How to Lead in a Crisis
The following contribution is from the Center for Creative Leadership website and is authored by the team.
Don’t expect leaders to magically forge themselves during a crisis. Instead, prepare yourself and your teams for effective leadership in crisis situations by developing communication skills, empathy, and clarity of vision and values.
How to Lead in a Crisis
Nothing tests a leader like a crisis.
The inherently human and emotionally charged climate surrounding a crisis can have profound effects on the people in an organization.
It can even threaten the stability of the organization itself.
Fortunately, there are steps a leader can take before, during, and after a crisis to support team members, mitigate losses, and keep things running as smoothly as possible unfamiliar to them in these situations.
But by understanding and adopting the strategies explored here and in our book «Crisis Leadership,» you can be better prepared to lead effectively when it matters most.
Why Strong Crisis Leadership Matters
Crises are inevitable, both in life and in organizations. But knowing how to lead in a crisis can directly influence the duration, severity, and ultimate consequences of the crisis for your team and your organization.
In times of uncertainty, leaders set the tone by their example and their conduct.
Strong leadership during unexpected events can reveal a team’s underutilized strengths, while instability is fueled by evasive and inflexible leaders.
Effective leaders typically have a well-developed ability to influence others and achieve results.
In a crisis, we recommend focusing on these crucial influence skills: communication, clarity of vision and values, and concern for others.
Paying attention to these skills and developing them is absolutely vital. The idea that a crisis will forge a leader—one who will rise to the occasion and display previously unseen abilities—is unrealistic.
But if you possess the skills that enable you to engage with your direct reports, care and take an interest in their well-being and development, be consistent in your behavior, and demonstrate integrity, competence, and commitment, you are more likely to behave in the same way during a crisis.
Strong leadership is also important during polycrises, when multiple crises interact and create complex challenges. Our polycrisis research examines the key leadership capabilities needed when organizations face multiple, interconnected crises.
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10 Strategies for Leading in a Crisis
- Communicate key information consistently.
In a crisis, information is powerful. It reduces the emotional distress caused by the unknown, lessens fear, and provides tactical guidance.
As a leader, your responsibility is to gather the most reliable and up-to-date information from trusted sources and share it with your employees. Doing so demonstrates concern, engagement, awareness, and control of the situation. Without transparent communication, a crisis can negatively impact morale, attitudes, productivity, and retention.
Essential information should be disseminated throughout the organization by all possible means. We recommend first communicating face-to-face, either in person or through virtual channels. But don’t stop there.
Key information should be managed with the 3 Rs: review, repeat, reinforce.
Repeating and reinforcing information daily, and through multiple delivery methods, helps it be assimilated and retained. Learn more tips for communicating in a crisis.
- If you’re in charge, take the reins.
The onset of a crisis presents enormous pressure to act, and act quickly. Sometimes, you need to begin addressing a problem before you fully understand what’s happening.
Effective leadership in a crisis involves being proactive and taking the initiative. Do something even if it might be wrong; paralysis or overanalysis are more risky. When making decisions and taking action while leading a crisis, communicate your actions truthfully and honestly. As your response changes, keep your employees informed about the 3 Rs.
- Remain accessible to your team.
When leading in a crisis, be present, visible, and available to employees. When leaders appear calm, concerned, informed, and in charge, people are more likely to trust that the situation is under control.
Since it’s not always possible to tour your facility and speak with colleagues in person, let employees know how they can reach you for status updates and to ask questions.
It’s also important to understand that organizational protocol must allow for flexibility in leadership during an emergency. Whoever is in charge is whoever is present. An entire operation cannot be paralyzed because the bureaucracy hasn’t considered the absence of a key member during an emergency.
- Prioritize people’s well-being.
It’s important to do everything possible to reduce people’s emotional stress while they perform their jobs. Treat everyone in your organization with empathy and genuine concern. Demonstrate this by paying attention, using active listening skills, and responding to what they say, as well as considering what isn’t said.
Leaders must reassure people in their organization that it is normal to feel emotionally strained in these circumstances. Communicating this message helps create a psychologically safe work environment for people to express their feelings, which is crucial to reducing the emotional impact of a crisis, promoting emotional healing, and reducing long-term negative effects.
Recognizing and managing the emotions of the situation can contribute to individual and group resilience, as well as helping people stay safe and return to normal (or a new normal).
- Don’t abandon your vision or values.
A crisis tends to distract people from the work they need to do, even if it’s critical to the organization’s survival.
Leadership in crisis situations should include following and emphasizing the team’s vision, mission, goals, and standards of conduct. These well-established values have the power to help hold the organization together, providing security and continuity for its people. 6. Lead with positivity.
A leader’s attitude is contagious. A positive and proactive attitude can motivate people even in extreme crisis situations. Because leaders are bearers of hope. Harnessing the power of positivity, loyalty, courage, morality, and other core values will link your crisis response to what’s important to people, making it more purposeful and impactful.
To lead others with positivity, leaders must lead by example. This means avoiding negative people, thoughts, and conversations.
- Take care of yourself.
During a crisis, leaders often focus on the emotional turmoil of their direct reports. But it’s equally important to be aware of your own emotional turmoil, its effect on your behavior, and its influence on your leadership skills.
By paying attention to your emotions, needs, and behaviors, you’ll be better equipped to manage the human dimensions of leading during a crisis. You’ll also be better able to contain the crisis, regain control, minimize damage, and effectively prevent, defuse, and reduce the duration of an extremely difficult leadership situation.
- Make changes that protect your peace.
Leading during a crisis may involve doing some things differently to complete tasks while preserving your personal well-being.
Try to keep some meetings short. Be more assertive. Say «no» more often. Take private 5-minute breaks. Practice relaxation techniques, such as meditation and deep breathing. Focus only on important matters; ignore secondary tasks. Don’t neglect spiritual exercises or activities that are important to you.
- Plan for the next crisis.
As a crisis becomes less urgent, time pressure also lessens. At that point, the plan must evolve into a more complex system that addresses recovery and a return to normalcy, whatever the new normal may be.
At this point, senior leaders must ask themselves an important question: Are we prepared if a similar emergency occurs in the future? Most leaders admit that crisis planning (e.g., having an action plan and setting aside resources for a crisis) is important. However, rarely are sufficient resources set aside for contingencies. While improvisation cannot be planned, reflection and teamwork exercises can be integrated into a training program that prepares everyone for future events.
- Remember the big picture.
It’s natural to take things day by day when considering how to lead in a crisis. But it’s also important to maintain perspective by thinking about the broader vision you have for yourself, both personally and professionally. Take a break from today’s urgent tasks to think about where you’ll be and what you’ll be doing a year from now. These breaks can help you pause and appreciate that you’re alive and that this crisis can bring many good things.
How to Successfully Drive Change When Everything Is Uncertain
The following contribution is from the Harvard Business Review and is written by Michaela J. Kerrissey, associate professor of management at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Julia DiBenigno, professor of organizational behavior at the Yale School of Management.
