{"id":49190,"date":"2020-12-02T12:02:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T17:02:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=49190"},"modified":"2025-05-08T06:18:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T10:18:32","slug":"leading-in-crisis-strategic-pivot","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/articles\/white-papers\/leading-in-crisis-strategic-pivot\/","title":{"rendered":"Leading in a Crisis: From Survival to Strategic Pivot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Across the globe, leaders continue to deal with a crisis that\u2019s challenged them in unimaginable ways.<\/p>\n<p>CXOs are responsible for dealing with external leadership crises to keep their businesses afloat, but also deep personal leadership crises within as they dig into their depleting reserves of emotional energy to motivate themselves and their teams.<\/p>\n<p>The combined social, economic, and health crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic continue to stress-test organizations, forcing them to either make a strategic pivot or risk going under.<\/p>\n<h2>What Is a Strategic Pivot?<\/h2>\n<p>During times of crisis, a strategic pivot is vital. When doing this, the ultimate goal is to create resiliency and agility to pivot the organization&#8217;s &#8220;machinery&#8221; \u2014 its operations, processes, structure, talent, and culture. A strategic pivot in response to a crisis is best broken down into 3 steps:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Reflect on the situation and their values;<\/li>\n<li>Respond to the situation and replenish themselves; and<\/li>\n<li>Reframe, changing tactics to leverage opportunities presented.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>When a challenge arises, whether it&#8217;s a global matter or an organizational issue, leaders need to be intentional and take appropriate actions to effectively lead toward the future.<\/p>\n<h2>How to Pivot Effectively<\/h2>\n<h3>3 Key Actions for Leaders<\/h3>\n<p>Learn more about the necessary actions each key step a strategic pivot requires of an organization\u2019s top leaders:<\/p>\n<h4>1. Reflect: Slow down to go fast.<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Be present and only think about the current situation.<\/li>\n<li>Maintain healthy skepticism.<\/li>\n<li>Create a forum for tapping into collective wisdom.<\/li>\n<li>Lean on external networks, both formal and informal.<\/li>\n<li>Understand your values and be aware of potential biases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>2. Respond: Rebuild the ship as it sails.<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Differentiate between crisis management and crisis leadership.<\/li>\n<li>Appreciate the difference between \u201curgent\u201d and \u201cimportant.\u201d<\/li>\n<li>Focus on communication and prioritize people issues.<\/li>\n<li>Create potential scenarios and action triggers.<\/li>\n<li>Think in terms of days and weeks, not years.<\/li>\n<li>Recharge your energy pool.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>3. Reframe: Make the Most of Adversity.<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Reassesses the environment regularly to unearth hidden opportunities.<\/li>\n<li>Maintain customer centricity.<\/li>\n<li>Think about partnerships and collaboration.<\/li>\n<li>Consider doing old things in new ways.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This paper \u2014 based on in-depth interviews with 73 C-Suite Leaders (CXOs) and board directors across Asia from different countries (Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Cambodia), industries, and organizations \u2014 articulates the journey leaders need to continue to navigate as they make a strategic pivot to survive and succeed in the \u201cnext normal.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"d-none\">Download White Paper<\/h2>\n<div class=\"callOut\">\n<div class=\"h2Display\">Download White Paper<\/div>\n<p>Moving from survival to strategic pivot post-COVID requires organizations to reflect, reset, and recalibrate. Learn how in this white paper.<\/p>\n<div class=\"buttonPosition\"><a class=\"buttons button1\" href=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/leading-in-crisis-strategic-pivot-center-for-creative-leadership.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" aria-label=\"Download the Leading in a Crisis white paper now.\" data-material-type=\"white paper\" data-element-type=\"action button\" data-element-cta=\"Download File\" data-element-position=\"1\">Download Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The research initiative was led by the Center for Creative Leadership in partnership with the Institute of Corporate Directors, Philippines (ICD); the Indonesia Economic Forum (IEF); Center of Excellence in Management Research for Corporate Governance and Behavioral Finance, Sasin School of Management, Thailand; and the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM).<\/p>\n<div class=\"scalingBlock col4\">\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-45259\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/icdm-institute-of-corporate-directors-malaysia-logo-300x200.png\" alt=\"ICDM - Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/icdm-institute-of-corporate-directors-malaysia-logo-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/icdm-institute-of-corporate-directors-malaysia-logo.png 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-51708\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/icd-institute-of-corporate-directors-logo-300x200.png\" alt=\"ICD - Institute of Corporate Directors\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/icd-institute-of-corporate-directors-logo-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/icd-institute-of-corporate-directors-logo.png 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-51709\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/sasin-logo-300x200.png\" alt=\"Sasin - Center of Excellence\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/sasin-logo-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/sasin-logo.png 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-51711\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/indonesia-economic-forum-logo-300x200.png\" alt=\"Indonesia Economic Forum\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/indonesia-economic-forum-logo-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/www.ccl.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/indonesia-economic-forum-logo.png 450w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Succeeding post-COVID requires organizations to reflect, reset, and recalibrate. Our interviews with Asian CXOs reveal how organizations and individuals are navigating this complex situation to emerge stronger and more resilient. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":49196,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49190","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","categories-crisis","audience-executives","impact-level-senior-leaders","region-apac","article-type-white-papers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Leading in a Crisis: From Survival to Strategic Pivot | CCL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Moving from survival to strategic pivot post-COVID requires organizations to reflect, reset, and recalibrate. 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