How Can We Lead with Hope and Stability?
Three weeks ago, I had planned to share my thoughts on how AI is impacting various functions and what skills we’ll need in the coming years. With recent events - the tragic shootings in ?rebro, Sweden and the terrorist attack in Munich, Germany, I felt those reflections were insignificant. The fact is that the crises have been piling up and the one thing I keep repeating to myself is: action and hope will help us get through.
If you're still interested in AI and future skills, don't worry - I’ll return to that in due time. Today, I want to share a personal reflection on what I’ve learned from crises over the past 40 years. I’m by no means a crisis expert, just a person trying to make sense of my experiences and learn from the past.
Childhood Fears
In 1986 I was 10 years old and I can still remember how anxious I was. The Cold War was ongoing, and the Chernobyl disaster had just struck. I lived in a high-rise building where they frequently checked the bomb shelter in the basement. Meanwhile, the news was full of the dying forests in Germany, and skinhead violence was escalating in the streets. I didn’t live through war or physical harm, but the anxiety was real.
I didn’t have the emotional tools back then to process it all. Today, as a parent, I’m aware of the stress young people face, as the world seems to be turned upside down again. What gives me comfort is the knowledge that crises have happened before, and we’ve found a way through them. My childhood experience has taught me to provide a sense of stability to my children, even when I, too, feel overwhelmed.
Terror In London
Years later, living in London during the 2005 terrorist attacks, I experienced the sudden disruption of everyday life. It was my first time encountering a severe attack up close, and I remember how quickly the normal rhythms of life were shattered. At the time, I was on assignment with Unilever Sweden, and I still remember how HR checked in on me to make sure I was safe. That simple act of care during such a chaotic time left a lasting impact on me, and it’s something I’ve always tried to emulate when crises hit.
Crisis Response In Berlin
Fast forward to 2016, living in Berlin when a terrorist attack shook the city just before Christmas. This time, I was part of a crisis response team at Google. The first step was to ensure everyone’s safety. Though this was the first time we’d handled such a situation, having a dedicated group and a clear action plan allowed us to work in a structured manner.
I recall vividly how much time we spent communicating, not just with each other, but with the wider team, and also using our platform to inform people outside our organization. It was an exhausting and intense time, but the clear communication and shared responsibility were key to navigating it.
Leading Through The Pandemic
2020 brought its own unique set of challenges. My eldest child had a severe accident and was undergoing surgery at the same time as Germany began its lockdown due to the pandemic. At eBay Kleinanzeigen, we decided to send home our team, unsure of what lay ahead. The situation was crazy, but I’ll never forget the adaptability and creativity that came out of it.
As a management team, we involved the organization in brainstorming solutions - from new product features to how we could run team events entirely online. Involving the team fuelled solutions and brought a sense of shared purpose during an incredibly uncertain time.
An Entire World In Crisis
Back to February 2025. I have had a few weeks where I have felt a bit overwhelmed and maybe you have felt it too?
In a world where wars, political changes, and global crises dominate the news, there is growing concern about the future. How does this affect us, and how can we navigate an increasingly uncertain environment? Gerhard Andersson, a clinical psychologist, professor and researcher at Link?ping University, suggests that some people may be shutting off from the news because the threat narratives are so frightening that they prefer not to know. On the other hand, some may want even more information. Andersson believes it is almost a civic duty to stay informed about global and national events, but also stresses the importance of taking breaks. With news constantly accessible on our phones, it's essential to step away and engage in something else when needed.
The Complexity Of Crisis
The characteristics of crises are that they affect several areas, impact civil service and infrastructure, escalate rapidly and change as they proceed. Whether or not a crisis is seen as transboundary is evaluated on three dimensions and the higher a crisis score on each of the dimensions, the more transboundary it is. The three dimensions are political/geographical boundaries, functional areas and last, but not least, time. (Ansell et al., 2010) If a crisis is highly transboundary, meaning if it spans across several geographical areas, impacts multiple functional areas and span over a long time and on top of that this is happening in a society that is going through multi-layered changes, then one could argue that this is a transboundary VUCA crisis, meaning an extensive crisis in a time of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. (Ta?kan et al., 2022)
Another way to distinguish between crises is to refer to them as natural events and those caused by human actions. Often people are more willing to accept and move on from events perceived as acts of nature or sheer bad fortune, as opposed to events attributed to human mistakes, negligence, or at worst deliberate acts. (Enander, 2021) This means that people are probably more likely to accept a natural disaster like the extreme heat and fires in a large part of the world, compared to a pandemic like Covid, which by many is seen as the result of human mistakes and ignorance.
Crisis Leadership
No matter what type of crisis, when it hits, people tend to ask themselves the same type of questions and these are; How does it concern me? Who can I trust? What should I do? How do I cope with my emotions? What losses am I facing? (Enander, 2024)
The fundamental principles of crisis leadership are the famous “3 Cs”: coherence, control and connectedness. It’s therefore essential for a crisis team to make people understand what has happened, what they can do and what other people are doing to support them. (Enander, 2021)
Another thing to keep in mind is that people actually do not tend to panic in a crisis situation, they rather tend to stick to their normal routines and they even seem to have a delay in their acting. (Enander, 2024) It may therefore be important to stress the urgency to do A, B and C in an eventual crisis situation.
My Learnings From Crises
Ps. The picture was taken on the day of the terror attack in Munich. I felt so sad and had to get out and just breath in the cold air and look at the sky, trying to ease the stress that I felt in my body.