Hey Reader,

Welcome back to Little Leadership Lessons, my (now) Monday newsletter sharing quick, powerful insights from coaching seven-figure creators. These lessons help you grow as a leader so you can grow your business—with more clarity, alignment, and peace of mind.

I'm coming off of a multi-purpose trip and in a divine coincidence, my wife, boys, and I happened to be in Atlanta together on the last day of my grandfather's life last week. I was able to hold his hand as he left this Earth.

It's a reminder that, while we all love leading when the sun is shining and everything is working, one's true capacity as a leader is revealed in times of crisis, stress, and yes, even grief. When tensions are high, the path forward can feel uncertain. Your team is looking to you for steadiness, your leadership matters more.

Today I want to share 7 principles that form the backbone of leading well in those moments.

Let’s get to it.

A Beautiful Photo to Quiet Your Body and Mind

The Situation

In the past year, several of my clients have faced moments of crisis: unexpected revenue changes, team members leaving suddenly, personal health issues colliding with business demands.

In each case, they came to me with the same lingering question:

“How can I show up as a strong leader when I don’t feel strong inside?”

The temptation in crisis is to put on a mask, act like nothing is wrong, or swing the other way by dumping all of your fear and frustration on the team. Neither works. What your people need is steady, grounded, human leadership.

The Emotional Blocker

The biggest blocker I see in these situations is believing you have to choose between strength and vulnerability.

• If you hide your fear, you create distance and distrust.
• If you unload your fear, you make the team feel like they have to carry it for you.
• If you go silent, people fill the gaps with their own worst assumptions.

The truth is: leading in crisis isn’t about pretending you’re unshakable. It’s about holding your humanity and your responsibility together. The tension between the two is your job to balance as the leader everyone turns to.

But first you have to acknowledge your own vulnerability, including the fact that you don't know how things will turn out in times of uncertainty. It's not your certainty that makes you strong, it's your willingness to lead in the face of uncertainty.

The Breakthrough

As I worked through this sense of vulnerability and uncertainty with one client, we landed on seven shared principles for leading in times of crisis. They felt so true and universal that I knew they'd likely apply to you too.

Here are seven practices I’ve seen transform how founders lead when it matters most:

1. Practice vulnerability — Share what’s real for you, not to dump, but to open a window into your humanity.
2. Take responsibility — Your experience matters, but your ownership is non-negotiable. The team shouldn’t carry the weight of your reactions or your mistakes.
3. Be transparent — Share as much true and relevant information as possible, calibrated to each person’s role and ability to impact the solution.
4. Trust people to be adults — Don’t infantilize your team by shielding them. Adults can handle hard news when given support and context. Trust them to manage their own emotions and reactions.
5. Actively seek input — Don’t force people to take blind leaps of faith. Invite their perspective, especially when the stakes feel high. Your team may know the right solution before you do.
6. Manage your inner game — Times of crisis are when you most need rest, nutrition, exercise, and mental care. Don’t dial down your wellness, dial it up. This is counterintuitive to our instincts.
7. Document and reflect — Stress distorts memory. Capture key decisions and conversations in writing. Create a single source of truth to align everyone. When the dust settles, take time to review how the team performed when the stakes were high.

These aren’t just survival tactics for getting through it. They’re practices to help you lead with clarity, integrity, and resilience, even in the fog of crisis.

When things become more uncertain, it's your job as the founder, leader and manager to double down on rock solid leadership. These seven principles will help.

Coaching Questions to Apply This to Your Business

• How do you typically show up in moments of crisis: overconfident, silent, or overwhelmed?
• Which of these seven principles feels most natural for you? And which one do you tend to avoid?
• What systems or practices could you put in place now to be steadier when crisis inevitably comes?
• How will you take care of yourself so you can take care of others?

Crisis doesn’t create your leadership style, it reveals it. With the right practices, those moments can become the defining chapters of your growth as a leader.

If you’re facing a season of challenge and want support in showing up as the leader your team needs, this is the work I do every week with founders and CEOs. If you’ve been considering working with an executive coach, I’d love to talk. You can reach out here.

Much love and respect,