Analysis | Leading in Times of Crisis
Emily Crane Linn
On January 24, 2025, I received a notice of suspension from my program’s State Department grants officer, instructing us to immediately stop all initial resettlement services to newly arrived refugees. One week later, I furloughed all members of my staff. In the days since, I have tried to pick up the pieces of the program I lead and love and help my organization chart a path forward to care for our more than 4,000 refugee clients in the absence of government funding. They didn’t cover this scenario in my leadership classes.
Across the country and the globe, leaders are currently faced with a crisis we did not expect and for which we were not prepared. Managers across the U.S. government are struggling to make sense of changing guidance from the Office of Management and Budget and to keep up with the litany of executive orders and temporary restraining orders that dictate their agencies’ scope of work. Diplomats abroad are contending with rapid 180-degree shifts in U.S. foreign policy and the dismantling of the foreign aid infrastructure. NGO leaders, like myself, are trying to keep our commitments to our programs and the people they serve while reckoning with sudden, catastrophic losses of government funding. There is no playbook for this moment.
However, we are not without some guideposts. In recent days, I have found myself returning, in gratitude, to the teachings of many great thought leaders and practitioners in the field of management and leadership. Below, are those that I have found to be the most useful in our current moment:
1. Be honest and clear: I have often heard Brené Brown’s voice in my head over the past month: “Clear is kind, unclear is unkind.” As leaders, it is vital that we retain the trust we have built with our teams by being forthright and transparent, even when the news we have to bring is hard. As Brown puts it, “feeding people half-truths or bullshit to make them feel better (which is almost always about making ourselves feel more comfortable) is unkind.”
I gathered my team for a meeting after we received notice that our program was suspended and all our funding frozen. Our executives were still grappling with the order, so I didn’t know what exactly was in store for us, but I knew furloughs or layoffs would likely be imminent. I didn’t know how many or when, but it was clear we were all at risk, myself included, and that we would not have much notice before our positions were reduced. So that’s what I told the team. I was honest about the things I didn’t know — such as how many positions would be cut, how those decisions would be made, and when they would be made — but I tried to be as direct as possible about the things I did know: we were all at risk and we likely had very little time left.
Delivering this news was painful. It brought grief, anxiety, and even frustration to this group of people for whom I care deeply, but the clarity allowed us to orient ourselves and use our time and resources effectively.
2. Focus on the things that are not changing: “Stability through change demands clarity about who you are and what you are trying to do,” writes William Bridges in Managing Transitions. “Times of continuous change…put a premium on knowing clearly what you are trying to accomplish.” In the midst of great uncertainty, it is crucial that we as leaders remind our teams of the things that remain unchanged: our mission, our organizational values, and our legal and ethical commitments. Although the world may be rearranging itself around us, we can and must find the things that are unmoving. These become our focal points and our guiding light.
Even prior to the stop work order, my team and I were contending with a great deal of uncertainty. Amid the unknowns, I took every possible opportunity to remind our team of our mission statement and core values. I referenced them any time I set a goal or priority and redirected us toward them when I found us getting mired in unknowns. Even now, I find myself returning to these as guiding lights when I feel disoriented.
3. Lean on your strengths: In times of crisis, it is easy to find ourselves wishing we were further along in our development as leaders. Our deficiencies feel like a greater liability in the face of significant adversity. But focusing on weaknesses and trying to solve them is never the best path towards meeting our fullest potential, and it certainly does not help us maximize our performance in crisis. As Tom Rath writes in StrengthsFinder 2.0, “You cannot be anything you want to be — but you can be a lot more of who you already are.” In times of crisis, we need to lean on our strengths, rather than trying to confront our weaknesses.
I have had the benefit of receiving some strengths-based coaching, so I know some of my greatest strengths include communication, strategic thinking, and positivity. I leaned on these heavily in the days immediately following our stop work order: I thought strategically about how to best direct my team to spend their time; I communicated these priorities clearly in writing and verbally to the team; and I set aside time in our daily meetings to help the team focus on the positive and celebrate our wins together. I knew that I would not be effective at leading from a place of command, but by leaning into my top strengths, I kept the team focused, united, and positive.
4. Don’t shy away from feelings: In times of crisis and great transition, feelings are too important to be ignored. As Stone, Patton, and Heen write in Difficult Conversations, “feelings are too powerful to remain peacefully bottled. They will be heard one way or another, whether in leaks or bursts.” These include, first and foremost, our own feelings as leaders. Over the past month, I have felt anger, hopelessness, fear, and grief (to name a few). It would be naïve of me to think I could keep these emotions from impacting my leadership and my interactions with my colleagues, so I haven’t set that as the goal. Instead, I’ve done my best to make time for reflection, so I can be aware of my feelings and the way they may impact my reactions at work.
I’ve also tried to embrace vulnerability for the sake of my team; “strong back, soft front,” as Brown would say. In the midst of the chaos and pain, I’ve let the tears flow and a few choice words fly. I’ve been transparent about my own feelings so that my team could feel safe showing up with theirs. I believe this has allowed us to minimize the sorts of conflicts that stem from unexpressed emotions and increased our sense of safety with one another in a deeply scary time.
5. Just keep going: “To lead change, you need the ability to operate in despair and keep going.” As leaders, we all desire, in one way or another, to be a force for change, but creating lasting change requires us to “build the stomach for the journey.” The authors of Adaptive Leadership write that building resilience is similar to training for a marathon: it requires us to stay focused on the end game and to work at a pace that is sustainable over the long haul. Ultimately, they say, “building a strong stomach requires relentlessness.”
The recent pace of upheaval has been exhausting for everyone, but especially those in leadership roles. The risk of burnout is great and the desire to quit is perhaps overwhelming. But we can still create the lasting change we wish to see. We just need to keep going — at a pace we can sustain over the long haul because this will be a long haul. This requires a healthy dose of self-compassion. Kristen Neff teaches that in moments of intensity, she tells herself, “This is a moment of suffering. Suffering is part of life. May I be kind to myself in this moment. May I give myself the compassion I need.” I have tried to follow this wisdom, and by acknowledging to myself and those around me that I am going through a period of suffering, I have received the compassion I need to keep going.
We did not ask for this moment of crisis. We did not anticipate it. We were not prepared for it. However, we are not unequipped to manage it. The same leadership principles that have carried us this far will help us chart the path forward.
Emily Crane Linn is the director of initial resettlement at World Relief, where she supports 30 World Relief offices and affiliates in implementing initial resettlement programming for recent refugee arrivals. She is a graduate of Georgetown University’s Global Human Development program and a Donald F. McHenry Global Public Service Fellow. The views expressed above are her own and do not represent the views of World Relief.
Interested in learning more about crises and challenges to leadership? Check out ISD’s in-depth case studies library and join the faculty lounge to access free instructor copies:
