Leadership in Crisis Management

IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd) CRISIS WASN’T IN THE SKIES. IT WAS IN THE LEADERSHIP CABIN. Three things stood out. One: Employees were left alone to face furious customers. No leader should ever let that happen. If you don’t stand by your people in a storm, don’t expect them to stand by your customers in the sun. Customer experience collapses the moment employees feel abandoned. Two: In any crisis, honesty is the only strategy that works. This time, the communication wasn’t transparent. When leaders hide the full picture, years of goodwill can disappear overnight. A crisis can earn trust, but only if you tell the truth. Three: The belief that “we are too big to be ignored” has ended more companies than competition ever has. Customers always have a choice. And if they don’t, they will create one. We shouldn’t watch the Indigo crisis like spectators. This is a reminder for every leader to build their own crisis blueprint. Because crises will come, when they do, your response becomes your reputation. There is more to business than profits. There are people, trust, and how you show up when it matters most.

In 2011, the Amazon Appstore failed on launch and Jeff Bezos was furious. It was my fault, and I handled one aspect of recovery so poorly that one of my engineers quit. I still regret it 14 years later. Please learn from my mistake. The main lesson is that when you are leading through a crisis, it can feel like it is all about you. It isn’t. It is about: 1) Solving the problem 2) Guiding your team through it The product issue was that there were some pretty simple bugs, and we solved those problem well enough that I was eventually promoted. Where I failed was in guiding my team through the crisis. My leadership miss was that I neglected to encourage and support the engineer who had written the bad code. He did a great job stepping up and supporting the effort to fix the problem, but shortly afterward, he resigned. During the crisis, I failed to make clear to him that we did not blame him for the launch failure despite the bugs. I imagine that left room for him to think we blamed him or that he didn’t belong. It is also possible that others did blame him directly and that I was too caught up in the crisis to realize it. Both instances were my responsibility as the leader of the team. His resignation taught me a valuable lesson about leading through a crisis: No matter how bad the situation is, your team must be your first priority. If you make them feel safe, they will move heaven and earth to fix the problem. If you don’t, they may still fix the problem, but the team itself will never be the same. As a leader, here is how you can give them what they need: 1) Take the blame and do not allow others to be blamed. In some bug cases after this we did not release the name of the engineer outside the team in order to protect them from judgment or blame. 2) Separate fixing the problem from figuring out why it happened. Once the problem is fixed, you can focus on root-causing. This lowers the risk of searching for answers getting confused with searching for someone to blame. 3) Realize that anyone involved in the problem already feels bad. High performers know when they have fallen short and let their team down. As a leader you have to show them the path to growth and success after the crisis. They do not need to be beaten up on- they have taken care of that themselves. 4) See crises and problems as growth opportunities, not personal flaws. Your team comes with you in a crisis whether you like it or not, so you might as well come out stronger on the other side. As a leader, the responsibility for a crisis is yours in two ways: The problem itself and the effect it has on the future of the team. Don’t get too caught up in the first to think about the second. Readers- Has your team survived a crisis? How did you handle it?

Everyone is talking about AI fatigue. We're missing the bigger story. There's a Recovery Gap forming inside every organization right now — and most leaders haven't named it yet. The "Recovery Gap" is the widening distance between how much disruption people are absorbing and how much recovery they're being given to process it. Layoffs. Restructuring. AI reshaping jobs in real time. Endless meetings. Constant notifications. And underneath all of it, the unspoken expectation that everyone stays adaptable, productive, and positive — without breaking stride. People aren't tired because they lack information. They're tired because they lack recovery. The data is finally catching up to what most of us are quietly feeling. Gallup's 2025 report shows 67% of workers now report burnout symptoms — up from 52% in 2021. And Eagle Hill Consulting found 55% of the U.S. workforce is currently experiencing burnout. And 35% don't feel safe telling their manager they're struggling. This is the Recovery Gap in numbers. Here's what most leadership teams have wrong: They've been treating emotional resilience as a personal skill people are supposed to bring to work fully formed. It isn't. It's a capacity that gets depleted by the conditions of the work itself — and replenished only by the conditions leaders create around it. Resilience isn't a personality trait. It's a renewable resource. And right now, most organizations are spending it faster than they're refilling it. What I'm coaching leaders to do this quarter: → Audit your team's recovery, not just their output. What does your team get back after a hard sprint? If the answer is "the next sprint," you've found the gap. → Treat recovery as an operating cost, not a benefit. Sleep, time off, real disconnection, uninterrupted focus time — these aren't perks. They're the depreciation budget for human performance. Skip the budget and the asset deteriorates. → Make psychological safety a leading indicator. If 35% of workers can't tell their manager they're struggling, the problem isn't burnout. It's the silence around burnout. That silence is the real risk. You can invest millions in AI, automation, and productivity tools. But you can't automate recovery. You can't prompt your way out of nervous system overload. You can't summarize emotional capacity into a dashboard. The organizations that thrive in this decade won't just be the most technically advanced. They'll be the ones who closed the Recovery Gap before it closed them. The future of work won't belong to the companies with the best AI strategy. It'll belong to the companies whose people are still standing when the AI strategy stops being the conversation. Where is the Recovery Gap showing up for you right now? #Leadership #MentalHealth #FutureOfWork

