When there is trouble leaders need to be present.  Your team doesn’t want to receive an email or a phone call.  They want to know you really understand the situation and care enough to help – in person.

A team in crisis doesn’t want the one way communication of email instructions.  Even with emoticons and well placed capitalization there is no real EMOTION in an email 😉

A team wondering what to do next doesn’t need your cell phone call from the airport while you are catching a flight in the other direction.  They know you are busy, but imagine how busy you will be if this situation doesn’t get handled the right way.

Your team needs help.  You need to be there.  Here’s why:

You can’t show comfort if you are not there  When trouble is upon us, people need the comfort of someone they trust telling them it will be alright.  As George MacDonald said, “Few delights can equal the presence of one whom we trust utterly.” 

As leaders we need to remember that closeness brings comfort where distance yields despair.

President Abraham Lincoln regularly visited his troops during the Civil War to bring comfort and Civil War General Ulysses Grant once said, “The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity.”

You can’t see what’s not being said if you are not there.  People caught in a frightful situation are often fearful of opening up to what is really happening unless the one who can make it right is there to make it right.  If you aren’t present to see the situation and the people first hand, you won’t really understand the depth of the problems.

“The most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” – Peter Drucker

You can’t demonstrate crisis leadership if you are not there.  The best leaders use every situation as a teaching and mentoring opportunity.  Established leaders have been in tough situations before and have learned how to come out the other side successfully.  If you aren’t present with your people, you can’t show them how it’s done.    

“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”  – John Kenneth Galbraith