Managing a Team During a Crisis: Using Survival Psychology to Lead Your Team
/In all walks of life, fear and stress loom on the horizon: they freeze cops in tight situations, paralyze concert performers on stage, and make skydiver’s brains lock up so much that they can forget the pull their parachutes. No one is immune. <sup>1<sup>A crisis is challenging for all leaders. But they are exceptionally difficult for the people you lead. Of all the issues to navigate, managing your team’s psychology may be the most important. Not everyone responds well to adversity. Most people don’t. They perform at the lowest level of their training, which is next to nothing. Organizations don’t train to operate under stress. Because people are unprepared, it’s a leader’s job to anticipate reactions and make plans to manage it.
First, we need to understand how humans respond to a crisis. We’ll borrow the lessons of survival psychology to understand crisis reaction patterns. By understanding how people react, we can reduce stress and anxiety.
Second, we’ll discuss steps to proactively help our teams. Stop with vague, naïve advice. Start with evidence-based advice proven in real-world situations.
The 10-80-10 Theory of Survival
People generally fall into three groups when they face a crisis. John Leach, a leading expert on survival psychology, has decades of experience researching how people react to survival situations. Leach’s framework, the 10-80-10 Theory of Survival, describes three common ways people respond to adversity.
The Elite 10%
These are the leaders– those who step up and take charge during a crisis.
Leach explains:
Around 10 percent of us will handle a crisis in a relatively calm and rational state of mind. The top 10 percent are leaders2…These people will be able to collect their thoughts quickly, their awareness of the situation will be intact and the judgment and reasoning abilities will not be impaired to any significant extent.3
According to Leach, expect around 10% of your team to respond well to a crisis. They will be the natural leaders, maintaining a calm demeanor while taking decisive action. This group will help lead the rest of the organization through the crisis.
The Bottom 10%
On the opposite end, we have those who quickly succumb to the panic of a crisis and display erratic and damaging behavior.
Leach explains:
[This] group…is the one you definitely want to avoid in an emergency. Simply put, [they do] the wrong thing. They behave inappropriately and often counterproductively. In plain terms, they freak out and can't pull themselves together. And they often don't survive.4
This group needs the most help. They’re under significant emotional and physical stress. They’ll operate unpredictably with little reason. They’ll be rash and quick to do the wrong thing. They will panic.
You know people who fit this group. The important thing to understand is that they are not able to help themselves. You need to directly intervene. Don’t leave them alone to figure it out.
The Middle 80%
The Middle 80% is the most interesting group and it’s where most people fall.
Leach explains:
In a crisis, most will "quite simply be stunned and bewildered." We'll find that our "reasoning is significantly impaired and that thinking is difficult." We'll behave in "a reflexive, almost automatic or mechanical manner." We'll sweat. We'll feel sick, lethargic, numb. Our hearts may race.5
This 80% become what Taylor Clark, author of Nerve, calls the “bewildered sheep.” We don’t really know what to do. We tend to operate aimlessly – not doing anything deliberately harmful, but neither doing anything helpful. You’ll often find team members in a type of malaise. They go through the motions without comprehending what they are doing. This group can be pushed to perform well, but they need the guidance of the top 10% to operate effectively.
What does this mean for your team?
Establish realistic expectations. Most of your team will not respond optimally. They’re not robots. They’re going to struggle. It’s up to you to identify how your team is reacting.
Tailor your leadership response. Take the elite 10% and make sure they are leading smaller teams and directing day to day activities. This involves explicit direction to the middle 80% that need the guidance to operate well. The bottom 10% need close supervision and support. It’s important to reiterate: some people don’t have the tolerance to handle uncertain situations. The worst thing a leader can do is to neglect their needs and pretend it will work out.
It’s a challenge to predict in advance how people will respond. Each person’s reaction is shaped by their upbringing, environment, genetic predisposition, and training. Most of these factors are hidden from observation.
As witnessed in Navy SEAL training, the most impressive physically fit soldiers, those who are most expected to succeed, are often the first to quit. A Commanding officer of SEALS training at the Naval Special Warfare Center said, “The Rambo types are the first to go.”6
In a business setting, it may be the most senior team member that cracks first. A junior team member may unexpectedly rise up. It’s hard to know in advance. Resumes and seniority are useless predictors.
Keep an open and observant mind about who may succeed and who may struggle. It may not be who you expect.
Face the things that make us anxious
There’s a seemingly rational desire to avoid what makes us uncomfortable. However, it also prevents us from learning how to face our fears.
As Clark describes:
We come to the single most important error we commit in dealing with fear, a blunder so egregious that it needs to be set in italics – avoiding the situations that make us anxious. On the surface, avoidance actually makes perfect sense; why would we shy away from things that seem like they could hurt us? But the hidden negative effects of this habit can be crippling…Without exposing ourselves to the things that trigger our fears, we never get a chance to learn that we can cope, or that our catastrophic worries are wrong, or that things we fret about really aren’t going to tear us from limb to limb. Avoidance ensures that the fear lives on.7
Directly confront uncomfortable situations. Hiding from them and pretending they don’t exist only compounds the problem. Push your team to deal with the uncomfortable.
Importance of Group Support
Group support is a powerful leadership tool. Isolation encourages rumination and emotional decision making. People need each other during a crisis. Knowing you’re not alone is a powerful motivator.
The finding that extends to all crisis behavior: in an emergency, we invariably seek out the company of others to reduce our stress and fear. Immersion in a group makes us feel safer and the better we know our companions, the greater the comfort we derive.8
The Value of Rigid Routines
Performance improves with routine and predictability. Ensure team members have explicit direction on their next actions. Establish clear timelines and continuous communication. Even the simplest task can give peace of mind. The more someone struggles, the more direction they need.
Clark continues:
This is why rigid routines and menial tasks are such a vital part of military life: they give soldiers a sense of predictability and control. In a war zone, even something as dull as counting ammunition makes a soldier feel he is loading the odds of survival in his favor.9
Clark also emphasizes how this applies in an office setting:
At the office, the rules of stress are no different. In study after study researchers have found that the most stressful occupations are those in which employees must deal not just with high demands, but have little control over their workdays.10
To summarize these lessons with one idea:
Survival requires willful, goal-directed behavior.11
Harnessing team psychology is a critical attribute to a well-functioning team, but the hardest one to train. Goal-directed action establishes the leadership your team needs.
Military commander Adolph Von Schell reminds leaders why psychology is so important:
The only thing of which we are certain is this: the psychology of the soldier is always important. No commander lacking in this inner knowledge of his men can accomplish great things.12
Sources:
1. Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool, Taylor Clark
2. http://www.newsweek.com/whatittakessurvivecrisis78207
3. Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool, Taylor Clark
4. http://www.newsweek.com/whatittakessurvivecrisis78207
5. http://www.newsweek.com/whatittakessurvivecrisis78207
6. Survivor Personality: Why Some People are Stronger, Smarter, and More Skillful at Handling Difficulties…and How You can Be, Too Al Seibert
7. Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool, Taylor Clark
8. Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool, Taylor Clark
9. Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool, Taylor Clark
10. Nerve: Poise Under Pressure, Serenity Under Stress, and the Brave New Science of Fear and Cool, Taylor Clark
11. Maladaptive Behavior in Survivors: Dysexecutive Survivor Syndrome, John Leach
12. Battle Leadership, Adolph Von Schell