Abstract: While traditional change management emphasizes incremental tactics such as pursuing small wins and building coalitions, in turbulent times these incremental tactics are unnecessary and can prevent leaders from capitalizing on larger achievements… more
Traditional change management advice emphasizes incremental tactics such as pursuing small wins, building coalitions, and introducing pilot projects that require minimal investment.
In times of stability, these approaches have been shown to generate momentum and buy-in from both stakeholders and employees, softening the rigidity of the status quo.
But in turbulent times—for example, during a crisis or when there is market turmoil—leaders who pursue incremental change tactics risk underperformance.
In our research and experience working with organizations, we’ve observed that when instability begins, there is a brief window—a temporary relaxation of bureaucracy and resistance—in which change is actually easier, if leaders manage it well.
For example, during the early months of COVID-19 in 2020, Julia and her colleague at the Yale School of Management, Elisabeth Yang, were studying the difficulties faced by hospital managers and their staff.
But these managers surprised us by reporting that the crisis had a silver lining: operational changes they had been wanting to implement for years were suddenly being approved, such as a streamlined process for grouping lab orders and tests, portable ultrasound machines for patient exams, and the addition of a nurse leader to support less-experienced nursing staff.
While change may be easier in the midst of disruption, it’s not guaranteed.
Organizational research suggests that, faced with a threat, organizations are just as likely to become rigid as they are to adapt.
To seize these moments and drive the changes they want to see, leaders must be proactive and opportunistic.
The saying «never waste a good crisis» is a commonplace, but it’s often forgotten.
Sometimes this is because leaders fear change, are distracted, or don’t want to further burden their employees in times of crisis.
We’ve seen this in executive teams facing crises, among front-line managers during the pandemic, and in multidisciplinary companies during the 2008 financial crisis.
But effort isn’t everything: change leaders also need to implement different tactics in these turbulent times. We’ve observed a pattern in the successful change leadership approaches adopted by the hospital managers Julia and her colleague studied during COVID-19, and by the leadership teams Michaela interviewed during the same period.
These successful change leaders identified practical ideas and reframed them to address an urgent need, acted quickly, and thought big.
We live in a time when crises and dramatic changes in technology, healthcare, natural disasters, geopolitics, and other arenas occur with alarming frequency.
For those seeking to drive change amid such turbulence—whether to engage their team, gain buy-in from more senior leaders, or influence their partners—we’ll describe in more detail how these approaches work.
But first, we’ll explain why we believe this approach is particularly valuable in turbulent contexts.
Why is it easier to drive change in times of disruption?
Decades of research by USC’s Wendy Wood and her colleagues show that times of major change present the best opportunities to implement lasting personal changes.
The best time to quit smoking for good, for example, is during other major life changes, such as moving to a new city, getting married, or getting divorced.
This is because people are more receptive to breaking and forming new habits when everything around them is already changing.
The environment that supported old habits is transformed. There is room for new habits to form.
Other research suggests that a similar logic applies to organizations.
In turbulent market environments, inertia, bureaucracy, and resistance are suddenly diminished by the force of external demands.
Old routines can change, and it’s easier to greenlight novel ideas, especially if they solve immediate problems.
Colleagues may be more open to changing the way they work when other aspects of their job also change.
When events disrupt organizational stagnation in a widely recognized way—whether it’s a «crisis,» a «transformation» of work, or «unprecedented times»—it’s an opportune time to drive other changes. Here’s how to do it.
Select the Right Opportunity and Reframe It
When the roof of Baltimore’s historic B&O Railroad Museum unexpectedly collapsed in 2003, damaging numerous artifacts and resulting in a reconstruction budget higher than insurance was willing to pay, the museum director didn’t just call in a contractor to repair it: he recognized a ripe opportunity to rally support and change the museum’s identity.
He had long desired to transform it from a sleepy, financially struggling institution, visited primarily by schoolchildren on field trips, into a major attraction offering tours, expanded family-friendly programming and accommodations, and a space for large-scale events.
However, he had encountered resistance to these ideas in the past, especially from his elite curatorial team, who had sought to maintain the organization’s focus on preserving historical artifacts.
However, when the roof collapsed, he reframed his vision as a response to the current crisis.
An analysis of this case by Professor Marlys Christianson of the Rotman School of Management and her colleagues demonstrated how the director successfully garnered staff support by demonstrating how his vision would ensure the museum’s long-term financial solvency and prevent permanent closure despite the damage.
The tactic here is idea selection and opportunistic targeting: First, a ready-to-implement idea is selected, perhaps one that has been stalled or one that repurposes dormant technologies.
The idea must be well planned and ready for effective execution. A cautionary tale: In Julia and her colleagues’ study during COVID-19, physician leaders in a landmark ED saw an opportunity to address the persistent problem of patients waiting for beds and crowding hallways.
The physicians requested more space, arguing that it would improve social distancing.
Their request was quickly granted, but the physicians didn’t have a plan ready to use or coordinate with nursing leadership on staffing or supplies, so the space went underutilized and was soon occupied.
Instead, two years later, the department unexpectedly failed a state audit for the same issue; during this crisis, medical leadership had a better-designed plan and agreements with nursing staff that resulted in the rapid and successful construction of permanent additional space.
Once you’ve chosen the right idea, reframe it to show how it addresses an immediate problem arising from the turbulent moment and how it provides long-term value to the organization, as the B&O director did.
Act quickly
Speed matters in turbulent times; the window of opportunity to detect and act on a change only opens briefly.
The executives Michaela worked with during and after COVID-19 were able to actively adapt their organizational strategies as the political and regulatory environment loosened for approximately 12 to 18 months, while the crisis passed for those who reported being «too busy managing the day-to-day chaos» or simply waiting to «get back to normal» during that time.
In Julia and her colleague’s COVID-19 study, with managers and frontline professionals primarily proposing operational changes, the window of opportunity was even shorter: about six weeks after COVID-19 hit, from mid-March to late April 2020.
Subsequently, leadership became less receptive to new ideas, and staff were no longer as willing to drastically change their behavior; inertia and resistance to disrupting the status quo had returned.
Seizing windows of opportunity requires being decisive, embracing what’s available, and mobilizing the team to act quickly, especially if it’s not their norm.
For example, one executive team Michaela observed was able to launch a line of telehealth services less than a year after the start of the pandemic.
This idea had been considered and discussed for some time, but by adopting it quickly, within months, during the turmoil of the pandemic, they were able to overcome hesitation and concerns, especially among employees who had resisted changing their daily work routines.
Within two years, this team was recognized across the region as a leading innovator in this virtual service, and its competitors struggled to catch up.
Moving quickly can carry risks, of course.
If a poorly thought-out idea is selected and fails, in turbulent times, this can be even worse than doing nothing.
