Developing Leadership Abilities

Leading in the Face of Personal Crisis

When a coworker or a group member faces a personal crisis, it affects everyone on the school or work team emotionally and professionally. But as much as we use the term family to describe relationships within our groups, we cannot and should not literally take on the personal responsibility for employees that a parent feels for a child. In a strict legal sense, the events of a group member’s or employee’s personal life aren’t a leader’s business, unless that person chooses to share those circumstances. Even in that case, personal information should not be solicited or pursued unless it has clear implications for work performance and is given voluntarily.

This is a long way of saying that leaders, managers, ...