It is Friday afternoon and you as the general counsel had been hoping to beat the traffic by leaving early for that long-awaited weekend away. You are however, to use a Brummie (Birmingham) slang expression, “rammed” with work. You have just about managed to get the three critical contracts your team are negotiating into a position where nothing will happen until at least Monday; you have dealt with an urgent advice request from the CEO; and delegated four new projects to your team.
Then a Teams message pops up at around 4.30 – not earlier because then you might have more time to deal with it, but not later because you might have gone by then or at least signed out. “Please can I ask a quick question?” messages your director of sales. You call on Teams, with a sinking feeling. She is apologetic, but explains that somehow legal and commercial has been missed off the review team on a bid for a must win multi million pound contract that has to be submitted as a BAFO (Best and Final Offer) by 10am on Monday. The three hundred pages of contract documentation need to be reviewed and any “key” issues flagged. We also have to draft the finance schedule because only our team understands the financial model. The agreement otherwise uses customer paper that you know will be one sided and high risk.
A very natural reaction in this situation, however experienced you are, is a feeling of panic to some degree. The so called “fight or flight” syndrome kicks in. This Harvard Medical Understanding the stress response explains this very cogently:
“A stressful situation — whether something environmental, such as a looming work deadline, or psychological, such as persistent worry about losing a job — can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that produce well-orchestrated physiological changes. A stressful incident can make the heart pound and breathing quicken. Muscles tense and beads of sweat appear.
This combination of reactions to stress is also known as the "fight-or-flight" response because it evolved as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react quickly to life-threatening situations.”
It goes onto to say how:
“When someone experiences a stressful event, the amygdala, an area of the brain that contributes to emotional processing, sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus. This area of the brain functions like a command center, communicating with the rest of the body through the nervous system so that the person has the energy to fight or flee.”
It also recommends some techniques for dealing with this sort of pressure – relaxation, physical activity and social support.
Over a decade ago I wrote a short book One,Two,Three, Four which developed my personal experience from a near disaster in a plane crash to overcoming personal challenges and into a philosophy of living in the now. I am not here promoting the book but refer to it because I advocated in a work (or life) crisis taking some sort of time to step back and evaluating the situation as calmly as possible.
Staying for a moment with the plane theme I found this article 3 Things Pilots Know About Crisis Management which supports this approach:
“…..pilots are trained in crisis management. We’re taught to think through a range of potential mishaps, memorize checklists, and plot courses of action in advance. Executives can do the same. You can never foresee every crisis, but if you plan for the worst, you’ll be ready for action–and you won’t be stuck winging it.”
And advocates:
1.Have emergency checklists;
2.Appear confident and in control even if you don’t feel it;
3.Eliminate surprises and plan ahead.
This is what I want to build on: it is not possible to predict the exact work crisis I have outlined – though a better and closer relationship might be called for with the sales team! However, you can and should as a professional person with a lot of responsibility have a plan for this sort of eventuality. Have a metaphorical “panic room” you can go to having thought out beforehand what you may do in this sort of situation. This could involve as a first step taking a short break to clear your mind (get a tea or coffee) and then evaluating the challenge and potential solutions as calmly as possible, talking to others in your team and working out some feasible options. In this particular situation these could include:
This is easy to say and harder to do, but managing such a situation is also an opportunity for personal growth and development and a way to enhance the perceived value of your function with the rest of the business. It should generally be seen as a positive challenge which really helps in its resolution.
As Charles de Gaulle, former president of France said “Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.”
While John F. Kennedy sagely observed “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”
And for a concluding comment I really like this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Then a Teams message pops up at around 4.30 – not earlier because then you might have more time to deal with it, but not later because you might have gone by then or at least signed out. “Please can I ask a quick question?” messages your director of sales. You call on Teams, with a sinking feeling. She is apologetic, but explains that somehow legal and commercial has been missed off the review team on a bid for a must win multi million pound contract that has to be submitted as a BAFO (Best and Final Offer) by 10am on Monday. The three hundred pages of contract documentation need to be reviewed and any “key” issues flagged. We also have to draft the finance schedule because only our team understands the financial model. The agreement otherwise uses customer paper that you know will be one sided and high risk.
A very natural reaction in this situation, however experienced you are, is a feeling of panic to some degree. The so called “fight or flight” syndrome kicks in. This Harvard Medical Understanding the stress response explains this very cogently:
“A stressful situation — whether something environmental, such as a looming work deadline, or psychological, such as persistent worry about losing a job — can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that produce well-orchestrated physiological changes. A stressful incident can make the heart pound and breathing quicken. Muscles tense and beads of sweat appear.
This combination of reactions to stress is also known as the "fight-or-flight" response because it evolved as a survival mechanism, enabling people and other mammals to react quickly to life-threatening situations.”
It goes onto to say how:
“When someone experiences a stressful event, the amygdala, an area of the brain that contributes to emotional processing, sends a distress signal to the hypothalamus. This area of the brain functions like a command center, communicating with the rest of the body through the nervous system so that the person has the energy to fight or flee.”
It also recommends some techniques for dealing with this sort of pressure – relaxation, physical activity and social support.
Over a decade ago I wrote a short book One,Two,Three, Four which developed my personal experience from a near disaster in a plane crash to overcoming personal challenges and into a philosophy of living in the now. I am not here promoting the book but refer to it because I advocated in a work (or life) crisis taking some sort of time to step back and evaluating the situation as calmly as possible.
Staying for a moment with the plane theme I found this article 3 Things Pilots Know About Crisis Management which supports this approach:
“…..pilots are trained in crisis management. We’re taught to think through a range of potential mishaps, memorize checklists, and plot courses of action in advance. Executives can do the same. You can never foresee every crisis, but if you plan for the worst, you’ll be ready for action–and you won’t be stuck winging it.”
And advocates:
1.Have emergency checklists;
2.Appear confident and in control even if you don’t feel it;
3.Eliminate surprises and plan ahead.
This is what I want to build on: it is not possible to predict the exact work crisis I have outlined – though a better and closer relationship might be called for with the sales team! However, you can and should as a professional person with a lot of responsibility have a plan for this sort of eventuality. Have a metaphorical “panic room” you can go to having thought out beforehand what you may do in this sort of situation. This could involve as a first step taking a short break to clear your mind (get a tea or coffee) and then evaluating the challenge and potential solutions as calmly as possible, talking to others in your team and working out some feasible options. In this particular situation these could include:
- Discussing with colleagues in other functions such as the technical and financial teams to understand the deal more fully;
- Looking at the contract briefly and discussing the real risk areas with the sales director and her team – is this a bet the company deal involving state of the art technology and AI services – or is it a more mainstream standard service provided by your business;
- Being flexible and reviewing your own plans to see if they could be adjusted to accommodate this crisis – last year I closed a deal with a Dutch lawyer when he was in his car taking his family on holiday!
- Seeing how your own team is fixed and whether they have any capacity;
- Cultivating relationships with external law firms who could help and who have some knowledge of your business – yes you may ruin their weekends as well BUT they will probably have more resources available – and they will get paid for and should welcome the chance to help a key client out in a crisis.
This is easy to say and harder to do, but managing such a situation is also an opportunity for personal growth and development and a way to enhance the perceived value of your function with the rest of the business. It should generally be seen as a positive challenge which really helps in its resolution.
As Charles de Gaulle, former president of France said “Faced with crisis, the man of character falls back on himself. He imposes his own stamp of action, takes responsibility for it, makes it his own.”
While John F. Kennedy sagely observed “When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity.”
And for a concluding comment I really like this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
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