Opportunistic change is best suited for achievements you’re confident in (operational change that you know will improve your team’s workflow, technology that’s difficult to adopt but offers a clear improvement, etc.).
This is yet another reason to focus on action-ready ideas.
Moving Forward
When organizations are stuck in the status quo, small tests of change, such as pilot projects, can build momentum, minimize risk, and, through learning, help shape an idea—whether it’s a new product, process, or approach. These are good reasons to act on small changes.
In turbulent times, the calculus is different.
Pilot projects can condemn change agents to missing valuable moments when resources are only available for a short time.
They can waste time generating data for decisions that are already obvious at the time. For example, an operations manager at a major US hospital in Julia, in her peer study, saw that the COVID-19 pandemic offered an opportunity to finally reduce waste by centralizing supply management while simultaneously slowing the spread of COVID-19.
Faithfully following the change management tactics he had learned in business school, he requested a free pilot to demonstrate the concept’s effectiveness.
When the pilot was completed months later, it predicted a sure success for a larger program. But by then, capital investment across the organization had been frozen, and it was no longer feasible.
For the B&O Railroad, going big after its roof collapsed meant more than tripling its initial fundraising goal (which the team eventually reached).
The COO recounted, “We said, ‘We’re going to have to shut down for two years anyway, because it’s going to take that long to finish the roof… This is our opportunity to raise more funds, transform the campus, make all these dreams we all had come true… Instead of raising $3 million, we raised $10 million and we did it.’”
What scaling up means will depend on your team’s typical scale of work. For frontline teams, this might mean asking their boss for full funding to implement a project rather than requesting a pilot.
For leadership teams, it might mean doubling down on a goal or making a substantial infrastructure change that has been postponed for years.
In any case, scaling up doesn’t mean throwing in the towel and taking big risks without a plan. It means recognizing that these moments inherently carry considerable risk, but sometimes require organizations to act differently.
This requires investment and, sometimes, bigger bets on new ideas. As management expert Peter Drucker said, «The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence itself, but acting with the logic of the past.»
Being an Opportunistic Change Leader
The studies and stories that support these tactics don’t prove that opportunistic change is always positive.
Seeking change opportunistically doesn’t guarantee success. And classic change management frameworks, such as Kotter’s eight steps, still offer excellent guidance for leaders. Certainly, crafting and communicating a vision for change, building coalitions of stakeholders who support the initiative, and engaging in «small wins» pilot projects can be effective ways to generate buy-in.
But for now, in today’s volatile and uncertain world, we can confidently say that there is something different about how change happens in turbulent times, and that more opportunistic tactics are a vital tool for leaders.
Leadership in Crisis: Leading Teams through Uncertainty and Change
The following contribution is from the EuroMaTech portal, which defines itself as a global leader in professional development, trusted by professionals and organizations for over three decades. Committed to providing high-quality training courses, we have established ourselves as one of the most trusted and highly rated training providers in Dubai and around the world. We are dedicated to delivering high-quality, impactful training courses that address the evolving needs of modern businesses.
At EuroMaTech, our core mission is to help professionals excel in their fields by offering tailored training courses that address current and future industry demands. Whether you want to improve your leadership skills, adopt cutting-edge technology, or refine your operational processes, our training courses are designed to give you a competitive advantage in today’s global marketplace.
Authored by the team.
In an era where economic volatility, global disruptions, and rapid change have become the norm, the ability to lead effectively in a crisis is one of the most essential leadership competencies.
Whether addressing organizational restructuring, supply chain disruptions, public relations incidents, or industry shifts, crisis leadership defines how a team survives, adapts, and ultimately thrives in the face of uncertainty.
The most successful leaders not only react to crises but also guide their teams with clarity, empathy, and confidence.
They communicate honestly, focus on shared goals, and make timely decisions, even when information is incomplete. In short, they lead calmly in the face of complexity.
Professionals seeking to develop crisis-ready leadership skills can benefit from EuroMaTech’s Management and Leadership Training Courses, designed to help leaders build their teams’ resilience, improve communication, and drive performance in turbulent environments.
Management and Leadership Training Courses
A Moment of Real Leadership
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, a regional logistics company faced a severe operational disruption.
With team members working remotely, supply routes ground to a halt, customer pressure mounted, morale plummeted, and confusion quickly spread.
Rather than focusing solely on crisis management, the management team implemented daily support meetings, reassigned responsibilities based on real-time needs, and created a culture of transparency.
They adopted agile team models and encouraged employees to openly express their concerns.
The result? Teams felt heard, stayed aligned, and adapted quickly. The company not only recovered quickly but emerged more united and resilient than before. This transformation was no accident, but the result of proactive crisis leadership.
What is crisis leadership?
Crisis leadership refers to the ability to lead, inspire, and support teams during periods of disruption, ambiguity, or high-risk situations.
It involves:
Communicating with clarity and empathy
Remaining calm under pressure
Making decisions with limited data
Prioritizing trust and team alignment
Adapting quickly to changing circumstances
Crisis leaders transform volatility into vision, fear into focus, and disruption into innovation.
Why Leadership in Crisis Situations Is Important
- Maintains Team Morale
Uncertainty can generate anxiety. Present, transparent, and empathetic leaders provide stability and security to their teams.
- Improves Decision-Making
Crisis situations demand quick and thoughtful decision-making. Strong leaders can weigh risks, remain calm, and act decisively under pressure.
- Protects the Organization’s Reputation
How a leader responds to a crisis influences how stakeholders, employees, and the public perceive the organization.
- Strengthens Culture
Leadership in crisis situations reveals and reinforces organizational values. Leaders who act with integrity and clarity strengthen internal culture.
- Accelerates Innovation
Disruption creates space for new ideas. Crisis leaders foster agility and creativity as teams manage constraints and complexity.
Key Skills for Effective Crisis Leadership
Crisis leadership is not innate; It’s a set of skills that can be developed and strengthened.
Below are the core competencies:
- Strategic Communication
Clear, consistent, and empathetic communication keeps teams aligned and informed. The Team Communication Skills Training Course is designed to help leaders improve their communication skills in crucial moments and build trust through words and actions.
- Agility and Responsiveness
In crisis situations, the ability to adapt quickly is crucial. The Agile Team Training Course provides leaders with agile methodologies that improve team responsiveness and collaborative problem-solving in changing environments.
- Team Culture and Resilience
Strong cultures weather storms better. Leaders who foster belonging, trust, and a shared purpose strengthen their teams’ ability to recover and perform. The Team Culture Training Course teaches leaders how to intentionally build and reinforce culture, even under pressure.
- Emotional Intelligence
Crises often evoke intense emotions: fear, frustration, and uncertainty. Leaders who demonstrate emotional intelligence can respond with empathy, maintain high morale, and diffuse conflicts. The Emotional Intelligence (EI) Training Course for Innovative Leadership and Corporate Teamwork offers tools to understand emotional responses and lead with emotional clarity.
