Leading in Times of Crisis: Navigating Through Complexity, Diversity, and Uncertainty to Save Your Business

Introduction

WHEN WE MET WITH THE CEO OF A MAJOR corporation recently, we asked him how things were going. Rather than giving us a typical response—“fine” or “good, except for problem x”—he responded with a sigh. He began talking about how his job never stops; how he’s under incredible stress; how there’s too much information to digest and too many decisions to make; how he feels as if the credit crisis, stock market fluctuations, and global economy are weighing him down; how it’s impossible to know the right thing to do. Obviously, we had caught him on a bad day.

We should add that this is a prominent CEO with outstanding business results, a global brand with huge equity, and a top-tier team around him. His complaints were revealing that ...