When thinking about crisis leadership, many leaders imagine they’ll rise to the occasion. But you don’t rise. You revert. To habits. To muscle memory. To whatever is familiar and fast.

As James Lane Allen said, “Adversity does not build character, it reveals it.”

The lesson is – don’t wait until you are in a crisis to build the character you (or your team) needs.

What Training Looks Like Under Pressure

Many years ago, I worked in international disaster relief. Medair—the agency I worked with—was one of the best in the world at preparing people for the pressure and chaos of the field.

Their training/selection program, understatedly called, “The Seminar,” was really a simulated deployment. Over ten days, they ran us through a war zone scenario that got progressively more intense. I remember starting in a classroom. A few days later, I was lying in the dirt, at gunpoint, sleep-deprived, wet, getting screamed at by a ‘rebel soldier’ holding a very real knife to the throat of a woman on my team.

It wasn’t real—but it also wasn’t fake.

We hadn’t slept. We’d hiked for miles under load. We were hungry, disoriented, and had no idea what was coming next or how far we needed to go. The simulation was deliberately designed to blur the lines of reality. To get us to the point where our reactions were raw and automatic. Then they put us into unexpectedly jarring and violent situations. They’d give us complicated problems to solve – usually under a ‘high stakes’ framing. They pushed us to find out where we’d break.

A few people quit in the middle of it. Most people finished but quite a few had seen enough and opted out of joining. In the end, only 20% of our cohort were invited to go to the field.

That experience stuck with me. Because later in the field—when things got dangerous for real, whether in tense negotiations, at checkpoints or under gunpoint—I remember thinking: “I’ve been here before. I’ll figure this out.”

And I did. Because I’d been prepared for it.

Training for Crisis Leadership in Small Stuff

Adults don’t learn well from theory. They learn through reps or emotional intensity. And the workplace provides plenty of both—if you let it.

Many leaders try to shield their teams from difficulty. They’ll often try to rescue them from discomfort.

That’s a mistake. Small crises are the gym. They may not feel good. But they’re where real growth can happen. When there is a problem with a client, or a tough conversation needs to happen, or someone drops the ball—don’t rush in to fix it. Let your team wrestle with it. Perhaps coach them. Debrief the experience so they learn.

Then put them back out there.

These micro-crises build decision-making muscle. Emotional control. Clarity under pressure. All needed if and when a big crisis occurs.

War-Game the Big Ones

You don’t need to simulate a full-blown crisis to prepare for one. But you should walk your team through “what-if” scenarios for the stuff that could take you out:

• Sudden leadership loss

• Lawsuit or public scandal

• Loss of major client or revenue stream

• Market collapse or disruptive tech

Ask:

1. What’s the worst-case scenario?

2. Best case?

3. Most likely case?

4. What do we need to do now to prepare for each?

Even if the real crisis plays out differently, this exercise creates a team that is mentally nimble, and able to adapt. It helps test, at least conceptually, how to stay aligned in situations that are often confusing.

That’s the real goal.

Drill the Basics

Crisis is a magnifier. It’ll reveal strength and weakness. If your team doesn’t have basic rhythms (processes, practices) locked in, it’ll be exposed. Drill your decision-making frameworks. Clarify roles and responsibilities. Tighten communication flows. Make sure everyone knows how decisions get made and who owns what.

Chaos doesn’t create confusion as much as it reveals it if it already exists.

Train Them to Lead Without You

If you’re the only one who can make decisions, you’re the bottleneck. Worse—you’re a liability in a crisis.

Great teams can operate without constant oversight. That only happens when they’re aligned around a shared vision and shared values. Values define what’s acceptable in terms of decision making and behavior. Vision defines where you’re going. If your team knows both well, they can lead themselves.

In most situations, that just builds a healthier organization.

And in a crisis, this is critical.

You can’t predict your next crisis. But you can train for it. Effective crisis leadership requires deliberate preparation and constant practice to strengthen leadership resilience. Organizations that invest in crisis leadership development see improved decision-making under pressure.

Many leaders work hard to build stability. Then, once they accomplish it, the tendency is to sit back and enjoy it. This is 100% understandable. But often what happens is they stop doing the things that created the stability.

Then – something happens. I’m not a pessimist. Because this is an opportunity to shine if you are prepared.

Don’t wait for crisis to reveal your gaps. Prepare yourself. Prepare your team.

What’s one area of leadership you’re actively drilling right now?

What’s one area your team should focus on?

Take good care,
Christian