Crisis management is used in every minute of everyday life from getting an unexpected phone call to a natural disaster in the world you live in.

Crisis management was designed to help in all kinds of environments. At home, in the work place, in politics, in natural disasters, in schools, etc.

How do you approach managing a crisis?
By following these four steps, you will be better prepared to manage a crisis in any environment you are in.

Crisis management steps include:
#1 You want to identify the crisis
How do you know when you have a real crisis to manage?
Ask yourself this one question:

• Has the atmosphere I am in, been disturbed, troubled, altered, or in danger in any way?

If the answer to the question is yes, then this would be considered a crisis in need of management.

Knowing what a crisis is will help you to get through the steps of crisis management. Figuring out all the specifics to your crisis will help lead you more smoothly into the second step.

How do you identify the specific crisis?

You will want to identify the specific crisis just to put a name to the crisis. You also want to identify the specifics of that crisis to better help you understand what kind of crisis you are going to be managing.

There are 2 main categories in which a crisis can be placed:

1. natural (this would be where ever the natural crisis occurred) a natural crisis would include any physical destruction done by nature, a natural disaster, for example:
   • earthquake, tsunami, tornado, flood, etc.
2. professional (this could be at work, school, politics, and even in the home). a professional crisis would include any negative event happening within a professional setting, for example:
   • toxic accident, product recall, failures of any equipment, systems, etc., health scare, pressure, unwanted media attention, the loss or dismissal of a key management, hostile buyout, strike, unexpected competition, shortfalls, or fraud of any kind, all within the professional environment, unwanted visitors, violence, threats of any kind, etc.

Now, ask yourself this:

• Is your crisis natural or professional?

Now that you have identified you have a crisis and what the specifics of that crisis are, you are ready to manage the crisis.

#2 You want to plan a response to the crisis
How do you do plan a response to a natural crisis?
The best response you can give in any crisis is to stay calm and poised. If you plan this out in your mind to already behave this way, it will help you as you confront and manage the crisis.

How do you do plan a response to a professional crisis?
The same idea is applied here; plan to stay calm and poised and then whatever the confrontation may be, you will have set in your mind, a pre-planned way to respond in the crisis at hand, and you will be better able to manage the crisis.

#3 You want to confront the crisis
Confronting the crisis may be the toughest part, it's like taking that first step. Knowing you are taking on the task of managing the crisis, is half the battle.

How do you confront the natural and professional crisis'?

Ask yourself these questions:

• What are the immediate needs around me?
• What is being done, or taken care of already?
• What is not being done? and is there anything I can be doing to take care of it?

Once you have asked and answered these questions, you are ready to resolve this crisis.

#4 You want to resolve the crisis
How do you resolve a crisis in a natural environment?

• Go and do what needs to be done as long as you are capable.


• Delegate to others what they need to be doing during the crisis as long as they are capable as well.


• Make sure that you are specific in your directions and have them report back to you.


• If possible, keep a written record of needs and check them off as you receive them.


• include others in helping resolve the crisis.

How do you resolve a crisis in a professional atmosphere?

• Talk with the people involved


• Include them in helping resolve the crisis.


• Delegate, if needed, and be specific in directions.


• Keep a record of the crisis and the steps you took to manage this and how it turned out.

After the crisis

• What can you do now that the crisis is managed?

In a natural crisis:

When the crisis is over make an assessment of the crisis.
Ask yourself:

• What can we do to be better prepared next time?


• What can we do differently if something like this were to happen again?

When the crisis is over make sure you do an assessment and figure out how you can prevent this from happening.
Ask yourself:

• What we do to better prepare us?


• What can we do differently if something like this were to happen again?

Hosting a meeting after the crisis is managed can help you with your assessment and you will be able to get the feedback that you need to manage the next crisis.

Of course, the best kind of crisis management is to be proactive. Planning for a crisis can make the crisis not seem as much of a crisis, because you were prepared.
Examples:

• Natural Disaster:
  
  • having food storage and water, escape route planned, etc.


• Professional:
  
  • knowing how to fix a computer when it shuts down, before it shuts down, providing flu shots, hosting meetings where you talk about specific crisis', etc.

• Crisis management can be very useful in everyday life and the more you use it the better you will be at managing each crisis that comes into your life. Remember the 4 steps and manage your crisis with ease.