Stop, think and ask

Running a roofing company doesn’t come without risks, and if a crisis strikes, there will be many decisions a company owner must make quickly. But according to the Harvard Business Review article “When the red phone rings: Three questions to ask in crisis,” asking the following three questions at the outset can help you focus your energies in the right direction before things spiral out of control:

1. What is happening? Author John Baldoni, a leadership consultant, says a company owner’s first step is to learn the facts of the situation. Did someone fall or trip? Does anyone know how or why? Have other workers made the same mistake? “Knowing the answers to these questions will establish a background of facts before you act,” Baldoni writes.
2. What is not happening? You also have to determine what did not happen. If a worker did fall, what can you rule out? Was he or she using proper fall protection? If yes, did the equipment fail? Was he or she sober? Baldoni writes: “These answers broaden the understanding of the situation and put it into greater context. Specifically, what is happening may be an isolated occurrence or it may be something of huge significance.”
3. What can you do to influence the action or outcome? Barring a serious worker injury or death, is the crisis something you can hand off to someone else? For example, if equipment was stolen from a job site, can a member of your senior leadership run point? “Being able to [hand off responsibility] demonstrates faith in the subordinate and shows that the situation is not so dire that the top person has to be involved,” Baldoni explains.

Crises can strike a roofing business any number of ways, and you should already have a protocol in place for handling them. But before the protocol can begin, you should ask thoughtful questions that will provide you time for reflection and avoid potentially rash decisions.

AMBIKA PUNIANI REID is editor of Professional Roofing and NRCA’s vice president of communications.