- Team Development and Support
In times of disruption, team members look to leadership for guidance, support, and direction. The Leadership and Team Development for Managerial Success Training Course focuses on how to develop, train, and empower teams even in difficult circumstances.
- Leading High-Impact Teams in Complex Environments
Crises often require advanced leadership skills. The Advanced Level Training Course in Leading High-Impact Teams helps experienced leaders take their crisis leadership to the next level through strategic planning, innovation, and high-performance teamwork.
How to Lead in a Crisis: Practical Steps
- Communicate Frequently and Honestly
In times of uncertainty, silence breeds fear. Leaders must provide regular updates, acknowledge the unknown, and be transparent.
- Reframe Challenges as Opportunities
View change as an opportunity to innovate, improve, or rethink old systems. This shift in mindset energizes teams and fosters creative solutions.
- Lead by Example
Demonstrate serenity, empathy, and accountability. Your behavior sets the tone for how others respond to the crisis.
- Empower Decision-Making
Decentralize authority where appropriate. Encourage team leaders to make local decisions quickly, without waiting for executive approval.
- Rebuild and Reflect
After the immediate crisis, review what worked and what didn’t. Draw lessons, refine processes, and recognize your team’s contributions.
Why Crisis Leadership Training Matters
Leaders who prepare in advance lead better under pressure. Crisis leadership training provides managers with the frameworks, communication tools, and emotional intelligence techniques needed to lead through uncertainty.
EuroMaTech’s management and leadership training courses are specifically designed to help leaders develop composure, adaptability, and clarity in decision-making during the most critical moments.
Whether preparing for future crises or managing current disruption, training is key to ensuring leaders respond, not react, with professionalism and purpose.
Crisis doesn’t build character, it reveals it. And in today’s uncertain world, organizations need leaders who inspire confidence, embrace ambiguity, and guide their teams with empathy and precision.
Crisis leadership goes beyond surviving disruption: it’s about shaping the future afterward.
By developing the skills to lead in times of uncertainty, you not only support your team through difficult times but also lay the foundation for long-term success.
Enroll in one of EuroMaTech’s expert-led leadership training courses and become the leader your team needs, especially when it matters most.
FAQ: Crisis Leadership: Leading Teams in Times of Uncertainty and Change
- What is crisis leadership?
Crisis leadership is the ability to effectively guide and support teams during periods of disruption, uncertainty, and rapid change. It requires agility, emotional intelligence, and clear communication.
- Why is communication important during a crisis?
Transparent and frequent communication keeps teams aligned, reduces fear, and builds trust. The team communication skills training course helps leaders improve their communication in high-risk situations.
- How can agile practices support crisis leadership?
Agile leadership encourages quick and flexible responses and team collaboration. The Agile Team Training Course teaches practical tools for building agile and adaptable teams.
- What role does emotional intelligence play during crises?
Emotional intelligence enables leaders to manage stress, emotionally support their teams, and make balanced decisions. The Emotional Intelligence Training Course is ideal for leaders seeking to develop this skill.
- Can leadership training prepare managers for crisis situations?
Yes. Training such as the Leadership and Team Development for Managerial Success Training Course provides essential skills for guiding teams through difficult times.
- What is the benefit of advanced crisis leadership training?
Advanced training improves strategic thinking and leadership impact during complex crises. The Advanced Level Training Course in High-Impact Team Leadership is ideal for senior leaders managing high-pressure environments.
Explore EuroMatech’s training courses in Dubai and London.
10 Strategies for Leading in Times of Uncertainty
The following contribution is from the MIT SLOAN Management Review website and is by William Reed, an editorial assistant at MIT Sloan Management Review.
Unpredictability is the new normal, and leadership must adapt and navigate through the chaos.
Use these 10 insights from MIT Sloan Management Review experts to rethink strategy, speed, and resilience.
William Reed
Summary: Leading through today’s level of volatility requires not only agility but also a willingness to rethink how we lead, plan, and adapt. Leading in… Read more +
Since January, the news cycle has become relentless for many people: every headline, news brief, and social media scroll seems to bring a new wave of disruption.
The atmosphere is charged, with uncertainty affecting every aspect of society. While people are already grappling with US economic tariffs and intense political rhetoric, the rapid evolution of generative AI adds another layer of complexity to business planning.
Leaders must reconsider their posture in real time.
As Martin Reeves points out in his popular MIT SMR article «How to Strategize in a World Out of Control,» organizations must prioritize strategic resilience.
This involves anticipating not only market trends but also political crises and paradigm shifts.
What’s more, navigating the current level of volatility requires not only agility but also a willingness to rethink how we lead, plan, and adapt in a world no longer governed by the usual rules.
In other words: Leading through chaos is not about control, but about learning to weather the storm.
To help today’s leaders achieve this, we’ve compiled timely insights from MIT SMR authors: researchers and executives with expertise in numerous aspects of managing through times of uncertainty and chaos.
We also draw on some lessons learned during the pandemic that are very useful now. Use these strategies to guide your company, your team, and yourself through the current disruption.
- Build resilience to surprises. Given the unpredictability and multidimensional nature of political risk, it is more important than ever for companies to invest in being better prepared to deal with the often rapid impact of political surprises. This resilience can take different forms: for example, ensuring flexibility to quickly recover critical operations (such as investing in a diversified supply chain, so that inputs or suppliers can be quickly switched when tariffs are implemented); establishing protective mechanisms against potential shocks (such as diversifying the product portfolio or building liquidity); or creating a modular supply chain (so that the impact of shocks is contained).
For example, consider IKEA’s operations in Russia: following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, IKEA made significant efforts to localize production and disconnect Russia from the rest of its global supply chain to better contain the effects of a potential shock from a further escalation of the conflict. When Russia launched a war with Ukraine in 2022, IKEA’s exit from the country was easier than for its peers whose local activities remained closely tied to their global operations. «Taking these steps requires adopting a mindset that balances efficiency with the long-term considerations of creating value through differentiated preparedness.»
Read the full article, «How to Strategize in an Out-of-Control World,» by Adam Job, Nikolaus S. Lang, Ulrich Pidun, and Martin Reeves.
- Empower teams to avoid paralysis. A common emotional response to uncertainty is freezing. Of the business leaders who participated in our research, 32% reported feeling paralyzed by uncertainty when it came to taking action. A further 42% said they had put off reflecting on decisions because they found it uncomfortable. … Treating decisions as experiments can make a difference. …
“One strategy we heard was from a leader who found that when her team was hesitant to move forward with something, they used their language in terms of games and bets, such as: ‘We can’t bet on that happening,’ ‘I’m not sure the bet will pay off,’ and ‘I prefer to hedge our bets.’ She actively encouraged her team to adopt scientific language and use phrases like: ‘My hypothesis would be that…’, ‘If we can control these variables…’ or ‘This could act as a controlling situation.’ If they fell back into old habits, she corrected them.”
