I'm going to start by explaining to us what a key performance indicator is because I believe as leaders, we are familiar with what strategic leadership is and we are also familiar with what crisis management is. So, I'm not going to be defining those terminologies to us because I believe they are terminologies that we are familiar with. But I simply want to define what a key performance indicator is because that is like the crux of what we're looking at today on Leaderview. So, what is a key performance indicator?

 

A key performance indicator is usually a quantifiable measure that is used to evaluate the success or failure of a leader in the discharge of his or her leadership assignment. So that tells us that a key performance indicator is measurable, and it is usually used to evaluate the success or failure of a leader in the discharge of his or her leadership assignments. So, the key performance indicator measures the overall performance of the leader. That is what the key performance indicator does. It measures the overall performance of the leader, whether in crisis management, or outside of crisis management. So that is what a key performance indicator actually talks about.

 

Now, for example, there are key performance indicators to measure a leader’s performance in the time of crisis. And there are also key performance indicators to measure a leader’s performance outside of crisis or when there is no crisis. So, in essence, there is always a key performance indicator to measure the performance, the overall performance of a leader when there is no crisis. And there is also a key performance indicator to measure the overall performance of a leader when there is a crisis. So, the key performance indicator to measure the performance of a leader when there is no crisis is always different from the key performance indicators to measure the overall performance of a leader when there is a crisis.

 

But in his piece, we are looking at the key performance indicators to measure the leader’s performance during a crisis. How do we measure your performance as a leader when you are going through a crisis period in your leadership, in your organization. So, we want to look at these key performance indicators and I believe they're going to help you to maneuver whatever crisis that you may be going through either in your leadership or in your organization. Now we are going to be using the story of a very beautiful leader in the Bible, called Nehemiah, we are going to be extracting these key performance indicators from the Life and Leadership of Nehemiah in the Bible.

 

So, the very first of those key performance indicators to measure your performance during a crisis as a leader is your ability to plan. Your ability to plan as a leader when there is a crisis is usually the very first key performance indicator that we look at in measuring your performance. Now how do we know this? If you open your Bibles to Nehemiah chapter two, from verse one to six, the Bible says:

 

“And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before. ² Therefore the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart.” So, I became dreadfully afraid, ³ and said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?” ⁴ Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So, I prayed to the God of heaven. ⁵ And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.” ⁶ Then the king said to me (the queen also sitting beside him), “How long will your journey be? And when will you return?” So, it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.”

 

Now, this is the story of Nehemiah, if you read Nehemia chapter one, the Bible says, the information came to him that the city of his father's had been burned down, the walls of Jerusalem had been thrown down. And when he received that information in chapter one, the Bible says He prayed to the God of heaven. And I believe it was from that time that he started planning how he will go back to his home country in order to rebuild it. But in chapter two, the Bible says the king, whom he was serving at the time found out that Nehemiah was going through a challenge, and he asked him: What do you request?

 

And one of the things that is so fundamental in this question that the king asked is the fact that the king wanted to know his plan. And in that story, we saw that Nehemiah, even though there was crisis in his own land, was able to give the king a concrete plan, he was able to tell the king what he was going to do and the Bible says he also set a time that he was going to return. Now what exactly does this tell us as leaders? It simply showed us a leader who has a plan. Now, the fact that your organization is going through a crisis or you are experiencing crisis in your leadership, does not mean or does not negate that you cannot sit down and plan. One of the hallmarks of your leadership is the fact that you are able to strategically plan, even though you are experiencing a crisis.

 

So, don't give yourself an excuse, by simply saying, “Oh, the reason why we are not planning is simply because we are going through a crisis.” As a matter of fact, the time that you should even have a plan for your organization, and for your leadership as a leader is when there is crisis. You must be able to come out or come up with a plan that is going to take you out of the crisis that you have found yourself, that your organization has found itself as a leader. So, the very first key performance indicator of a strategic leader in crisis management is the leader’s ability to plan.

