When you’re a leader, you may be approached by and put in situations that you didn’t prepare yourself for.
When facing these situations, it’s easy to panic or get upset about it, but that won’t solve any of your problems. The best thing you can do in any situation is to think rationally and make compromises.
So someone comes to you and blames you and your club for something you didn’t know about. What do you do? You may have the urge to get angry and annoyed, blame someone else, and storm out of the room. RESIST.
The following steps are some suggestions for handling surprises:
Take responsibility for what may have been the fault of your club, even if you are not personally responsible for it.
Apologize for the confusion/disorganization/mistake/etc.
Rationally think about what options you have to fix the problem. Think about what is best for EVERYONE involved, not just for your side.
Discuss options with the opposing side of the conflict. What are they looking for in a resolution? What kind of compromise is okay with them?
Decide on a compromise and follow through.
Apologize again.
Make a note to yourself and your officers of what happened and why so that it can be avoided in the future.