I've just returned from Greece, where the financial crisis is on the minds of most Greeks. The problems there provide valuable insights for leaders about dealing with crises.

The Greeks are, if nothing else, opinionated. Talk to five Greeks and you'll get five different opinions, all expressed with great passion and exuberance. They love to discuss politics and provide their personal assessments of what's going on, what's wrong, who is at fault, and what should be done.

The need to express themselves plays out in more ways than merely conversations over coffee. Athens has several daily newspapers in which a wide variety of political perspectives are presented, a far more diverse array of opinions than our media in the United States.

The expression of opinions, whether in Greece or in the United States, presents leaders with a challenging dilemma. On the one hand, it's good to know what people are thinking. On the other hand, how do you sift through the many passionately expressed perspectives? To resolve this dilemma, leaders will need to separate the wheat from the chaff. That is, how do you select what is useful and what isn't? The answer is to sort out from the variety of perspectives those arguments and positions that will enable you to make sense of the situation and decide what action to take. Here are two ways to get started:

• Develop a longer term view of the situation. Put the problem into a historical perspective by comparing it to other similar events and issues, by identifying its roots, and by considering how other organizations and countries have dealt with comparable challenges. Once you can see a problem in a larger context, you can reduce the likelihood that it will escalate into an unmanageable monolith.

• Remember and rely on your core beliefs and values. In the midst of a crisis, like sailing in the middle of a storm, it's easy to lose your way. To not let the crisis swamp your ship, remind yourself of what matters most to you. Your core beliefs and values will serve like a compass to help you weather the storm and set you on the right course.

Sorting through myriad opinions is just one of the challenges for leaders. Another is letting people know you have heard them and are concerned about what they care about without necessarily agreeing with them.

Everyone wants to feel important. In a crisis, people want to feel as though their leaders understand and empathize with their situation. This means that leaders need to do several things to make sure the members of their organizations aren't left feeling abandoned, ignored, unheard, or demeaned. How can you do that?

First, show up. Both in person and via the many communications tools available today. Like presidents who fly into areas experiencing national disasters, go to the front lines where the people most likely to be affected by the crisis work.

Spend time listening. Take time to talk in person with individuals and small groups. Ask them about their experiences. Allow them to express their frustration, fear, anger, and anxiety. Acknowledge and accept what they see, feel, hear, and believe. Let them know you understand.

Communicate. Start by letting people know what you've found out when you talked with others. Talk about the importance and significance of the crisis. This is a difficult balancing act, as you need to avoid either minimizing or exaggerating its impact. And you need to communicate your commitment to working through the problem.

Finally, how do you maintain your equilibrium and not let the cacophony and stress lead you to make decisions that worsen the crisis? The pressure to make a decision immediately can cause leaders to act prematurely and make the wrong decision. Leaders who have lost their equilibrium, who seem to have panicked or appear to be like a deer caught in the headlights of a car at night, lose respect and rarely can get it back.

While there are no guarantees, a few things might help you keep your equilibrium so you can make sound decisions:

• Respect and trust experience. If you haven't been through crises like these before, find those who have, especially those who have handled similar crises effectively, and ask for their advice and assistance.

• Gather as much data as you can as quickly as you can, preferably from those who are closest to the crisis and in a position to report reliably on the facts of the situation. Use the information to develop as accurate a picture as you can. Be wary of those who give advice based on assumptions and suppositions.

• Don't let the crisis completely derail your normal process for making decisions. Most leaders have succeeded because they've developed a way to make decisions that has worked effectively over the course of years. Trust and rely on that process rather than trying to come up with an untested new approach for making decisions.

• Finally, as my mother used to say, "If things aren't working out, do something." Action is better than doing nothing and, despite the risks of making the wrong decision, the best approach may be to do something, anything - it may work and it demonstrates that you're not idly being Nero, who fiddled as Rome burned.

As you think about the likelihood of the crises that may arise in your organization, which of these insights may be of most value to you? How can you become better prepared to handle the unforeseen and unpredictable?

The news is filled with recent examples of referees and umpires making horrible mistakes - the perfect baseball game that was voided by a bad call in the ninth inning and a goal being disallowed in the World Cup.

Everyone makes mistakes. What should you do, as a leader, when you've made one?

How you handle it says a lot about how good a leader you are and whether you're worthy of the respect of your colleagues and subordinates.

While I was in Greece, the temperature topped 100 degrees for a week or more. The effect on people and plants was visibly similar - they both wilted.

Prolonged heat saps energy, creating lethargy and an unwillingness to tackle much of anything. Leaders are not immune to the effects of heat, whether it's the temperature outside or the prolonged pressure under which they function inside organizations.

What do you do so that you don't wilt under the heat (pressure) of work?

Email archie@archietinelli.com