Crisis Leadership: More “Best Of”
How to lead in the firestorm (and what NOT to do)...
There’s an old saying in the startup world borrowed from the Brits….“Keep Calm and Carry On.”
But when a crisis hits, whether it’s a stock market downturn, a startup product failure, an internal board or investor fight, CEO malfeasance, [insert your own]… keeping calm, cool, and collected requires leadership practice.
Note: We’ve seen 2 of these crisis scenarios just last week with the Trump Tariff and the Spy Deel.
Great leaders take an active role in leading through a crisis by modeling calmness for everyone else and by being transparent, authentic, and human; they elevate their leadership to the next level.
Great leaders make quick, critical communications to fill the fear gaps that arise during a crisis. They quickly and actively communicate to their teams, investors, and customers. They communicate key messages 7 times, 7 different ways.
For those of you who have read my past newsletters, these are familiar concepts to you. Today’s post is a reminder to “Mind the Gap” and to “Communicate, Communicate, Communicate” and to be as transparent as possible. In every case, I’ve experienced and led by example, my teams and I have come out the other side with much stronger bonds. The respect, credibility, and trust you will gain by leading this way will be priceless when executed correctly.
Maybe, I need to change the above logo to this?
But just as important as knowing what to do is knowing what not to do. In a crisis, bad leadership decisions, no leadership decisions, or even worse…silence…definitely makes things exponentially worse.
A perfect example? The Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapse, where venture capitalists collectively created the very crisis they feared. Instead of leading with rational analysis, many acted with a fire–ready–aim mentality, accelerating a full-scale bank run that could have been mitigated. In the end, all depositors received 100% of their money back, but the institution the VCs partnered with for 25+ years to help build Silicon Valley collapsed and destroyed a ton of goodwill and equity.
Today, I’m updating a post I wrote in April of 2020 as a response to the COVID crisis, trying to quickly help other leaders put into practice what I’d been classically trained over my prior 20 years as a CFO who has experienced several crisis events.
I subsequently led this playbook by example again during the SVB banking crisis of March of 2023 with several live Zoom webinars to organizations like the Alliance of CEOs, the Operators Guild, and a few other private companies in an attempt to “Keep Calm and Carry On.” Unfortunately, my voice was not loud enough.
It’s worth repeating this playbook every few years, and April 2025 is as good a time as any.
My Top 12 Crisis Leadership Principles from my original post:
Crisis Leadership: Top 12 “Best Of”
As we step back and review the last 60 days of Covid and the last 30-45 day of sheltering in place (yes, it’s only been those number of days), many people have been thrust into crisis leadership.
The Top 12 from that post:
Safety 1st (psychological and physical). For best results, take care of yourself first, giving you the power to take care of others.
Relationships 2nd. It’s always about the people, your team, friends, and family…if it starts with you and your company without addressing the impact on the people you are communicating with, you are not “minding the gap”.
Lead With Why (yes, I write about this a lot). Ask powerful questions.
Authenticity and Vulnerability Are Required. Be courageous enough to tell the truth.
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.”
“A critical mass of brave leaders is the foundation of an intentionally courageous culture. Every time we are brave with our lives, we make the people around us a little braver and our organizations bolder.”
- Brené Brown
Find New Ways to Communicate. Zoom was just barely a “thing” in 2020. We were all in offices. Covid arguably created Zoom when we had to shelter in place.
Build a Knowledge Center (A regularly reported news and data center): I did this for my small network of followers with daily/weekly statistics updates (just the facts), trying to quell all the opinion and fear-mongering pieces being published.
Drive Decisions Based on Data.
Understand and Remind Everyone that Misinformation is Rampant in a Crisis.
Engage To Win. Cowering in the corner with shields up only defends, it doesn’t solve. Engage your people with powerful questions:
“What do you think?”
“How can I help?”
“Can you help?”
“Is there anything we can and should do today?”
TRUST = Availability + Communication + Engagement (just talking about the crisis). Make yourself available.
Empathy, Dignity, Integrity. Here are 2 of my favorite quotes:
“People will likely forget what you did or what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel”.
- Maya Angelou
“Be as generous as you can, with the constraints that you have.”
- Doug Leone, Sequoia
There Are No Clear Playbooks during a Crisis, But Plays Must Be Called. Leadership requires actions/decisions. Take actions based on either data or clear points of view (opinion). Focus on “what you/your team can control” and explicitly “what you can’t control”. Have the courage to change and control the things you can. Have the wisdom to know the difference (see the Serenity Prayer below):
“And if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.”
Neil Peart, Rush
This 2025 update to that post now includes more action steps to assess the situation, make the right calls, and communicate effectively when everything feels like it’s on fire with a focus on what NOT to do and once again sharing some historical lessons focused on the 2023 SVB bank crisis.
1. Assess the True Risk: Short-Term Fire or Long-Term Structural Damage?
Not all crises are created equal. Some are urgent but temporary, while others are slow-moving disasters in disguise. Your first move as a leader is to determine whether you’re dealing with a short-term shock or a long-term existential threat.
Don’t Misdiagnose the Problem
What actually happened? SVB was facing a liquidity issue due to mismanaged interest rate risk, but it wasn’t insolvent.
What did people assume? That the bank was completely failing and their deposits would vanish overnight.
The mistake? Investors and founders treated it like an immediate catastrophe, causing a bank run. Guess what? Their actions made it an immediate catastrophe.
Key Lessons:
Not all bad news means “run for the exits.” If leaders had paused, assessed the risk, and spoken rationally to their portfolio companies, the panic could have been mitigated.
There are almost always amazing opportunities in a crisis while everyone else is panicking. The best leaders in our world find those opportunities and actively never waste a good crisis while turning their team’s attention to coming out the other side stronger, faster, and better.
2. What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and When We Might Know It
Panic thrives in uncertainty. The best leaders cut through the noise and immediately can help calm and focus everyone by simply communicating.
What do we know for sure? (Hard facts, real numbers, direct evidence.)
What don’t we know yet? (What assumptions are we making?)
When might we know more? (When is our next key data point?)
What decisions will we make when that data arrives….so we don’t panic in that moment of new data?
SVB Case Study: Acting Without Full Data
Instead of waiting for regulators or banking experts to provide clarity, VCs jumped straight into “worst-case scenario” mode, urging all their founders to pull deposits immediately.
Key Lessons:
Knee-jerk reactions without full information create unnecessary risk.
As a leader, your job isn’t to act first; it’s to act wisely.
3. Avoid Speculation: What’s True Today vs. What’s Just a Guess
In a crisis, speculation spreads like wildfire. Rumors become “facts.” Worst-case scenarios feel inevitable. Leaders must relentlessly separate fact from fiction and keep their teams focused on what’s actually happening now vs. spiraling into fear-based predictions.
SVB Case Study: Feeding the Panic, VCs started sending messages like:
"If you don’t pull your money now, you might lose everything.”
"SVB is going under; get out while you can.”
This wasn’t based on hard facts…just fear. And that fear became a self-fulfilling prophecy. By encouraging everyone to withdraw at once, they turned a manageable liquidity problem into an actual collapse.
Key Lessons:
Leaders should be the last ones spreading panic, not the first.
If you don’t have verified data, don’t spread unverified assumptions.
4. Scenario Planning: Preparing for What Comes Next
In a crisis, the worst mistake is to assume you have one single path forward. Great leaders always prepare multiple scenarios and outline pre-set actions based on new data.
SVB Case Study: The Alternative Path
Imagine if VCs had said:
“SVB has some issues, but the FDIC is stepping in. Let's wait 24 hours before making any drastic moves.”
“If we get confirmation of a real solvency issue, we’ll take X actions.”
“In the meantime, let’s explore diversified banking options so we aren’t fully exposed to one institution.”
This approach would have:
Reduced panic withdrawals
Given regulators time to stabilize the situation
Allowed founders to make rational, not fear-driven, choices
Instead, the bank run happened so fast that even companies that didn’t want to pull funds had no choice because the system was collapsing in real time.
Key Lesson #1: Want to Be the Top 1% of Leaders?
Prepare for the next crisis when times are good. This is used all the time in Security and IT/Data Centers with all sorts of IRPs (Incident Response Planning), Security Breach Planning, or even all the natural disaster planning in our personal lives. Having a detailed, well-thought-out plan during a few potential company crisis events may be the difference between survival and failure.
Key Lesson #2: Crisis Response Planning Framework
What to do
When to do it
Very specific on the how to do it: Pay close attention to the sequence (Oxygen first, flotation device second, brace for impact third, Exit.)
As CEO or CFO, you may want to ask a few of your executive team leaders to prepare similar “disaster scenario” planning during the good times.
IN SUMMARY: What NOT to Do in a Crisis (SVB Edition)
Don’t be silent. Communication is required.
Don’t create the very crisis you fear.
If your leadership decisions are making things worse, rethink your approach.
Don’t be part of the rumor mill; only be part of the fact mill.
Don’t act before verifying the full scope of the problem.
“Wait 24 hours” can often be the best crisis response.
During these 24 hours, use the What We Know, Don’t Know, and When to Know to determine your next course of action.
Don’t lead with emotion over analysis.
The “pull everything now” mentality wasn’t based on strategic analysis…it was based on fear of looking dumb if others pulled first.
Being a lemming in a crisis usually just sends you over the cliff.
Leaders must be rational when others are emotional.
Don’t communicate in absolutes when the situation is still unfolding.
The mass messaging of “everything will be gone tomorrow” fueled unnecessary panic.
Good leaders say: “Here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t. Here’s how we’ll decide what to do when we know.”
I hate ending on negatives, so I’ll end with a summary reminder and final thoughts on this updated 2025 crisis leadership post.
Final Thoughts: Always Remember during a Crisis…
The best leaders stay in control and lead calmly through the storm.
Balance optimism with realism.
Be human when dealing with humans in crisis.
Transparency creates trust; trust creates safety.
Listen intently; don’t be tone-deaf.
When it’s time to make the hard decisions, make them with dignity.
Be as generous as you can with the constraints that you have.
How you lead right now is likely to be a defining moment of your career.
“How you lead right now is likely to be a career-defining moment/opportunity for many of you. Lean into the uncertainty and fear and provide leadership.”
(Jim Cook – 2001, 2008, 2020, 2023, and today 2025)
A crisis is a leadership test. This test separates true decisive leaders from reactive ones. The best leaders create clarity, set a confident course, and turn crises into long-term resilience and opportunities.
Great crisis leadership isn’t about knowing all the answers, it’s about knowing how to find them and communicating them effectively.
PART 2 COMING NEXT WEEK: As of Monday night (April 7th; yesterday) I’m now in the middle of drafting a follow up post to this post based on what is transpiring in the stock market on Friday and Monday (today). This post will drop next Tuesday and will go deeper by using a personal example of me using this Crisis Playbook and Framework and how you can use it in your next Leadership Crisis. Don’t miss it and make sure you’ve subscribed
and if you want to attend my Live AMA on Friday, April 11th or get my actual templates and Playbooks as I post them…then become a Paid Subscriber.
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