Read the full article, “Five Traits of Leaders Who Excel at Decision Making,” by David Tuckett.
- Cast the crystal ball: Strengthen your capacity for change.
“The belief that successful leaders and companies can predict the future, set a clear direction, and stay the course doesn’t encourage people to reevaluate their assumptions or to start, stop, and change direction. … Adaptable companies may seem to always be two steps ahead, but the key isn’t the ability to predict which way the wind will blow, but the ability to sense the prevailing winds and quickly adapt to follow them.”
Read the full article, “Strengthen Your Capacity for Change for Competitive Advantage,” by Gaurav Gupta, John Kotter, Vanessa Akhtar, and Nick Petschek.
- Be prepared to be uncomfortable. Recognize that, as a leader, you live in uncomfortable situations that will never become comfortable. Uncertainty about the future is one such situation, and you will be a better leader if you acknowledge the limits of your knowledge, as well as those of risk management and probabilistic thinking.
Read the full article, “How to Build for an Unpredictable Future?” by Sanyin Siang.
- Focus your team on medium-term goals.
“Looking ahead three months may create a sense of long-term stability for your people, but it’s a short enough period that even if things change around you, you probably won’t need to change your mission. …
As Jamie Woolf and Heidi Rosenfelder, founders of Creativity Partners, advise: “To better engage your team in co-creating the future, try asking questions like, ‘What new revenue streams can replace those that are declining?’ or ‘What can we do to break down silos within our team?’”
Read the full article, “How to Support Your Team in Uncertain Times,” by Liz Fosslien.
- Personalize calm.
“In times of uncertainty, each employee seeks different types of support, delivered in different ways. … Managers should prioritize two behaviors: individualized consideration and building trust. … By prioritizing employees’ individual needs and understanding their fears, managers can identify and address the sources of their uncertainty in a volatile environment.”
Read the full article, “What Employees Want Most in Uncertain Times,” by Kristine W. Powers and Jessica B.B. Diaz.
- Communicate that everyone is in this together.
“Send regular messages to employees that emphasize ‘we’ and ‘us.’ Employees pay more attention to certain messengers than others. … By using collective pronouns and language, leaders can help reinforce a sense of security and moral support among workers.”
Read the full article, “In Times of Anxiety, Lead with ‘We’ and ‘Us’,” by Paola Cecchi-Dimeglio.
- Go ahead and say something.
“In difficult times, employees need to know the real situation of the company as soon as possible. If you don’t inform them regularly, they will invent what they don’t know to fill the information gap. Leaders shouldn’t worry about overproducing or editing what they say; the most important thing is to speak and write authentically, and do so promptly.
Team members also need to listen regularly to their immediate leaders, not just the organization’s most senior leader. Team leaders set the tone and are the voice of reality. Be clear, firm, and real.
Read the full article, “What Employees Need to Hear from Leaders in Times of Crisis,” by Amy Leschke-Kahle.
- Cultivate Understanding at All Levels.
“Understanding involves bringing together disparate perspectives to create a plausible understanding of the complexity around us and then testing it to refine it or, if necessary, abandon it and start from scratch. … It is considered essential for innovation and crucial for the development of agile teams and organizations.” …
“We must change course: from assuming we understand the world to being curious and experimental, and from believing that understanding is only necessary for senior leaders to cultivating it at all levels of the organization. Instead of immediately seeking solutions, we must begin by collecting data and analyzing it for trends and patterns that point to better solutions. Instead of ignoring the warning signs of failure, we should learn from others what those signs might be. This is not the time to reduce understanding, but to enhance your organization’s ability to do more.
Read the full article, “The Forgotten Key to Leading in Chaos,” by Deborah Ancona, Michele Williams, and Gisela Gerlach.
- Prioritize the crisis; ignore the noise.
“In a non-crisis environment, organizations must make many so-called first-order decisions: what problems to solve, which markets to enter, which of the hundreds of potential products to develop. These decisions are difficult to make because they inevitably involve trade-offs, given the opportunity cost of not taking the alternative path. In our experience, leaders often delay these decisions or sometimes don’t make them at all. The result is a proliferation of projects and activities, meaning nothing receives the necessary attention or resources.
“But in a crisis, the primary decision is made for you: the crisis tells you where to focus with great precision. Nothing is as important as solving that immediate problem. The only thing that needs to be determined is the best way to do it—that is, which activities will best achieve that result. We can consider these secondary decisions.”
Read the full article, “What a Crisis Teaches Us About Innovation,” by Elsbeth Johnson and Fiona Murray.
The Power of Agile Leadership in a Disruptive Era
The following contribution is from the Franklin Covey portal and is authored by the team.
Table of Contents
What is Agile Leadership?
The Importance of Agile Leadership in Today’s Business Landscape
Agile Leadership in Action
Key Characteristics of an Agile Leader
How to Develop Agile Leadership
Overcoming Common Agile Leadership Challenges
Thriving in Disruption with Agile Leadership
PNG Quote
Leading people isn’t about transactions. Leading people is about transformation.
— Patrick Leddin, PhD, co-author of «Disrupt Everything and Win»
The question isn’t whether disruption will impact your industry, but when and how intensely.
Businesses are facing unprecedented levels of competition, technological advancements, and economic shifts that challenge all leaders.
According to Aon’s 2023 Global Risk Management Survey, 41% of businesses have experienced losses due to increased competition; However, only 51% have plans to address these risks. This stark reality underscores the need for resilient and responsive leadership.
Agile leadership is critical for leaders seeking to remain competitive,
foster innovation, and build resilient teams in an era marked by constant disruption.
By embracing agile leadership, leaders can remain flexible and proactive in the face of change, helping them achieve sustained success in an unpredictable environment.
Let’s explore the concept of agile leadership, how it empowers both leaders and teams, and why it is essential for organizational growth, innovation, and resilience.
What is agile leadership?
Key takeaway:
Agile leadership is an approach that stems from a mindset of adaptability, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Agile leaders prioritize empowering teams, fostering innovation, and responding quickly to change.
By embodying key traits such as integrity, visionary thinking, collaboration, and a growth mindset, agile leaders drive organizational growth, support team development, and create a culture of innovation that thrives in an ever-evolving business environment.
At its core, agile leadership is about adaptability.
In the face of disruptions—whether economic, technological, or market-related—agile leaders quickly reassess their strategies, empower their teams to act, and adapt their approaches to ensure continued progress and success.
Agile leadership involves leading in a way that increases organizational agility and enables leaders to quickly adapt to changing circumstances, allowing them to remain resilient in the face of disruption.
Unlike the agile methodology, often associated with software development, agile leadership refers to a mindset and set of practices that prioritize flexibility, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
Agile leaders assess situations quickly, adjust strategies when necessary, and empower their teams to act autonomously. This approach fosters a sense of ownership and accountability within teams, as people are trusted to make decisions that contribute to the organization’s success.
