What happens to your office in a crisis if you’re not around? Lots of people will say they’ve got an amazing team. But often, they don’t really mean it.
What they mean is they’ve got some good people who work hard and have some skills. But that’s very different from being ready to step up to cover your role or another new, more stressful, higher responsibility role.
That might be okay if you live in a really predictable world. But most of us don’t live there. Even if you’re in a so-called development context, chances are that a crisis is lurking round the corner. That means you and your team need to be ready for big shifts in the type, volume, and pressure of work – which all change when a disaster hits.
How can you get ready? You need to look at your staff team and the skills that they have.
– Which of their skills will they actually be able to use in a crisis?
– Which are OK for a calm and predictable situation, but not for an emergency?
– Which of them are not really good enough?
– Which areas are being held together by your work, rather than you managing their work?
Be tough with yourself about those skills. Don’t pull the wool over your own eyes by looking purely at potential. Think about what that person could do tomorrow.
Once you’ve got an overview, look at:
The highest priority areas to improve
Then identify ways that your team can practice and improve those skills
And talk to your HR team and/or HQ about how you would bring in those skills in a crisis
You might build those skills through well-designed training, through stretch assignments, through secondments or through technical mentoring.
That gives you a roadmap to get your office ready to take action – even if you’re not around.
How to prepare your team for when you leave
- Learning, Skills
