I’m on my way back from Austin where I gathered with a group of female founders. We all belong to a group called Fyli (pronounced Fee-Lee). Our purpose is to support female founders as they launch their next big thing.
The idea is that support must be 360 degrees. Need access to an investor? Done. Need to find a CMO? Done. Need help ensuring you are working out to access your full mind-body potential? They will find you someone.
I also had the chance to visit my Kith colleagues. This type of wellness is also something we talk about.
When Bill started the firm, he chose the name Kith with great intentionality. As we define it, Kith means a cadre of peers who shape opinions and attitudes while instilling sophisticated habits for action.
As a team, we live these values and check in regularly to ensure that we are. This is also how we engage with our clients and community.
One of the most critical factors of the definition is habits. You know, those pesky things that determine health, success and general well-being? Some are good and some are bad. Eating green things = good. And smoking = bad.
Habits even factor into how you weather a crisis. Do you think about a crisis as something to respond to or something to prepare for? Is it something you practice, or do you wing it when the time comes?
Here is a piece of expert advice: building good crisis habits and preparing for a crisis are the differences between an uncomfortable day and a really bad one.
If you summarize all of the insights we share, they all build up to this. Building speed – requires practice. Seeing what’s coming at you – requires practice. To be really good at crisis response, you have to be really good at crisis preparation – yes, requires practice.
And good habits must be built. You are not going to be Crisis Confident from day one, so here is a place to start regardless of your role in your organization:
- Which of your peers oversees crisis if you don’t already know?
- Does your company have an active and continuous system to monitor and identify threats?
- Is yours a culture of silos or is it one where cross-functions are encouraged to collaborate and engage?
If those answers are 1)you, 2)yes and 3) encouraged to collaborate, then all you need is practice. Other answers to those questions mean there’s some more work to be done.
If you do nothing else, become an evangelist for crisis preparation. Put it at the top of your to do list every day.
We’ll even help. Make sure that those colleagues that you’ve discovered also work on crisis are signed up for our newsletter. We’re happy to join the chorus.
Photo by Kelli McClintock on Unsplash