Importantly, agile leadership creates a culture of continuous learning and iterative progress, ensuring that feedback is actively sought and used to drive improvements.
Take the first step toward solving the leadership crisis in a disruptive world by downloading our free guide «Where Are All the Great Leaders?»
The Importance of Agile Leadership in Today’s Business Landscape
In a world characterized by disruption and uncertainty, agile leadership is more important than ever.
The constant pace of technological change, the unpredictability of global markets, and the pressure of emerging competition require organizations to evolve and adapt quickly.
According to reports, approximately 71% of organizations use agile practices to increase their adaptability, and agile leadership enables organizations to thrive by helping them respond quickly to external disruptions, adapt to economic shifts, and adopt technological advancements. Here’s how:
Thriving in Uncertainty
The modern business world is defined by volatility.
Economic shifts, technological advancements, and global events can change the landscape in an instant.
Agile leadership helps organizations remain responsive to this uncertainty. Agile leaders don’t become paralyzed by disruption; instead, they view change as an opportunity for growth.
They are skilled at making quick decisions, adapting strategies, and guiding their teams through challenging times.
By encouraging teams to embrace flexibility, agile leadership fosters an organizational culture where rapid and effective responses to disruption are the norm.
This helps organizations face uncertainty with confidence, increasing their chances of not only surviving but also thriving in challenging times.
Fostering Innovation and Adaptability
In an era of rapid change, innovation is the engine of business success.
Agile leadership creates the necessary conditions for innovation to thrive by encouraging experimentation and adaptability.
Leaders who prioritize agility empower their teams to test new ideas, learn from mistakes, and continuously improve processes and products.
Agile leaders promote a culture of innovation by supporting risk-taking, providing resources for experimentation, and fostering an environment where new ideas can flourish.
This flexibility allows organizations to stay ahead of the curve, creating opportunities to lead in their industries rather than simply reacting to trends.
Building Resilient Teams
Agile leadership is crucial to building a resilient culture with teams capable of working under pressure.
In times of disruption, teams need to be adaptable, responsible, and autonomous to respond effectively to challenges.
Agile leadership fosters these qualities by empowering teams with the appropriate decision-making power and providing them with the support they need to achieve success.
Resilient teams, driven by agile leadership, can overcome obstacles, adapt to changing conditions, and move forward with confidence.
When teams feel confident making decisions and are supported by strong leadership, they become…
Agile Leadership in Action
Frito-Lay is an excellent example of agile leadership in action. Amid an economic downturn, unprecedented inflation, and unpredictable weather conditions that disrupted its supply chain, Frito-Lay realized it needed to adapt quickly.
By fostering a culture that encourages experimentation and rapid adaptation to meet consumer preferences, Frito-Lay has remained at the forefront of innovation in the food and snack industry.
Agile leadership enabled the company to better respond to market demands, giving teams the autonomy to explore new ideas and strategies.
This allowed Frito-Lay to launch innovative products that not only met consumer needs but also set new market trends.
Teams were able to make decisions in real time, responding quickly to disruptions and driving innovation that kept the company competitive.
This highlights how agile leadership fosters a culture where teams are empowered to act decisively and continuously innovate.
By shifting from traditional leadership models to a more agile approach, Frito-Lay created an environment where adaptability and innovation went hand in hand, allowing them to thrive in an ever-changing industry.
See how Frito-Lay empowered its leaders and teams to embrace agility and thrive amidst increasing disruption.
Key Traits of an Agile Leader
Agile leadership isn’t about adhering to a specific process or methodology. Instead, it involves embodying certain key traits that enable leaders to respond effectively to change. These are some of the most important traits of an agile leader:
Integrity and Accountability
Integrity is the foundation of agile leadership: an unwavering commitment to ethical principles and transparency. Agile leaders lead by example, setting high standards for themselves and their teams. They make decisions honestly and act consistently, even in difficult situations. This inspires trust in teams and fosters mutual respect, creating a culture of integrity that transcends individual actions and is embedded in the organization’s values.
Accountability is equally crucial for building trust and demonstrating integrity. Agile leaders take full responsibility for their actions, both their successes and their setbacks. They don’t blame others when challenges arise, but rather model accountability at all levels.
When leaders take ownership of results, they inspire teams to do the same, fostering a strong sense of ownership and collaboration throughout the organization.
The result: a higher level of engagement, stronger decision-making, and improved team dynamics.
Visionary Thinking and Strategic Alignment
Agile leadership requires leaders to maintain a visionary mindset, always thinking ahead and alert to potential future changes.
They take a proactive, rather than reactive, approach to focus on what is within their control and not on external conditions they cannot influence.
Agile leaders must have a clear vision that aligns with the organization’s overall mission and values.
This vision should not be static but should evolve and adapt as new opportunities and challenges arise. The ability to adapt the organizational vision in response to external forces is what distinguishes agile leaders.
To execute their vision effectively, leaders must also focus on strategic alignment. It is important that every decision, initiative, and project is aligned with the organization’s overall goals.
Agile leaders constantly ensure that the team’s efforts are aligned with the company’s strategic direction, maintaining a balance between short-term needs and long-term objectives.
In times of disruption, agility requires visionary leaders who inspire and align teams toward a clear, shared purpose.
Collaboration
Collaboration is a fundamental pillar of agile leadership. Agile leaders understand that success is rarely achieved in isolation and actively leverage the collective intelligence of their teams.
By fostering an environment of openness and mutual respect, they encourage cross-functional teamwork, knowledge sharing, and creative problem-solving. This collaborative approach empowers everyone’s unique ideas and skills to flourish.
A key aspect of collaboration is recognizing the potential of others.
Agile leaders look beyond current capabilities, identifying opportunities for growth and development.
Through coaching and mentoring, they support team members to realize their full potential, develop their capabilities, and enhance their engagement.
By offering guidance, constructive feedback, and opportunities for skill development, leaders help people tackle new challenges and bring their best to the table.
This focus on growth strengthens collaboration by building trust and a sense of belonging.
When leaders invest in their team’s development and break down barriers, they create a culture where everyone feels empowered to contribute to the team’s success, especially in times of disruption.
As teams become more capable and engaged, the capacity for adaptation and innovation increases, driving stronger results and greater resilience.
Growth Mindset
Agile leaders must maintain a growth mindset, which involves remaining open to new information and embracing change. Leaders with a growth mindset actively seek opportunities for their own personal and professional development, realizing that their ability to evolve as leaders is essential to the success of their teams. This willingness to continuously improve and adapt is a hallmark of agile leadership and crucial for navigating the complexities of today’s business environment.
Agile leaders with a growth mindset also foster this mindset within their teams.
By encouraging team members to take risks, learn from mistakes, and continually strive for improvement, agile leaders create an environment where experimentation and innovation thrive. This leads to greater adaptability and resilience in the face of challenges.
