On the opening night of the restaurant Soul Mama, co-founder Adetokunbo ‘T’ Oyelola had a big problem. “We had little under an hour to go before 150 people poured in, but suddenly our main oven decided to break down,” he recalls.
Oyelola’s response was straight out of the ‘lead from the front, but solve this problem together’ textbook. Yet, at a time when it could be said crisis is the new norm in business, navigating the correct pathway to deal with crises isn’t any easier.
“The thing about a crisis is that leaders often see it as an attack on them personally,” says Ryan Wenham, creative director at Larsen Architecture. “The real skill leaders need is knowing how to click themselves out of that mentality, before they can even start devising responses to it.”
This is easier said than done. Although a ‘crisis’ isn’t always one when viewed in the grand scheme of things, a leader cannot be seen as dismissive of them.
“But making it all about them is also where we see leaders forget what a crisis feels like for a team, and it morphs into hero-leadership styles,” says Zoë Arden, former director of communications at BT and author of Story-Centred Leadership.
Different ideas
The best antidote to resolving a crisis, Arden suggests, is to turn it into a team-based event. However, some say it’s a dereliction of leadership duty to simply expect everyone else to deal with it.
“A crisis isn’t the time to be starting from scratch to develop teams,” asserts Gina Battye, founder and CEO of the Psychological Safety Institute. “Team building comes from stability. Build a team, but wait till a crisis is over.”
Is all this suggesting that the buck should still stop with leaders?
Among the supporters of a more individual-led approach is Christopher OH Williams, former Fortune 500 executive and author of Courage. “For me, the starting point when looking at crisis has always been the tension it creates between growth and discomfort,” he says. “Having spent several years interviewing other executives about it, what becomes clear is that a crisis creates a spectre of fear.
“The only way leaders can manage fear is to deal with it in the same way they manage risk – by having a more personal and rational conversation with it.”
“Leaders need to demonstrate one particular quality – courage.’’
Crisis shouldn’t be a stop sign
According to Williams, a crisis shouldn’t be a ‘stop sign’ for leaders, but a warning to be more conscious about their initial responses. Leaders need to demonstrate one particular quality – courage.
“Courage can be messy, but it’s more deliberate than bravery,” Williams says. “Courage is when leaders act despite fear.’’
Others argue leaders still need support.
“Leaders often fall into ‘reputational myopia’ during a crisis, focusing on immediate tactical fixes rather than maintaining structural perspective,” says Ryan McSharry, head of professional services, crisis and litigation at Infinite Global.
“Leaders who embed structural thinking and empower teams before a crisis are far better placed to adapt when the heat is on.’’
“Leaders have to accept they rarely have control of everything. All they can really do is try to address what is in their control.’’
Relationships matter
According to research by Michaela Merk, executive coach and professor at Audencia Business School, effective leadership under pressure depends less on control and more on the strength of relationships.
“While clarity and decisiveness are vital in a crisis, leaders succeed by combining direction with collective intelligence, trust and team empowerment,” she says.
In her book The Power of Relational Intelligence, she highlights the five core talents of relational intelligence needed to create a sense of belonging – empathy, trust, passion, gratitude and authentic pride.
McSharry calls for a “systems and networks” approach to dealing with crisis.
“We train our designers to set expectations, and how to manage these, so if comeback occurs, things don’t seem like a crisis,” says Wenham. “A systematic approach is needed so you can fall back to processes that take the emotion out and allow people to focus on the problem in hand.”
For Veena Giridhar Gopal, who has more than 25 years’ leadership experience with brands such as Pepsico and Diageo, theories about how to deal with crises come and go, but one thing remains: needing to maintain a sense of control.
“Control in a crisis is just an illusion,” she says. “Leaders have to accept they rarely have control of everything. All they can really do is try to address what is in their control.
“Going through crises, knowing what’s got you through a problem before, and having peer groups who have been through similar situations, is invaluable,” she says.
Building resilience
Some say there is some truth in not labelling everything as a crisis.
“What is obvious is that one leader’s crisis is different from another’s,” says Fiona Wylie, founder and CEO Brand Champions. “A lot about successfully dealing with the crisis is simply about presenting the right response to the right people. That doesn’t always have to come from the leader but can come from the team.
“What we’re talking about is taking things back to empathy, revisiting one’s toolkit around what works well, and, if appropriate, bringing in junior people – if only to show them how problems can be navigated, so that their resilience is built. Crisis is something that needs a reactive response. Not everything can be a crisis.”
The four ‘Rs’ of crisis management
Reduction – proactively identifying potential threats and implementing measures to prevent or minimise their impact.
Readiness – developing comprehensive crisis plans, establishing communication protocols, training employees and conducting drills to ensure the organisation is prepared to act effectively.
Response – taking immediate, decisive action during a crisis to protect people, manage information, contain damage and maintain essential operations, often focusing on quick facts and stakeholder communication.
Recovery – the process of restoring normal operations, assessing the aftermath of the crisis, learning from the experience and implementing changes to build greater future resilience.
Go forth and be calm
For some leaders, a crisis is something they thrive on. Oyelola admits he probably sits in this camp.
“It’s not that I don’t worry about change or pressurised events, but you have to channel them so they don’t have an overpowering impact.”
Oyelola uses mind-mapping techniques to bring clarity to his thinking processes, but he also tackles fear head on: “I embrace it by not making it feel overwhelming.”
For others, a crisis may seem like a weight on their shoulders – but most experts believe that with the right responses, it can feel like just another part of leadership.
As Battye says: “The best leaders step up and stay calm but are still their authentic self because they can model a type of behaviour that keeps them curious to find solutions, even under the most intense pressure.”
Peter Crush is an award-winning HR-specialist journalist, writing about all aspects of leadership and the world of work.
This article is shortened version of the lead article ‘The art of the calm command’ first published in the Spring 2026 issue of Edge. You can read the full version here
