The following is adapted from a WSJ column by Bill George, author of 'True North' and former CEO of Medtronic.

    Here are seven lessons for leaders charged with leading their organizations through a crisis:

    Lesson 1: Leaders must face reality. Reality starts with the person in charge. Leaders need to look themselves in the mirror and recognize their role in creating the problems. Then they should gather their teams together and gain agreement about the root causes. Widespread recognition of reality is the crucial step before problems can be solved. Attempting to find short-term fixes that address the symptoms of the crisis only ensures the organization will wind up back in the same predicament.

    In order to understand the real reasons for the crisis, everyone on the leadership team must be willing to tell the whole truth. Leaders can't solve problems if they don't acknowledge their existence.

    Lesson 2: No matter how bad things are, they will get worse. Faced with bad news, many leaders cannot believe that things could really be so grim. Consequently, they try to convince the bearers of bad news that things aren't so bad, and swift action can make problems go away.

    This causes leaders to undershoot the mark in terms of corrective actions. As a consequence, they wind up taking a series of steps, none of which is powerful enough to correct the downward spiral. It is far better for leaders to anticipate the worst and get out in front of it. If they restructure their cost base for the worst case, they can get their organization healthy for the turnaround when it comes and take advantage of opportunities that present themselves.

    Lesson 3: Build a mountain of cash, and get to the highest hill. In good times leaders worry more about earnings per share and revenue growth than they do about their balance sheets. In a crisis, cash is king. Forget about earnings-per-share and all those stock market measures. The question is, 'Does your organization have sufficient cash to survive the most dire circumstances?'

    Lesson 4: Get the world off your shoulders. In a crisis, many leaders act like Atlas, carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. They go into isolation, and think they can solve the problem themselves. In reality, leaders must have the help of all their people to devise solutions and to implement them. This means bringing people into their confidence, asking them for help and ideas, and gaining their commitment to painful corrective actions.

    Lesson 5: Before asking others to sacrifice, first volunteer yourself. If there are sacrifices to be made and there will be then the leaders should step up and make the greatest sacrifices themselves. Everyone is watching to see what the leaders do. Will they stay true to their values? Will they bow to external pressures, or confront the crisis in a straight-forward manner? Will they be seduced by short-term rewards, or will they make near-term sacrifices in order to fix the long-term situation?

    Lesson 6: Never waste a good crisis. When things are going well, people resist major changes or try to get by with minor adaptations. A crisis provides the leader with the platform to get things done that were required anyway and offers the sense of urgency to accelerate their implementation.

    Lesson 7: Be aggressive in the marketplace. This may sound counter-intuitive, but a crisis offers the best opportunity to change the game in your favor, with new products or services to gain market share. Many people look at a crisis as something to get through, until they can go back to business as usual. But 'business as usual' never returns because markets are irrevocably changed. Why not create the changes that move the market in your favor, instead of waiting and reacting to the changes as they take place?

    以下內容節選自比爾•喬治(Bill George)的博客，他著有《真北：125位全球頂尖領袖的領導力告白》(True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership)一書，曾任美敦力公司(Medtronic Inc.)首席執行長。

    負有帶領公司走出危機之責的領導人應當記取的七大教訓：

    教訓1：領導人必須面對現實。現實從負責的人開始。領導人需要審視自身，認識自己在引起問題方面扮演了何種角色。然后他們應當集合自己的團隊，就問題的根源達成一致意見。普遍認清現實是問題得以解決的關鍵步驟。試圖找出應對危機表象的短期解決方案只會讓公司最終又回到同樣的困境。

    要了解危機的真正原因，領導團隊中的每個人都必須愿意說出全部的事實。如果領導人不承認存在問題，就無法解決問題。

    教訓2：不管情況多糟糕，它們都會變得更糟。面對壞消息，許多領導人無法相信事態真的這么嚴重。結果，他們會試圖說服傳達壞消息的人，說情況其實沒那么壞，只要迅速采取行動就能讓問題消失。

    這會導致領導人解決問題時力度不夠。結果，他們最終采取了一系列措施，但沒有一個得力到可以糾正不斷惡化的形勢。如果領導人能夠預先考慮最壞的情況并搶先解決，情形會好得多。如果他們從最糟糕的情況出發對成本結構進行調整，一旦經濟好轉，公司就會處于良好的狀況，也能夠利用擺在面前的機會。

    教訓3：積累大量資金，越多越好。在世道好的時候，領導人更多地擔心每股收益和收入的增長，而不怎么擔心資產負債表的狀況。但危機之時，現金決定一切。別去想什么每股收益和所有那些股市指標。關鍵問題是：你的公司是否有充足的資金以度過最嚴峻的形勢？

    教訓4：不要什么都一個人承擔。危機之時，許多領導人都像大力神一般，獨力承擔整個世界的重負。他們與外界隔絕，覺得自己能解決所有問題。事實上，領導人必須得到手下人的協助才能想出解決方案并付諸實施。這就意味著要讓人們有信心，向他們尋求幫助和建議，并取得他們對實施棘手矯正行動的承諾。

    教訓5：在要求其他人犧牲之前，自己先作出表率。如果需要做出犧牲（肯定會有這種情況的），領導人應當首先站出來做出最大的犧牲。每個人都在看領導人會怎么做。他們會不會身體力行自己所說的價值觀？他們是會屈從于外部壓力，還是直面危機？他們會受到短期回報的誘惑，還是會做出暫時的犧牲以修正長期局面？

    教訓6：永遠不要浪費危機的大好機會。在世道好的時候，人們不愿意進行重大變革，或是試圖通過小打小鬧的調整勉強對付過去。危機給領導人提供了平臺，可以做到一些本來就必須做的事，并給人一種緊迫感，從而加速實施。

    教訓7：在市場上積極進取。聽上去也許有點不合常理，但危機是讓形勢朝著對你有利的方向發展的最好機會，可以推出新產品或服務，奪取市場份額。許多人認為需要捱過危機才能令業務回到跟平常一樣的狀態。但“跟平常一樣的狀態”永遠不會回來，因為市場的改變無可挽回。不要只是坐等變化發生后被動地應對，為什么不去創造一些變化，令市場朝著有利于你的方向發展呢？