full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Amy C. Edmondson: How to lead in a crisis

Unscramble the Blue Letters


First, this type of leadership requires communicating with transparency, communicating often. So how can leaders lead when there is so little certainty, so little clarity? Whether you are a CEO, a prime minister, a middle manager or even a head of school, upheaval means you have to ramp up the humility. When what you know is limited, pdineentrg that you have the anwesrs isn't helpful. Amidst upheaval, leaders must share what they know and admit what they don't know. paliadxoarcly, that hostney creates more psychological safety for people, not less.

For example when the pandemic devastated the aiinrle industry virtually overnight, CEO of Delta Airlines Ed biatasn ramped up employee ccuatiominmon despite having so little clarity about the path ahead, facing truly dire results. At one point in 2020, losing over a hundred million dollars a day, it would have been far eeiasr for Bastian to wait for more itiomrfonan before taking action, but effective leaders during upheaval don't hide in the shadows. In fact, as Bastian put it, it is far more important to canictuomme when you don't have the answers than when you do.

Open Cloze


First, this type of leadership requires communicating with transparency, communicating often. So how can leaders lead when there is so little certainty, so little clarity? Whether you are a CEO, a prime minister, a middle manager or even a head of school, upheaval means you have to ramp up the humility. When what you know is limited, __________ that you have the _______ isn't helpful. Amidst upheaval, leaders must share what they know and admit what they don't know. _____________, that _______ creates more psychological safety for people, not less.

For example when the pandemic devastated the _______ industry virtually overnight, CEO of Delta Airlines Ed _______ ramped up employee _____________ despite having so little clarity about the path ahead, facing truly dire results. At one point in 2020, losing over a hundred million dollars a day, it would have been far ______ for Bastian to wait for more ___________ before taking action, but effective leaders during upheaval don't hide in the shadows. In fact, as Bastian put it, it is far more important to ___________ when you don't have the answers than when you do.

Solution


  1. information
  2. bastian
  3. honesty
  4. pretending
  5. easier
  6. paradoxically
  7. airline
  8. communication
  9. communicate
  10. answers

Original Text


First, this type of leadership requires communicating with transparency, communicating often. So how can leaders lead when there is so little certainty, so little clarity? Whether you are a CEO, a prime minister, a middle manager or even a head of school, upheaval means you have to ramp up the humility. When what you know is limited, pretending that you have the answers isn't helpful. Amidst upheaval, leaders must share what they know and admit what they don't know. Paradoxically, that honesty creates more psychological safety for people, not less.

For example when the pandemic devastated the airline industry virtually overnight, CEO of Delta Airlines Ed Bastian ramped up employee communication despite having so little clarity about the path ahead, facing truly dire results. At one point in 2020, losing over a hundred million dollars a day, it would have been far easier for Bastian to wait for more information before taking action, but effective leaders during upheaval don't hide in the shadows. In fact, as Bastian put it, it is far more important to communicate when you don't have the answers than when you do.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
prime minister 2


Important Words


  1. action
  2. admit
  3. airline
  4. airlines
  5. answers
  6. bastian
  7. ceo
  8. certainty
  9. clarity
  10. communicate
  11. communicating
  12. communication
  13. creates
  14. day
  15. delta
  16. devastated
  17. dire
  18. dollars
  19. easier
  20. ed
  21. effective
  22. employee
  23. facing
  24. fact
  25. head
  26. helpful
  27. hide
  28. honesty
  29. humility
  30. important
  31. industry
  32. information
  33. lead
  34. leaders
  35. leadership
  36. limited
  37. losing
  38. manager
  39. means
  40. middle
  41. million
  42. minister
  43. overnight
  44. pandemic
  45. paradoxically
  46. path
  47. people
  48. point
  49. pretending
  50. prime
  51. psychological
  52. put
  53. ramp
  54. ramped
  55. requires
  56. results
  57. safety
  58. school
  59. shadows
  60. share
  61. transparency
  62. type
  63. upheaval
  64. virtually
  65. wait