Great crisis leadership is built long before alarms sound. You default to your training, your habits, and your culture, not last minute heroics. This piece breaks down how to hardwire readiness: enforce real standards, normalize rehearsal, set decision guardrails, and communicate with brevity under pressure. It explains the decision window between panic and paralysis and gives a simple compass, the GUIDE framework (Gather, Understand, Initiate, Deliver, Evaluate), plus a quick field guide, common pitfalls to avoid, and debrief rituals that turn today’s stress into tomorrow’s competence.

When change hits hard and the path ahead is uncertain, the one thing your team needs isn’t a perfect plan—it’s your steady presence. In this post, I share a behind-the-scenes moment from one of the most chaotic transitions of my career as a senior advisor, and how calm leadership—not control—created clarity in the storm. Because when the map disappears, your presence becomes the compass.