to short-term orientation: How can leaders run their business, motivate themselves and their teams and still spare some thought for the future when everything is urgent? A typical question: "How can I decide faster without making more mistakes?"

A shift from relationships to control: How can leaders get things done assertively without damaging the trust that took years, sometimes decades to develop with colleagues, clients, prospects, suppliers, government officials and more? A typical question: "How can I create a sense of urgency without panic?"

A shift from a local to a global mindset: As investment, assets and people escape from high-pressure locations to more promising pastures, how can leaders with deep familiarity and connections in one place adapt to another? A typical question: "Will headquarters, regional centres and local branches ever agree on what to do next?" To keep our focus on practical applications in daily leadership work, I will illustrate problems and solutions on two main case studies: adapting to China’s ‘zero-COVID’ policy and disruptions caused by the war in Ukraine. Of course, comments and requests will help us widen our scope to other unexpected situations in the world that force leaders to become more comfortable with crisis-time leadership. Trust me, this skillset is something we shall need for quite a few years to come.

Gabor Holch is an intercultural leadership consultant, coach, author and speaker  who has served 100+ clients in 30+ countries. An expat since age 4,  China-based since 2002 and working globally, Gabor is a Certified  Management Consultant (CMC) in English and Mandarin, certified  consultant at the management academies of half a dozen global  corporations and licensed in major assessment tools including DISC, the  Predictive Index, NeuroColor and MBTI.