Crisis Leadership: You Don’t Rise to the Occasion, You Fall to Your Training

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.