Leading in Crisis. Theodore Roosevelt’s Three Steps Guide To Crisis Management

President Trump Addressing The Coronavirus Crisis. Source: The Wall Street Journal.

With the coal strike, Roosevelt was in a peculiar situation. Under the constitution, the President does not have the legal authority to intervene. However, if things get out of hand, the President will be held accountable even if he does not have to authority to act on it.

Rather than jumping right into it from the beginning, Roosevelt avoided knee jerk reaction and remain uncommitted in the early stage. He seek first to understand the facts, causes, and conditions of the situation. Roosevelt directed his Commissioner of Labor, Carroll Wright, to get all the facts related to the strike and put it in a special report.

With Wright’s suggestions for improved working conditions, which might comes across as the President is siding with the miners. The dilemma for Roosevelt is whether to make the report public. He understands the importance of not to fuel the fire. So he decided to closely monitor the development of the strike and not to make the report public until much later. Read More...