Focus of this week: Top 10 Tips for a Crisis Management Team
1. Supported by senior management – Senior management participation and support gives team members confidence and authority to act in a crisis.
2. Use a competency based leadership model – Train using industry best practices and standards (e.g.,CDC Leadership Model) to maximize performance.
3. Do not manage by title but by ability to lead – Titles should not dictate team membership. Assign positions based on personality, skill and knowledge level.
4. Roles are well understood – Keeping a recovery organized and focused starts before the event. Having a clear understanding of one’s role permits participants to focus on the recovery tasks.
5. Team is scalable depending on need – Having only the necessary people present at any one time can increase the effectiveness and decrease the stress during an event.
6. Exercises and training are regularly held – People act on instinct during a crisis. The more you practice the better their instincts will become.
7. Depth across primary and backups – You can never predict the type of event that may occur. Having depth of skill and knowledge across all team members minimizes weaknesses.
8. Team members empowered to act – By clearly defining and practicing roles, all team members can feel confident to make decisions and act on them.
9. Followed established incident principles & priorities – Taking guidance from proven methods can increase the effectiveness of your Crisis Management Team.
10. Proactive in activation – not afraid to activate – It is always better to take action early. You can never be too prepared.
Next week … Top 10 Tips for Recovery Plans
Michael Herrera
Michael Herrera is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of MHA. In his role, Michael provides global leadership to the entire set of industry practices and horizontal capabilities within MHA. Under his leadership, MHA has become a leading provider of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery services to organizations on a global level. He is also the founder of BCMMETRICS, a leading cloud based tool designed to assess business continuity compliance and residual risk. Michael is a well-known and sought after speaker on Business Continuity issues at local and national contingency planner chapter meetings and conferences. Prior to founding MHA, he was a Regional VP for Bank of America, where he was responsible for Business Continuity across the southwest region.
