I had the opportunity to review this publication over lunch (a BLT) today and found it to be a potentially great resource for emergency managers to use to educate their city managers and other senior leaders, appointed and elected about their duties before, during and after a disaster and do so via the experiences of those who have walked before them in similar positions in previous crisis situations.
Check out and then print,
Leadership Before, During, and After a Crisis.
There are too many tips and pointers to list here, but I'll mention three.
- How long can you go without sleep and remain a competent decision-maker?
- What happens when you are "in charge" and it is your personal home that is flooded or burned to the ground?
- Where do you want your local elected officials to respond to during a disaster and what duties do you give them?
The other thing about this publication, it is not all about "disasters" but also crisis situations, when there is a school shooting or other mass incident, or how about a police shooting of an unarmed black person. When you broaden the topic beyond floods, fires, earthquakes, the mix of possible incidents escalates rapidly.
You should read this document also!
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
