90 Days to Level Up Your Leadership

Week 11Leading in Crisis

Benchmark goal: Rise to the challenge of crisis leadership.

There is nothing quite like a crisis to test your leadership. It will make or break you as a leader.

Crises have brought down many leaders and their organizations with them, while other leaders have risen to the challenges to prove their mettle.

What makes leading your organization through difficult situations so hard? Like being in a war, crises test you to your limits because the outcome is rarely predictable. You not only have to use all your wisdom to guide your organization through it but you also must dig deep inside yourself to find the courage to keep going forward.

Leaders Develop Through Crises

A crisis tests whether you will hold fast to your beliefs. Staying on course is much easier when things are going well. But will you do so under the enormous pressure that comes with a crisis? Can you stay true to yourself in the face of temptations to bend the rules to get through the crisis? How will you respond when threatened that everything you built for years might be destroyed?

Authentic leaders are prepared to guide their organizations through severe situations because they know who they are. They have the self-awareness, self-confidence, and resilience to take responsibility for their failings and lead others through the rapidly unfolding—and often unpredictable—sequence of events. They rise to the occasion, find leadership abilities they never knew they had, and come through with ...