Leading By Example In Crisis Situations

In 2011, the Amazon Appstore failed on launch and Jeff Bezos was furious. It was my fault, and I handled one aspect of recovery so poorly that one of my engineers quit. I still regret it 14 years later. Please learn from my mistake. The main lesson is that when you are leading through a crisis, it can feel like it is all about you. It isn’t. It is about: 1) Solving the problem 2) Guiding your team through it The product issue was that there were some pretty simple bugs, and we solved those problem well enough that I was eventually promoted. Where I failed was in guiding my team through the crisis. My leadership miss was that I neglected to encourage and support the engineer who had written the bad code. He did a great job stepping up and supporting the effort to fix the problem, but shortly afterward, he resigned. During the crisis, I failed to make clear to him that we did not blame him for the launch failure despite the bugs. I imagine that left room for him to think we blamed him or that he didn’t belong. It is also possible that others did blame him directly and that I was too caught up in the crisis to realize it. Both instances were my responsibility as the leader of the team. His resignation taught me a valuable lesson about leading through a crisis: No matter how bad the situation is, your team must be your first priority. If you make them feel safe, they will move heaven and earth to fix the problem. If you don’t, they may still fix the problem, but the team itself will never be the same. As a leader, here is how you can give them what they need: 1) Take the blame and do not allow others to be blamed. In some bug cases after this we did not release the name of the engineer outside the team in order to protect them from judgment or blame. 2) Separate fixing the problem from figuring out why it happened. Once the problem is fixed, you can focus on root-causing. This lowers the risk of searching for answers getting confused with searching for someone to blame. 3) Realize that anyone involved in the problem already feels bad. High performers know when they have fallen short and let their team down. As a leader you have to show them the path to growth and success after the crisis. They do not need to be beaten up on- they have taken care of that themselves. 4) See crises and problems as growth opportunities, not personal flaws. Your team comes with you in a crisis whether you like it or not, so you might as well come out stronger on the other side. As a leader, the responsibility for a crisis is yours in two ways: The problem itself and the effect it has on the future of the team. Don’t get too caught up in the first to think about the second. Readers- Has your team survived a crisis? How did you handle it?

We lost two-thirds of our clients overnight. 100+ employees. 2 countries. All waiting to see if they'd have jobs tomorrow. Most CEOs would start with layoffs. Cut 50, maybe 70 people to "right-size" for reality. I looked at Suresh. "We're not doing that." "How do we make payroll?" "We use our savings. However long it takes." Here's what we told our team: "The payment rules changed. We lost most clients today." "We can panic and cut costs like everyone else." "Or we can be strategic." For over a year, Suresh and I didn't take salaries. We invested our personal savings to keep everyone employed (bootstrapping when it was un-cool). People thought we were crazy. But instead of cutting, we doubled down: → Hired for sales, marketing, customer success → Built processes for scale → Used downtime to educate our team Six months in, we looked at everything we were juggling. "You know what this feels like?" "We're flying an airplane while rebuilding the engine and taking on bigger passengers and new team members." That became our motto: building while flying. 2.5 years later: our first Fortune 50 client. 3 years later: stronger than before the crisis. Real leadership isn't about having answers - it’s about having conviction when nobody else can see the path. Sometimes it means betting your own money on your people when everyone says you're wrong. That crisis could have ended us. Instead, it taught me that leaders see opportunity where others see disaster. The takeaway: Crisis reveals your true leadership philosophy. You can treat people as expenses to manage. Or as assets to invest in. Most leaders choose the first path because it's easier. We chose the second because it aligned with our values. The companies that emerge stronger from crisis aren't the ones that cut fastest. They're the ones that invest wisest. What's the biggest bet you've made on your team when the future was completely uncertain?

5 Leadership Lessons from My Time at Sony Pictures Entertainment  How to Lead Through Crisis, even if you're facing unprecedented challenges. Here's the exact framework I developed during my 11 years at Sony Pictures, tested during one of the most significant cyber attacks in corporate history. Some called it 'The Adaptive Leadership Blueprint.' 1- Data-Driven Decisiveness ↳ When hackers compromised our systems in 2014,  ↳ we lost access to over 100 terabytes of data.  ↳ We didn't need complex technology to respond. Instead, we established a common language and relied on straightforward data insights to make quick, informed decisions. This approach helped us minimize our recovery times and costs. We did not lose out on deals, and we did not sell things we didn’t have. Data was abundant, for those with the experience to interpret it. 2- Collaborative Innovation ↳ We united creative and analytical minds across departments to solve unprecedented challenges.  ↳ When traditional communication channels were compromised,  ↳ we had to innovate - even reverting to fax machines.  ↳ This crisis proved to me that diverse perspectives lead to exceptional solutions. 3- Cultural Intelligence ↳ Leading global teams taught me that understanding cultural nuances isn't optional—it's essential.  ↳ we learned that cultural sensitivity becomes a strategic advantage when coordinating responses across different regions. 4- Adaptive Response ↳ The hack forced us to pivot rapidly.  ↳ We transformed our entire operation overnight,  ↳ showing that adaptability isn't just about surviving—it's about finding creative solutions within constraints.  ↳ This aligns with current industry trends emphasizing the need for adaptive leadership in volatile, uncertain conditions. 5- Continuous Evolution ↳ The entertainment industry never stands still.  ↳ Neither should leaders.  ↳ We learned that staying relevant means constantly evolving our skills and approaches.  ↳ Today, this includes developing remote leadership capabilities and embracing purpose-driven leadership. The Results? We didn't just survive one of the most significant cyber attacks in corporate history—we emerged stronger, with a leadership framework that works in any challenging situation. Our response became a case study in crisis management, demonstrating how data-driven decisions and collaborative efforts can overcome even the most sophisticated threats. What's your most valuable leadership lesson from navigating a crisis? Share your experience below.

March 16, 2020 - I was the COO of Equinox, a global fitness company - in what we were quickly learning was a global pandemic. On this day 5 years ago we made the decision to shut all 106 locations - for the safety and well-being of our employees and members. In the blink of an eye, we went to zero revenue coming in the door. We thought we’d be closed for four weeks, in some cases we were mandated by local government to stay closed for 18 months. Here’s what I learned: * Agility is a leadership imperative. The pandemic reinforced that no playbook is permanent. Leading through crisis requires decisiveness, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to pivot strategy quickly without losing focus. • Communication builds stability. In times of high uncertainty, frequent, transparent, and empathetic communication is one of the most powerful tools a leader has. People don’t need perfection—they need clarity and consistency. • Culture is the ultimate shock absorber. A strong organizational culture doesn’t just survive disruption—it carries people through it. Investing in trust, accountability, and purpose before a crisis is what sustains performance during one. • Innovation accelerates when urgency is real. Constraints sparked creativity. The pressure to adapt pushed us to experiment, launch, and iterate faster than ever—a reminder that innovation often comes when you let go of perfection. • Human leadership is the most powerful kind. In crisis, people don’t follow titles—they follow trust and a calm leader. Leading from the front with empathy, transparency, and humility proved more impactful than any operational directive.