A Masterclass in Crisis Leadership 

"A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for."

Neither is your company.

If your business is more than three years old, congratulations. You’ve already made it through one of the most globally disruptive events of the 21st century: Covid-19. Covid-19 was much more than a health crisis; it was a leadership crisis too. And, if you figured out how to survive that, you’ve already proven you can think clearly under pressure, adapt fast, and demonstrate crisis leadership by leading through chaos.

Now here we are again. **Ding Ding** Round 2.

Not a virus this time, but tariffs. Trade shocks. Market panic. The Tariff Turmoil of 2025, driven in large by the Donald Trump tariff plan. It’s a different kind of storm this time. A self-inflicted one, perhaps, but one that still requires steady hands at the wheel and strong crisis leadership to navigate.

If Covid-19 taught us anything when it comes to business, it’s that resilience isn’t down to luck, it’s down to leadership. And the leaders who kept their heads then? They’re the ones whose companies are best positioned to navigate this latest global fiasco.

The good news is: you already know what to do - you just need to do it again, with intention, clarity, and consistency.

Covid vs. Tariffs: Two Different Storms, Same Skills Required

Covid-19 caught us off guard. …and so did this tariff apocalypse. But both are, at their core, logic puzzles that demand the same skill set: the very essence of crisis leadership.

They demand analysis. Patience. Clarity. And the guts to say, “Okay team, here’s the plan,” even if the plan might change by the next day.  

The businesses that rose to the challenge during the pandemic - Microsoft, Unilever, Shopify, Zoom - didn’t fluke their way through it. They:

• Communicated relentlessly
• Made decisions rooted in core values
• Adapted without panicking
• Empowered their teams
• Reinforced their mission
• Responded rather than reacted

Funny how that list still applies today, right?

Crisis Leadership Is a Mind Game

Here’s the psychological kicker: crisis distorts perception.

According to research by Gross & John (2003), people who engage in cognitive reappraisal (reframing a crisis as a challenge rather than a threat) are much more composed, creative, and emotionally stable under pressure – a defining trait of effective crisis leadership.

Leaders who use reappraisal techniques are less likely to panic, more likely to maintain their team’s trust, and better at navigating all forms of uncertainty, ambiguity, and change. This technique is a cornerstone of emotional intelligence, and it’s especially valuable when external events are out of your control much like the Donald Trump Tariff Plan.

Similarly, studies in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes (Bonaccio et al., 2020) show that leaders who promote psychological safety during uncertainty enable teams to take initiative and speak up in high-stakes situations. In short: if your people feel like they'll get clobbered for being honest, they’ll stay silent when it matters most... like right now!

Also: Communicate like your life depends on it. Because your team's clarity might. Remember, you cannot possibly OVERcommunicate at times like this, but you sure as heck can UNDERcommunicate.

Studies from the Covid-19 era showed something terrifying: when leaders go silent, people fill the vacuum with conspiratorial nonsense. Conspiracy theories. Doom spirals. That guy in Sales who read one Reddit thread and now thinks you’re relocating the company to the moon.

Overcommunicate. Repeat your messages in a million times in a million different ways and never assume everyone heard it the first time. Or the fourth. When you undercommunicate, people fill the blanks with fear, fantasy, and folklore. And remember the words of Winston Churchill (although some say it could also have been Mark Twain): “A lie can travel halfway round the world before the truth has its boots on.”

This principle (overcommunicating, not boots) is backed by a McKinsey report from 2020 that emphasized the need for “hyper communication” during crisis periods. Companies that regularly updated stakeholders - internally and externally including customers, suppliers, and staff - reported higher trust, lower attrition, and better decision-making agility. Nice.

The C.A.L.M.E.R. Leader Wins The Day

We all love a good acronym: especially one that tells leaders what to do in a crisis without sounding like a corporate fortune cookie or sales-speak.

C.A.L.M.E.R.

C – Communicate Clearly and Constantly

Silence is scary.

Be transparent about what you know, what you don’t know, and what happens next. Consistency always beats charisma or chest-beating.

A – Assess Before Acting

Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast.

Gather data. Consult your team. Don’t make a PR nightmare by trying to look decisive.

It’s: Ready, Aim, Fire. It’s not: Ready, Fire, Aim. Nor is it: Ready, Aim, Aim, Aim, Aim, Fire?

Decide, then move with determination. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.

L – Lead with Core Values

Your values are your stabilizers.

Make decisions that reflect them, even under pressure. Especially under pressure.

M – Maintain Adaptability

Plans are lovely. Until reality shows up and kicks you in the shins …or worse.

Build for flex, not perfection.

Make imperfect starts knowing that you will certainly have to course-correct along the way.

E – Empower Your People

Don’t hoard decision-making.

Give your team room to think, act, and solve. Trust travels both ways.

Collaborate: it’s the only way through this.

R – Reinforce Purpose Daily

Purpose is the North Star in the fog (of war?).

Keep it front and center. Remind your people why they’re doing what they’re doing and keep going.

Who Doesn’t Appreciate a Real-World Example?

Use these examples as inspiration for your thinking.

Let’s talk Unilever during Covid-19. They didn’t just protect jobs. They also made sure to invest in employee wellbeing, made values-based decisions, and kept the mission visible in every message. Their clarity, consistency, and care for people became a competitive advantage and they’ve doubled down on that playbook ever since.

Next take Microsoft. They embraced remote work early, communicated clearly, and trusted their people to get on with it. They used the crisis as a way to modernize how they worked. From their leader, Satya Nadella’s empathetic tone to their streamlined internal processes, they became a model of clarity under pressure.

Zoom, of course, exploded in relevance, but what’s more impressive is how they handled the sudden growth. Sure, there were wobbles (who wouldn’t be overwhelmed going from 10 million users to 300 million in a few months?), but their commitment to transparency, security improvements, and direct customer engagement meant they survived the backlash and cemented their role in the business ecosystem.

Shopify is another unsung hero. The leadership team paused hiring temporarily, yes, but they also doubled down on platform improvements and supported thousands of small businesses transitioning online. That balance of caution and courage paid off. Again, another shining example of crisis leadership in action.

What didn’t work? What crashed and burned everywhere? Panic layoffs. Slashing all innovation budgets. Ghosting the team while you ‘strategize.’ Leaders who froze or freaked out lost trust and momentum. Some of those companies don’t even exist anymore.

And today? The leaders who learned those lessons and kept practicing them are already making calmer, better choices today. They’re reducing noise. Setting priorities. Keeping teams focused on long games instead of short-term drama. They’re embracing transparency even when there are no answers. That’s how you build resilience and master crisis leadership.  

Final Thoughts from the Bridge

Nobody can predict the world six days from now, never mind six weeks, or six months. Expect the best, anticipate the worst, and plan for somewhere in the middle. Great leaders simply weren’t built for the easy times. You’re not running a yacht club; you’re captaining a freighter in a global storm not knowing where the safest port might be right now... but you keep sailing.

Tariffs? Recession talk? Supply chain roulette?

That’s the job.

And the companies that make it through will be led by the CALMER ones - the ones who turn panic into process, static into signal, and chaos into clarity. The ones that master crisis leadership.

Take a breath. Set your course. Say what needs to be said. Do what needs to be done. Keep calm and carry on. …but keep moving.

Because a ship is safest in harbor, sure. But that’s not what it’s built for.

Neither are you.

Support Navigating The Storm

If you’re a senior executive steering through uncertainty, our award-winning book: My Daily Leadership: A Powerful Roadmap for Leadership Success offers a practical roadmap for building resilience and clarity in high-pressure environments.

This book equips you with tools to strengthen your decision-making, enhance self-awareness, and lead with confidence.

Whether you’re grappling with economic turbulence, global trade dynamics, or the internal challenges of sustained pressure, this is essential reading for anyone serious about mastering crisis leadership at the highest level.