A mentee once told me, “I solved the problem before it blew up. But the guy who caused the chaos got praised for ‘handling the crisis.’” That’s when it clicked. We’ve built workplaces that reward firefighters, not architects. Because prevention is invisible. It doesn’t look dramatic. It doesn’t generate applause. It doesn’t make leadership feel like heroes. So the people who quietly keep systems stable, customer complaints low, and processes clean… get labelled as “consistent,” “steady,” or “reliable.” In other words: flat. While the ones who cause the mess, stay loud, rush in at the last minute… get branded as “problem solvers,” “high ownership,” “great under pressure.” This is why many organizations break themselves: 👉 They mistake chaos management for leadership. 👉 They confuse adrenaline with competence. 👉 They glorify urgency instead of design. The people who prevent disasters are never seen. The people who extinguish them get rooms full of applause. And slowly, the quiet builders stop building. They become indifferent. They let things slip not because they’re careless, but because they’re tired of competing with chaos. Here’s what I tell leaders bluntly: If your culture rewards last-minute heroes, you will always live in last-minute emergencies. The real leaders aren’t the ones who put out fires. They’re the ones who built a system where fires never started. 💬 Have you ever watched the loudest crisis managers get rewarded while the quiet stabilizers were ignored? What did it do to the team? #LeadershipTruths #WorkplaceCulture #OrganizationalDesign #HighPerformers #TeamDynamics #MentorshipMatters

🚑 Recovery speed is a leadership signal Setbacks happen. Missed targets. Bad calls. Unexpected hits. What teams watch next is not the explanation. It’s the speed of recovery. 🧠 Why recovery matters more than the setback Most leaders think credibility is lost in the fall. It usually isn’t. Research on organizational resilience reveals that teams don’t judge leaders by the absence of failure, they judge them by how quickly direction is restored after disruption. The damage doesn’t come from the hit. It comes from the pause. When leadership hesitates, the system freezes. 👀 What teams actually look for after a hit After a setback, teams don’t need poetry. They’re scanning for signals. • Is direction still clear? • Are priorities intact? • Is leadership steady or shaken? • Are we moving, or waiting? Silence gets interpreted. Delay gets amplified. And uncertainty spreads faster than facts. 😂 The funny part everyone recognizes Every organization has lived this moment. A setback happens. Then comes the sentence: “Let’s take a moment to reflect.” One moment becomes two weeks. Two weeks become three committees. Nothing recovers slower than a company busy explaining itself. ⚠️ Why leaders slow recovery unintentionally Leaders slow recovery for understandable reasons. They want to: • Get the story right • Avoid repeating mistakes • Show thoughtfulness But research on loss aversion says that after visible failure, leaders become disproportionately cautious, even when the environment demands speed. Reflection quietly turns into fear management. The organization feels it immediately. 🏗️ What strong leaders do differently Strong leaders don’t rush explanations. They restore motion. They: • Stabilize priorities fast • Correct the obvious issues • Set a short forward horizon • Move before confidence fully returns They understand something simple. Confidence follows movement. Not the other way around. 🔍 The leadership reframe The question after a setback isn’t: “What do we say?” It’s: “How fast are we back in motion?” Because recovery speed is a leadership signal. It tells the organization whether: • Belief still exists • Fear is in charge • Momentum is alive Teams don’t expect leaders to be unbreakable. They expect them to be recoverable. And the fastest way to rebuild trust isn’t a perfect explanation. It’s visible forward motion while everyone is still watching. #Leadership #Executiveleadership #Resilience #Decisionmaking #CEO #Business #Management #Leadershiplessons