How to Develop Agile Leadership
While some leaders may naturally embody the traits of agility, anyone can develop the skills and mindset necessary to lead effectively in times of change. Here are several strategies for cultivating agile leadership:
Develop a Leader’s Mindset
Agile leadership begins with developing a self-leadership mindset.
Leaders must take responsibility for their personal growth and practice adaptability in all aspects of their work.
This shift from fixed thinking to a growth-oriented leadership approach helps them stay open to new ideas, challenges, and opportunities.
By leading by example, agile leaders set the tone for their teams, demonstrating that change is not something to fear, but something to embrace. They foster a culture of continuous improvement, where learning and adaptation are critical to success.
Download our guide, Critical Insights for Top-Level Leaders, to empower your leaders, both new and transitioning, to build high-performing teams during periods of disruption.
Host Regular One-on-Ones
Regular one-on-one meetings are a powerful tool for developing agile leadership skills.
These meetings not only offer leaders a space to address their employees’ concerns but also provide valuable insight into how teams are managing change and disruption.
By staying in touch with individual team members, leaders better understand potential issues before they escalate.
This ongoing communication enables leaders to make more informed decisions, fostering a proactive approach to challenges.
Additionally, one-on-one meetings offer leaders the opportunity to empower their team members, helping them develop their skills and grow in their roles.
Through personalized feedback and guidance, agile leaders can foster talent and support their employees’ professional growth, ensuring they feel valued and empowered.
These regular meetings create consistency between leaders and team members, reinforcing shared goals and accountability while maintaining focus on achieving results, even in times of crisis.
Ensure you and your team members get the most out of your meetings by downloading our free guide: 100+ Questions to Improve Your One-on-Ones with Your Direct Reports.
Prepare Your Team for Results
Agile leaders must clearly define what success means while also giving teams the autonomy to decide how to achieve it.
By setting clear goals and promoting an understanding of how individual efforts contribute to the overall organizational mission, agile leaders create an environment where teams feel empowered to take ownership of their work.
Agile leadership ensures that execution is anchored in results, giving teams the flexibility to find the best path forward while remaining aligned with the organization’s overall goals.
Help your teams execute on top priorities, even during times of constant change, with our guide: Mobilize Your Team for Breakthrough Results.
Create a Feedback Culture
Feedback is a fundamental pillar of agile leadership.
Frequent, forward-looking feedback accelerates learning and promotes an iterative mindset, which is critical to agility.
Agile leaders encourage open dialogue, helping their teams continuously improve by providing constructive feedback that drives performance.
Creating a culture where feedback is valued and acted upon fosters an environment where innovation can flourish. Teams don’t just react to changes, they proactively improve and adapt, leading to better results over time.
Learn the importance of trust, accountability, feedback, and change management for disruption-resistant teams in our guide,
The 4 Pillars of a Thriving Workplace Culture.
Leading in Uncertain Times: Leadership in Difficult Times
The following contribution is from Forbes magazine and is written by Tracy Lawrence, a contributor and advisor to senior executives and an organizational consultant.
Business leaders are comfortable discussing market dynamics, strategic initiatives, and even complex topics like returning to the office.
But today, employees’ minds may be on more complex issues: natural disasters, political and economic uncertainty, health issues, and other disruptions that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago.
From my base in Los Angeles, I’ve seen clients and associates deal with evacuations, displacement, fear, and loss during the recent wildfires.
However, communities and organizations across the country are grappling with their own unprecedented challenges.
The impact on company culture, job security, and productivity can be profound. To strengthen your organization’s competitiveness in times of uncertainty, adopt consistent and flexible frameworks that support employees through various personal challenges while maintaining appropriate boundaries and ensuring fair treatment. This is where it starts.
Setting the Tone
Research consistently shows that CEOs influence organizational culture in significant and measurable ways.
In times of crisis, your organization turns to you for answers not only about what to do, but also how to feel and treat one another.
Demonstrate genuine empathy from the top, and you’ll enable all levels of management to do the same.
Similarly, if you prioritize rigid policies over human needs, that inflexibility will have negative consequences, creating a culture of presenteeism and detachment that can cause lasting damage to organizational performance.
One of the most common mistakes I see is leaders inadvertently fostering a toxic positive attitude.
Often, these executives have good intentions but are uncomfortable listening to the challenges their employees face. The result? Important issues go unnoticed rather than addressed, creating a growing disconnect between leaders’ perceptions and employees’ daily reality.
In short, your response to current challenges isn’t just about managing the immediate circumstances, but about shaping organizational culture to help your company and its people thrive in the long term.
When Uncertainty Is Shared
Leaders face a unique challenge when a crisis affects everyone: a natural disaster, a community tragedy, or an incident directly involving your company.
Clear and frequent communication becomes even more crucial during these times. People need to know what the organization is doing to respond to the situation, what resources are available, and what they can expect going forward. Even if you don’t have all the answers, regular updates help maintain trust and reduce anxiety.
Stay Visible and Available
Your leadership presence is as important as, or more so than, your solutions during shared crises.
Show yourself accessible through town hall meetings, office tours, or regular video updates.
Demonstrate that you are committed to the situation and supporting your team.
The most important thing is to model appropriate vulnerability by maintaining clear direction. You don’t need to have all the answers, but you do need to demonstrate confident and strong leadership.
Share your process for navigating uncertainty, focusing on concrete next steps and available support systems.
Remember that each team member will approach shared challenges differently. While maintaining consistent policies, build in flexibility to vary responses and recovery timelines.
Supporting People
Leaders are increasingly faced with situations where employees are deeply affected by social issues or personal concerns that may not be directly related to work or affect everyone equally.
These challenges can significantly affect employee well-being and performance, whether it’s anxiety about climate change, distress over political events, or issues stemming from personal beliefs or identities.
Address these situations by starting with empathy, maintaining professional boundaries. You don’t need to share employees’ opinions or experiences to acknowledge their feelings and offer support.
Remember that current challenges aren’t always visible.
For every employee who reports being evacuated after a natural disaster, others are silently dealing with mental health issues, family caregiving responsibilities, or financial stress.
Create clear avenues for support that don’t depend on each manager’s ability or comfort level with sensitive topics. Remember that your role isn’t to resolve personal issues or validate political opinions, but to maintain a professional environment where all employees can present themselves authentically and perform at their best.
Building Organizational Resilience
Crises test every aspect of your organization, from operating systems to cultural foundations.
While these moments expose vulnerabilities, they also present opportunities to strengthen organizational resilience.
The policies and practices you implement during challenging times not only solve immediate problems but also build memory for future challenges and signal lasting cultural priorities.
Consider the impact of the pandemic on remote work policies. Organizations that saw the crisis as an opportunity to reimagine the way they work emerged with more flexible and resilient operating models.