 

Now look at the second key performance indicator. The second key performance indicator is the leader’s ability to assess the crisis firsthand. Your ability as a leader to assess the crisis that is ongoing in your organization, in your leadership, to assess it first; is also one of the measures of your key performance indicators. Now let me take us back to the book of Nehemiah chapter two and we're going to read from verse 11 to 16. Let us look at this example also in the leadership of Nehemiah. The Bible says from verse 11:

 

“So, I came to Jerusalem and was there three days. ¹² Then I arose in the night, I and a few men with me; I told no one what my God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem; nor was there any animal with me, except the one on which I rode. ¹³ And I went out by night through the Valley Gate to the Serpent Well and the Refuse Gate, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem which were broken down and its gates which were burned with fire.

 

He viewed it firsthand. Nehemiah was at the place of the crisis. He was at the forefront of the crisis. He was assessing what was going on by himself. He was not waiting for a report to be brought to him, he went to the field of crisis and assessed it, he examined what was going on.

 

¹⁴ Then I went on to the Fountain Gate and to the King’s Pool, but there was no room for the animal under me to pass. ¹⁵ So I went up in the night by the valley, and viewed the wall; then I turned back and entered by the Valley Gate, and so returned. ¹⁶ And the officials did not know where I had gone or what I had done; I had not yet told the Jews, the priests, the nobles, the officials, or the others who did the work.”

 

Now, your ability to assess the crisis firsthand is also one of your key performance indicators. What exactly is the crisis that you are going through? Are you able to assess it by yourself? Or are you waiting for a secondary report, you know, many leaders across the globe today, when there is crisis, they simply set up a committee, they simply raise up people to go and assess the crisis, they themselves, they don't move an inch. The hallmark of an effective leader, of a strategic leader is that you go to the field of the crisis, you go and examine what exactly the problem is. Every leader who will be strategic in his leadership must have a firsthand information of what the problem is, of what the crisis is.

 

You will not rely on the information that you are being told, you have a firsthand information. And that was exactly what we saw in the story of Nehemiah. Nehemiah got up, he went to where the crisis took place, and he was able to assess it. So, one of your key performance indicators as a leader in crisis management is your ability to have a firsthand information about the crisis that your organization is going through, about the crisis that your leadership is going through.

 

Let me show us the third one. The third one is the leader’s ability to cast a new vision. Even in the midst of that crisis, a strategic leader is able to come up with a new vision. There is nothing that stops you from having a vision even when there is crisis. A vision has brought you to where you are, a vision has brought you into a crisis. If you are going to leave that crisis, if your organization or your leadership will come out of that crisis, it will take another vision to bring you out. So, you don't say as a leader because there is crisis, my ability to cast vision has been shut down, no! Your ability to cast vision must be alive, it must be active even in crisis because this is what is going to bring you out and your organization out of this crisis.

 

Now look at what Nehemiah did. If you go to verse 17-18 of Nehemiah chapter 2. Nehemiah was able to cast a new vision. If you read verse 17, it says: ¹⁷ Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire. Come and let us build the wall of Jerusalem…” That is a new vision. The vision is to build a new one. There were walls before, they were thrown down and burned with fire. Nehemiah said now is the time to build a new one. That is a new vision. It says let us build a new wall for Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach. If your organization will no longer be a reproach, then as a strategic leader, you must be able to cast a new vision. If your leadership will no longer be a approach, as a strategic leader that you are, you must be able to cast a new vision.

 

¹⁸ And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me. So, they said, “Let us rise up and build.” Then they set their hands to this good work. Did you see that? Nehemiah was able to cast a vision, the people were encouraged and they say let us. When you get to a point where your people tell you as a leader; let us do it. We believe we can do it. We believe we can come out of this crisis. We believe that our organization will rise again. We believe that our leadership will be effective again, then you have gotten to a point that you have given them a new vision, you have given them a new passion; and they will be able to tell you, let us. The people told Nehemiah; let us, we can build the walls of Jerusalem. How did they get to that point? Because Nehemiah was able to cast a new vision even in the midst of the crisis. What is that telling us as a leader, your key performance indicators in crisis management is your ability to cast a new vision even in the midst of the crisis.

