The Leadership Star

8ENGAGEMENT IN TIMES OF CRISIS

The 80 people who squashed into the drab conference room did not look happy.

Several of them stood with their arms folded, openly sceptical looks (or was it anger?) on their faces. At least a quarter of the room stared at the floor, occasionally glancing in my direction. A few looked shell‐shocked. The rest just looked at me blankly.

I had landed in Singapore that morning, flying overnight from London, and had come straight to the office to address the staff in this outpost of an international private bank. On the previous Thursday, we'd learned that the local managing director and all of his senior staff had defected to a rival Swiss bank.

Staff engagement, which had been persistently low in this business due to a litany of staff complaints, was now all but shattered. Competitors were circling our best bankers, hoping to steal them and our customers away. I didn't know any of the people well, having taken responsibility for the division in which this business sat only two months previously.

To top it all off, the executive who had led this business for several years — one of my direct reports — didn't think the situation was urgent enough to warrant flying out with me. So aside from a couple of remaining long‐term managers, I was alone at the front of the room, working desperately to salvage a situation I didn't create.

What could I say to these people to buy some time and get things back on track?

Up to this point in the book I've assumed that ...