In 2009 I CCL published a blog of mine where I reflected on some things that I learned leading through crisis.

When everything is slipping out from under you and your world is heels over head, these are the leadership ideas I always wish I could remember at the time:

1. Don’t get fancy and don’t bother with getting in a hurry. Things that are messed up don’t yield to going faster. Going faster when you are spinning generally leads to greater centrifugally. You end up trying to go in many directions at once. Any mobile organism should not attempt it.
2. Character matters more than smarts. If you obfuscate or simply spin the truth til it’s more attractive, no matter how brilliantly, it will come around and take a large bite from your gluteus maximus. We can’t have our leaders jumping from one frame to another like the deceased eminences at Hogwarts. We need our leaders to stay put in our mental landscape, to be dependable presences, who tell the truth about the depth of the manure.
3. Involve everyone you can in finding solutions. Crisis makes everyone 20% dumber because 50% of your energy is devoted to not losing your grip as the tornado spins the cows past the farmhouse. Smart leaders I’ve known spell out the direction and turn over the driving to the rest of the crew. It may look like a VW full of clowns, but everyone arrives at the same place.
4. You were a human before you were a leader. That gaunt, sad beanpole of a president, Honest Abe, told stories in the worst of times that expressed the inner truth of the world. No one ever committed their lives, their wealth, or their sacred honor to someone who didn’t feel what they felt. At the same time you are the hope miner, the confidence weaver, the one searching for the light. When honey bees find a good source of nectar they dash back to the hive to dance the story of their discovery. Your little jig on behalf of hope is the confidence-builder that merits the commitment of your people.