Crisis Leadership Now: A Real-World Guide to Preparing for Threats, Disaster, Sabotage, and Scandal - Hardcover

by Laurence Barton (Author)

Why do some managers shine during a high-level crisis while others stumble? Those who have an action plan in place are the ones who can react quickly, manage rumors, and respond to victims and stakeholders sincerely and adequately while keeping their organization afloat.

Leading crisis management expert Laurence Barton has spent more than two decades consulting with top companies on how to anticipate and respond to workplace threats and tragedies. In Crisis Leadership Now he offers concrete solutions for managing disruptive events-from industrial accidents and acts of violence to embezzlement, product recalls, and terrorism. Barton takes you through his journey of advising senior executives on crisis events and examines:

• The characteristics that define a true crisis
• Proven strategies to help you understand and respond to early warning signals
• Ways to mitigate threatening situations
• How to effectively communicate your decisions in a timely manner to employees, shareholders, customers, and other constituencies

In this forward-looking guide, Barton applies his corporate insider's insight to numerous case studies, demonstrating how such catastrophes happen to real companies and real people every day. These studies form a framework for building crisis management thinking into your company's strategic toolbox. Anticipating all forms of trouble, advising senior management and boards of directors about potential events, and devising a business recovery plan will allow your organization to rebound should tragedy strike.

Barton has also created an indispensable sample crisis management plan, and includes detailed templates for addressing a wide spectrum of incidents and threats. Arming you with an arsenal of strategies, tools, and know-how, Crisis Leadership Now ensures that your company's leaders will demonstrate confidence and implement solutions in the midst of chaos.

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Secure your workplace and ensure its survival with the highly acclaimed

"Crisis Leadership Now"

"Larry Barton ... gives concrete advice on the means to avoid, mitigate, and respond to crises that occur somewhere in the world's workforce every day."-Alicia C. Parker, Senior Director of Security, ESPN

"Larry Barton has done it again with a work that is a must-read for every organizational leader. This definitive work will help you with specific insights, checklists, and case studies that demystify crisis management."-Bill Turner, Director of Retail Operations, Nike, Inc.

"Larry Barton shares hundreds of solutions that he has embedded in many of the world's best-run companies. From psychology to the law, human resources to communications, his interdisciplinary thinking shines in "Crisis Leadership Now,""-Alan Friedman, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University

""Crisis Leadership Now" is a powerful reminder to corporate leaders that American businesses remain prime targets for terrorist acts. This is ... the ultimate guide to crisis management planning."-Kathleen McChesney, former Executive Assistant Director, FBI

"Larry Barton provides a powerful wake-up call for many companies, many of which are vulnerable because their leaders repeatedly ignore warning signs and are poorly prepared to manage a variety of threats."-Joseph Liska, retired Director of Crisis Management, British Petroleum

Author Biography

Laurence Barton, PhD, has spent 25 years studying the causes of crisis in the workplace. Barton, the former Vice President of Crisis Management at Motorola, has managed more than 1,200 incidents worldwide, writing crisis plans and consulting with senior leaders at ABC News, The Walt Disney Company, Nike, Honda, British Petroleum, ESPN, and more than 60 hotels and casinos during defining moments. The author of three often-quoted books on crisis management, Barton is President and Professor of Management at The American College in Bryn Mawr, PA.