According to an October 2024 analysis by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, industries that adopted remote work during the pandemic proved more resilient, achieving greater productivity and reducing operating costs. The difference lay not only in the immediate response, but in recognizing the opportunity to build stronger systems for the future.
To seize these opportunities, create systems and cultures that foster empathetic leadership:
Create psychological safety at scale: Start at the top: Model appropriate vulnerability and establish clear channels for open dialogue. Implement policies that normalize help-seeking behaviors to create direct feedback loops with senior management and ensure your executive team remains united on employee well-being.
Empower leaders with flexible solutions: Provide managers with clear frameworks for offering accommodations while maintaining performance standards. Focus on results over face-to-face time and strongly support your organization’s stated values when employee concerns align with these commitments.
Implement systematic check-ins: Implement regular pulse surveys, conduct listening visits with executives, and monitor key metrics on engagement and utilization of support programs. Use this data to identify patterns and measure the effectiveness of initiatives.
Align performance metrics with empathetic leadership: Integrate well-being metrics into executive dashboards and reward effective people management. Monitor how flexibility impacts performance and prioritize demonstrated empathy in succession planning.
This systematic approach transforms reactive, case-by-case responses into sustainable, supportive cultures that improve performance.
When executed correctly, these systems create a virtuous cycle: supported employees achieve better results, driving organizational success that funds continued investment in employee well-being.
Long-Term Perspective
We live in an era where «interesting moments» arrive with grueling frequency, testing organizational and human resilience in unprecedented ways.
However, astute executives recognize that flexibility and empathy during difficult times generate lasting benefits in engagement, retention, and productivity.
More importantly, these qualities build a resilient workforce to meet future challenges.
Your employees will remember how you made them feel during their toughest times. Supporting them through their difficulties is not only good business strategy, but fundamentally the right thing to do.
Leading in Crisis: Navigating the 4 Phases of a Crisis
The following post is from the TMG portal, which defines itself as follows: At TMG, we eliminate the superfluous and focus on what truly matters. With a practical approach, we collaborate with CEOs, leadership teams, and boards of directors around the world to drive their organizations forward.
This post kicks off a three-part series on how leaders can effectively guide their teams through crisis, disruption, and uncertainty.
In today’s business environment, volatility is not the exception, but the norm.
From macroeconomic shifts to internal restructuring and sudden market fluctuations, change happens quickly and often without warning.
Regardless of the cause, the pressure on leaders remains the same: to keep the team aligned, focused, and moving forward.
How a leader shows up in critical moments not only influences team morale; it often determines how quickly the group recovers, or if it recovers at all.
Crises tend to unfold in phases, each with different demands on the team and leaders.
The leader’s role is to create a shared context, maintain clarity, and ensure no one is left behind or left with doubts.
Phase 1: Impact
The moment things change. And the moment many teams come to a standstill.
Every crisis begins with a shock: an event that upends expectations, disrupts familiar routines, and triggers various emotional reactions. Some people become enclosed in a sandbox.
Others spiral into anxiety. Many leap into action but try to do too much without a clear process.
Your job as a leader in this phase is to diagnose what’s happening in your team.
Some people will respond quickly and raise their hands to help, while others may feel overwhelmed or disconnected.
It’s your responsibility to observe, ask questions, and act to help your team navigate the future.
What to do now:
Prioritize clarity: Communicate clearly and precisely about what’s happening and any context you may have. It doesn’t matter if you don’t have all the answers.
Help people unblock: Create a structure, define short-term goals, and begin to regain momentum. Ask yourself, «What do we need to do well this week?» When people get stuck, narrow the time horizon, simplify the scope, and assign them a clear role.
Designate a proactive team: Identify a small group that can anticipate the future instead of being stuck in the present moment.
Look for people who stay calm under pressure, take a systemic perspective, and offer clear, substantiated information, even when there isn’t much data.
Phase 2: Survival
Focus. Prioritize. Protect what matters most.
In this phase, leaders begin to grapple with the operational impact of the crisis. There is no «normal.» The question is: What is critical to the business? Where should we act now to ensure the team—and the company—can continue to operate?
This is where clarity pays off. Team members are still adjusting. Emotions are probably still running high. And yet, decisions need to be made. The best leaders balance empathy with decisiveness, helping teams focus on what’s important without giving in to panic or perfectionism.
What to do now:
Reprioritize rigorously: Eliminate distractions and coordinate the team around a few critical deliverables. Help the team understand why certain initiatives are being paused or delayed and ensure everyone knows what the top priorities are right now and how they can contribute.
Adjust expectations: Accept that productivity may decline. Focus on effectiveness. Be transparent about changes in timelines or evolving goals, and accept that success may vary from time to time.
Involve each person individually: Each person needs different things. Adapt to each person’s circumstances. Hold regular one-on-one meetings to review, recalibrate, and ensure each team member feels understood, supported, and aligned.
Phase 3: Rebuilding in Uncertainty
The landscape changes again. Are you ready to adapt?
At some point, the acute phase of the crisis will fade, but that doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods. This transition period can be very uncomfortable, and there’s usually no playbook. People are hesitant to act, but decisions need to be made, priorities must evolve, and the business must continue to operate.
This is where scenario planning and strong communication come into play. You may not know exactly what’s next. But you can start preparing for what’s likely and help your team stay focused without becoming overly committed to a single vision of the future.
What to do now:
Plan for multiple outcomes: Don’t rush. Stay open and adaptable. Encourage your team to explore multiple scenarios and identify trigger points that could push the organization in one direction or another.
Maintain communication: Establish context regularly, even if only to explain what you don’t yet know. Regular updates build trust and provide much-needed stability in an uncertain environment.
Rebuild trust: Transparency and consistency are critical during this ambiguous phase. Keep commitments, acknowledge the challenges, and reinforce your team’s value through words and actions.
Phase 4: Reset and Renew Commitment
Don’t waste the crisis. Decide what’s worth moving forward with.
Eventually, the crisis will subside. But that doesn’t mean everything will return to normal. As a leader, you have a choice: return to business as usual or leverage what you’ve learned and build something stronger.
The best leaders use this final phase as an opportunity to reset. They look back with clarity, look forward with purpose, and realign the team around what matters most.
What to do now:
Catalyze the lessons: What worked? What didn’t? What’s worth doing differently? Create space for reflection, engage the team in conversation to collectively gain insights, and reinforce shared accountability.
Rebuild with intention: Use this moment to redesign how your team works. There are no time machines. Your post-crisis team will operate differently than before. Identify the processes or habits that no longer serve you and co-create new ways of working that reflect what you’ve learned.
Reconnect the team: Engage people. Help them see the path forward and their place in it. Reconnect people to the mission, give them clarity about their role, and offer opportunities for renewed contribution and leadership. Crisis leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about knowing what phase you’re in, what your team needs right now, and how to move forward with clarity and confidence. The most effective leaders keep their teams aligned, engaged, and ready to adapt, no matter what.