Remote work isn't broken. The rulebook is: Most companies wrote one set of remote rules and handed it to everyone. But managers and employees need to run it differently: 1. Set core hours ↳Manager: Pick 3-4 hours the whole team is online, then stop scheduling meetings outside that window ↳Employee: Block those hours on your calendar and protect the rest of your day for deep work 2. Overcommunicate context ↳Manager: Explain the why behind a task, not just the what, so no one has to guess ↳Employee: Add a quick note to every update so your manager never has to ask "where are we" 3. Ask before you assume ↳Manager: If a message sits unanswered for an hour, check in before you jump to conclusions ↳Employee: Ask before you guess, it saves both of you a redo 4. Default to written ↳Manager: Put decisions in a doc or channel, not just a call, so nothing gets lost ↳Employee: Recap verbal conversations in writing so there's a record everyone can check 5. Trust the work ↳Manager: Judge output, not hours online, and say that out loud to the team ↳Employee: Share progress often so trust builds without anyone having to ask for it 6. Show up on camera ↳Manager: Make camera use a norm for some meetings ↳Employee: Turn your camera on for priority calls 7. Build in real connection ↳Manager: Schedule time that isn't about work, even 15 minutes, so the team stays a team ↳Employee: Show up to that time, skipping it quietly adds up to feeling cut off 8. Document everything ↳Manager: Keep one source of truth for decisions so new hires can catch up fast ↳Employee: Write down what you did and why before you log off each day 9. Ask for feedback ↳Manager: Check in at least monthly on what's working and what feels isolating ↳Employee: Speak up early if something feels off, don't wait for the review 10. Guard the boundary ↳Manager: Don't message after hours unless it's urgent, model the behavior you want ↳Employee: Set a hard stop time and actually log off when you hit it A rulebook only works if both sides read it the same way.  Most don't. Which of these feels hardest to actually follow, as a manager or as an employee? --- ♻️ Repost to help remote teams work better together. And follow me George Stern for more remote work content.

Most companies don’t have a leadership crisis — they have a manager design flaw. We promote high performers, send them to “leadership training,” and then expect transformation. But behavior doesn’t scale when the system rewards the wrong things. Managers fail not because they don’t care — but because the role itself is engineered for control, not capability. In 2025, here’s what CHROs are re-architecting inside their orgs: 1️⃣ Performance Systems: Most KPIs still measure task completion and compliance. Progressive CHROs are rebuilding metrics around team trust, collaboration quality, and coaching effectiveness. 2️⃣ Leadership Pathways: Instead of promoting by tenure or performance, they’re introducing “readiness gates” — testing for adaptability, feedback receptivity, and decision courage before promotion. 3️⃣ Learning Models: They’re shifting from programmatic learning to embedded leadership labs — small, real-world experiments tied to actual business problems. The result? Managers who stop managing work and start multiplying performance through others. Because “manager development” isn’t about adding new modules. It’s about removing outdated expectations. When you change what a manager is for, you change how leadership shows up across the enterprise. How are you redesigning the manager role for 2026?

Most leaders fear crises, but crises unlock growth. My 5-step framework shows how. I’ve spent over 20 years guiding founders through tough times - turnarounds, pivots, and moments when the future felt uncertain. I've learnt that chaos is not the end. It’s often the start of something better, if you have a system you trust. A client story stands out. They faced economic challenges that threatened their business. By using my 5-step framework, they went from survival mode to a turnaround in 6 to 12 months. No magic, just discipline, hard work and a repeatable system. Here’s the framework that made the difference: 1. Assessment ⇀ Take a clear look at what’s really happening.  ⇀ What are the facts? Where are the issues?  ⇀ Be honest about strengths and blind spots. 2. Alignment ⇀ Make sure everyone is on the same page.  ⇀ Get buy-in from your team and partners.  ⇀ Set the vision and share it often. 3. Action ⇀ Move quickly on what matters most.  ⇀ Build a plan and break it into steps.  ⇀ Start with the hardest task first. 4. Acceleration ⇀ Once you see progress, increase the pace.  ⇀ Remove slow parts, double down on what works. ⇀ Keep the team focused. 5. Assurance ⇀ Check results, and adjust your plan.  ⇀ Celebrate wins and learn from setbacks.  ⇀ Support your team. Reflect on these steps for your next business pivot: ➞ What is your real starting point? ➞ Who needs to be aligned for success? ➞ What action can you take today? ➞ Where can you speed up? ➞ How will you get assurance? Growth often hides behind a crisis and the right framework could turn your fear into clarity and momentum. I know economic times are tough for many business owners, but please keep going. Your next breakthrough could be closer than you think.

