COVID-19 has been a true crisis since March, and you may feel that it’s become easier to manage your community recently. However, the next challenge is how to open up your community while keeping everyone safe. You may open it and then have to close it again, we just don’t know what’s going to happen. So here we have a guide about crisis leadership and how it can be applied to managing your community.

Prompt Response

You may not have a lot of information to work with, but you need to make a good decision fast. The board with the help of the property manager should get together virtually and analyze the risks of carrying out different plans. People’s safety should always come first, but it’s important to keep any financial impacts in mind. What you shouldn’t worry about is what people say if you choose to do something that seems a bit over the top at the time. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. You need to make the best decision possible with the information that’s available to you as quickly as you can.  

Be Transparent

The community’s stakeholders, so the board and the property manager, need to be transparent with each other. You should also be open with residents mand any staff you may have. Transparency is always recognized and appreciated. If you gloss over what’s happening or play it down people will notice and they’ll feel less valued and less safe. You should increase communication with residents and keep them informed of what’s going on. You should also encourage them to keep talking to you, to ask questions, and to let you know if someone in their household experiences any of the symptoms. Send out newsletters more regularly, post in your HOA software or Facebook group and put up posters around the community

Be decisive in a crisis

Property managers and board members need to work together and be united in their decision. No board member should complain about decisions made in public, you must be a united front. You can choose to have one person as more of a spokesperson so that the response seems more uniform. If you do this, it doesn’t have to be the president of the board, it can be a different board member if that works better for your community. The other option is to sign all communications from ‘The Board of your community’. That way no one person is blamed for an unpopular decision. 

Be brave enough to make tough choices

We already mentioned this, but you do need to make big, bold decisions during a crisis even if they’re unpopular. 

An example of radical decision making is when seven people died from cyanide poisoning after having Tylenol. The CEO of Johnson & Johnson, James E. Burke recalled all Tylenol even though his stakeholders didn’t want him to. At the time, many people thought Johnson & Johnson would never recover, but taking a radical decision helped them save their reputation. 

Compared to that huge decision, closing the pool because residents aren’t respecting the rules doesn’t seem so bad! Residents may complain, but ultimately they will be pleased that you are putting their safety above all else.

Be flexible

During a crisis, you’re making decisions quickly, with the information that’s available. During the coronavirus crisis, the symptoms have changed as new data comes to light. Your communication and response must change with new information. What didn’t seem important yesterday can be vital the next day, so make sure your strategy changes with it. Don’t forget to communicate your new strategy with residents, use all the methods at your disposal to talk to them about what’s going on. It’s important that everyone knows what’s going on, so if you know that one resident doesn’t check their email, then give them a call.

Your community can definitely come out of this crisis stronger if the board and property manager work together quickly and efficiently in the best interests of everyone who lives in the community.

Be Quick

You may not have a lot of information to work with, but you need to make a good decision fast. The board with the help of the property manager should get together virtually and analyze the risks of carrying out different plans. People’s safety should always come first, but it’s important to keep any financial impacts in mind. What you shouldn’t worry about is what people say if you choose to do something that seems a bit over the top at the time. It’s always better to be safe than sorry. You need to make the best decision possible with the information that’s available to you as quickly as you can.  

During a crisis, it’s important to work together, stay united, and work in your residents’ best interests.

If you need help managing your community in a crisis, using HOA software can help.