Many leaders are not ready to face a crisis due to lack of experience. If you think about the large-scale crises that have taken place in recent years, you’ll notice a pattern of poor decision-making throughout most of those events. Poor decisions are often made because leaders can’t lead under stressful circumstances, it’s not day-to-day life. So, what must leaders do in order to be better prepared to lead during a crisis? In this podcast, Mike Howard takes us through his thoughts and experiences in all-things crisis leadership.  

We posed the following questions to Mike 

  1. In your experience, why are some leaders not suited for leading crises or even smaller incidents? 
  2. What are the top three traits of a good crisis leader? 
  3. Do you have an example of a leader, or leaders, that performed well during a publicly known crisis? The Chilean mine rescue come to mind. Feel free to talk about any. 
  4. Why should young potential leaders get the opportunity to practice leading in crisis leadership simulation exercises? 
  5. Can anyone become a crisis leader with the right training and guidance, or does it take more than that?
  6. What would you suggest to anyone that’s thinking of becoming a leader on a crisis management team, or is being positioned on the team and has little or no crisis management leadership experience?

Past Podcast with Mike:

PreparedEx Podcast Episode 7: Corporate Security – An Interview with Mike Howard