 

Now look at another one, the leader’s ability to raise a formidable team. Now you have cast a new vision, the crisis is still ongoing. What do you need to do? Raise a team, a team of men and women that will run with the vision that you have casted. If you read Nehemiah chapter four verse six, the Bible says: “So, we built the wall…” Nehemiah didn’t say “I built the wall, he said we. So, we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.” He had given them a new vision. He had raised a formidable team. And the people that had raised, the Bible showed us that they had a mind to work. In the midst of that crisis, raise a formidable team. It takes a team to bring the organization out of that crisis, to bring your leadership out of that ineffectiveness. Raise a formidable team. It is one of your key performance indicators.

 

The fifth one that I want to show us is the leader’s ability to remain calm, even in the midst of the crisis. As a leader, one of your key performance indicators is your ability to remain calm, even in the midst of that crisis. If you read Nehemiah chapter four, from verse 7 to 14, the Bible says:

 

“Now it happened, when Sanballat, Tobiah, the Arabs, the Ammonites, and the Ashdodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed, that they became very angry, ⁸ and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion. ⁹ Nevertheless we made our prayer to our God, and because of them we set a watch against them day and night. ¹⁰ Then Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is failing, and there is so much rubbish that we are not able to build the wall.” ¹¹ And our adversaries said, “They will neither know nor see anything, till we come into their midst and kill them and cause the work to cease.” ¹² So it was, when the Jews who dwelt near them came, that they told us ten times, “From whatever place you turn, they will be upon us.” ¹³ Therefore I positioned men behind the lower parts of the wall, at the openings; and I set the people according to their families, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. ¹⁴ And I looked, and arose and said to the nobles, to the leaders, and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, great and awesome, and fight for your brethren, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your houses.”

 

Sanballat and Tobiah made a mockery of Nehemiah and his team, distracting them. But the Bible showed us that Nehemiah was not timid, Nehemiah remained calm. He was not afraid. If you're going to come out of a crisis that your organization is going through as a leader, as a strategic leader that you are, then you must remain calm. How calm is you in the midst of crisis? How gentle are you in the midst of that crisis that your organization is going through, in the midst of that crisis that your leadership is going through?

 

As a leader, a key performance indicator for your performance during a crisis is how calm you are in that crisis. And the last one I want to show us is the leader’s ability to lead from the front. The leader’s ability to lead his people from the front even in that time of crisis. If you look at Nehemiah chapter four from verse 21-23, the Bible says:

 

²¹ So we labored in the work, and half of the men held the spears from daybreak until the stars appeared. ²² At the same time I also said to the people, “Let each man and his servant stay at night in Jerusalem, that they may be our guard by night and a working party by day.” ²³ So neither I, my brethren, my servants, nor the men of the guard who followed me took off our clothes, except that everyone took them off for washing.

 

What are we seeing from this place? We are looking at a leader who is leading his team from the front, we are looking at a leader who is at the forefront of leading his organization out of the crisis. He didn't say well you people should go ahead and be doing it. Let me remain in my office, no! The leader was also in the field, he was getting his hands dirty, as his team were getting their hands dirty, he himself was also getting his hands dirty. He led them, his followers were also encouraged. And he says so we labored. And if you read the entire story, the Bible showed us that the walls were built simply because a leader who is strategic enough was able to understand all the key performance indicators and he was able to make use of them.

 

Now, in summary, the key performance indicators to measure a leader’s performance during a crisis are simply as follows. Let me just show us again:

 

· Your ability to plan

· Your ability to access the situation of the crisis first hand

· Your ability to cast a new vision even in the crisis

· Your ability to raise a formidable team

· Your ability to remain calm amidst the crisis

· Your ability to lead from the front

 

These are key performance indicators of a strategic leader in crisis management. Your ability to manage all these will determine whether you will come out of that crisis as an organization, or you will remain perpetually in that crisis. May the Lord give us all the wisdom that we require to lead our organizations effectively, to lead our leadership and our team effectively, even in the period of crisis; and may we not give up on our leadership assignments in the mighty name of Jesus.

 

Amen

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Obayomi Abiola Benjamin!

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