The US consumer forgives fast. The European consumer remembers longer. And that’s exactly why leadership hires can’t be one-size-fits-all. This is one of the biggest mistakes I see global FMCG companies make when hiring across regions. They assume a “strong leader” will work anywhere. Same crisis playbook. Same communication style. Same instincts. In reality, consumer behavior in the US and Europe demands very different leadership responses, especially under pressure. In the US, speed is everything. When something goes wrong, consumers expect immediate acknowledgment, decisive action, and visible progress. Leaders who hesitate or over-engineer responses lose trust faster than those who act and correct in real time. In Europe, trust works differently. Consumers are slower to react, but they remember longer. Credibility is built through consistency, restraint, and follow-through after the spotlight moves on. Leaders who rush to reassure or oversimplify often make things worse. This is where hiring gets risky. A leader who thrives in the US can struggle badly in Europe if they move too fast or communicate too aggressively. A European leader can fail in the US by over-deliberating when decisiveness is expected. On paper, both look impressive. In practice, one may be completely wrong for the market. This is why, when I help clients hire across the US and Europe, I don’t just assess experience. I assess market instinct. How leaders read consumers. How they respond under pressure. How they flex their style without losing credibility. The best global FMCG leaders aren’t universally “strong.” They’re adaptable. They know when speed builds trust and when patience protects it. Hiring that kind of leadership requires real cross-market understanding, not just a global CV. If you’re building teams across the US and Europe, the question isn’t “Is this person senior enough?” It’s “Will this person lead the right way in this market?” #FMCG #ExecutiveSearch #Leadership #GlobalHiring #CPG

The “Eternal Struggle”: PR vs. Legal – And how to bridge the gaps. There’s an old adage in corporate crisis management: You’re either at the table, or you’re on the menu. And nowhere is this more evident than in the frequent tug-of-war between PR teams and legal departments during a crisis. I’ve been on both sides of this debate—as a former lawyer and now a public affairs advisor. Here’s the truth: the “say nothing, do nothing” approach that worked 30 years ago will destroy a company’s reputation today. But going rogue with an unchecked PR strategy can tank a future legal or regulatory case just as fast and may get you fired. So how do we navigate this proverbial minefield? Here’s how to bridge the gap: 1. Understand the Stakes - Legal’s priority: Protect the company from lawsuits, fines, and regulatory action. - PR’s priority: Protect the company’s reputation in the court of public opinion (where your customers, investors, and employees live). Both priorities are 100% valid—and both are existential risks. 2. Build the Crisis Playbook Collaboratively - Pre-plan messaging for likely crisis scenarios before the heat is on. - Agree on who leads which part of the response and when. This can be tough, but dedicate the time. - Include Legal in your media training—they’ll thank you when it’s time to deliver tightly-worded, low-risk statements under pressure. 3. “Be at the Table” - Legal needs to respect PR as more than a “spin machine.” PR shapes reputations that can directly influence jury pools, regulators, and decision-makers. - PR needs to recognize legal’s expertise in risk avoidance. Reckless comments can lead to billion-dollar costs. The key: If both teams collaborate early, they can find solutions that protect both reputation and the bottom line. 4. Manage the Message - Words matter: Even a single phrase can change the narrative. Use legal-approved, precise language that aligns with PR’s strategy. - Stay human: A robotic, overly cautious response (“We are investigating and will provide updates soon.”) simply doesn’t work anymore. - Own what you can: Show accountability where it’s safe and strategic. 5. Play the Long Game The court of law and the court of public opinion don’t always operate on the same timelines. But public perception often shapes the legal and regulatory outcomes. - Losing trust with customers can lead to more aggressive scrutiny from regulators. - Winning public support can soften legal blowback or even help settle cases faster. Bottom Line: The PR vs. Legal conflict doesn’t need to be a zero-sum game. The best organizations recognize that reputation and liability are two sides of the same coin, and build a unified approach to protect both. When you’re in a crisis, it’s not just about avoiding mistakes. It’s about showing leadership when it matters most. And leadership starts with getting PR and Legal on the same team. What’s your take? Drop your thoughts and “war stories” below.