Leadership: the First 10 Minutes of a Crisis

[August 20, 2025]  In a TEDx Talk, Andrew ‘Drew’ Steadman speaks on leadership in the first 10 minutes of any crisis.  He asks, “How do you plan to get through the first ten minutes of the toughest day of your life?”  He speaks to us as an Army veteran, at the time, a Captain responsible for guarding a U.S. base in the most dangerous city in Iraq, Sadr City.

He speaks of the time an insurgent parked a truck next to his outer perimeter and walked away.  That is a bad sign.  In the back of the truck are rocket launchers aimed directly at his headquarters building.  In his words, he hears an odd “woosh,” and odd sounds are not good in combat.

As he and his men try to figure out what is going on, they realize that flying through the air are gas cylinders filled with homemade explosives.  When these cylinders begin landing next to their buildings, they start exploding “like a crack of lightning and a shock wave slams into our bodies.”  They scramble out of their room into the hallway and press as close to the floor as they can.

Drew and his men have no idea how long this attack will last, how powerful these explosions will be, or how many casualties there will be.  Drew yells for his men to get their medical equipment ready to “prepare for a bad day.”

“This is the beginning of my crisis.”

His unit has just been attacked.  He has a “fantastic” team around him, and he’s the leader.  His headquarters building and the surrounding area are devastated.  And, it took only 70 seconds for all the cylinders to land and explode. He has 70 seconds, lying on the floor, to figure out what to do next.  Seventy seconds to figure out what to say to his men.  Seventy seconds to figure out what type of leader his team needs him to be.

Drew admits that in your crisis, you might not have that much time.  Like it or not, odds are a crisis will come your way, and that crisis could be just around the corner.  What will your crisis look like?  And when chaos strikes, what do you do?  How do you lead when everything starts falling apart?

Drew shares with us three actions that he has come to rely upon in a crisis that may help others.

1.  As a leader in a crisis, your first job is to set the right “emotional tone.”  Why emotions?  Because your next crisis will trigger emotions in your team and the emotional state of the individuals, and the team as a whole, set the stage for the entire response.  Research shows that during moments of stress, followers look to leaders for cues about how to respond, and leaders have mere seconds to signal the emotional state that’s best for the crisis ahead.

“Leaders act like a thermostat.  They can turn up or dial down the emotional energy of the organization.  And you [as the leader], with your words and  your  tone and your body language, can offer comfort.  You can inspire confidence and you can foster control.” – Andrew Steadman

If the leader doesn’t set the emotional tone, everyone else will.  So, your first action in a crisis focuses on the people.  The second action addresses how the organization will function in this new and evolving environment.

2.  In those first few minutes, with uncertainty and elevated risk, it’s okay to exercise prudent micromanagement while configuring the organization for what may come.  Crises are destabilizing.  It’s uncomfortable because it takes us off our expected path.  When crises hit, our view of the world changes.  He says that “It is the job of leaders to close the expectation gap and help followers see a new reality [from the chaos].”

3.  “The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.” – Max DePree.

This is your third action.  Leaders must be “ruthless about confirming facts in the flood of information, falsehood, and assumptions.  Take those initial reports with a grain of salt and tell your team that it’s okay to say, “I don’t know yet.”  Help them understand whether this is really a crisis or just an incident to endure.

Dispel rumors and don’t sugarcoat the situation.  People will appreciate the brutal honesty just like you do.

“At some point after the explosion in Sadr City, I became concerned that this might just be the start of a bigger attack.  I needed to understand what was happening outside. I needed to understand reality.” – Andrew Steadman, U.S. Army Captain

Did he know what was going to happen next?  No.  Did he have all the answers?  No.  But he shared what he knew in the moment.  As a leader, you’ll never have all the answers either.  But you are the best person to offer perspective of this new reality you’re facing together.

In summary, 1) set the right emotional tone, 2) configure the organization for the crisis, and 3) define a reality for the team.

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” – Mike Tyson, boxer

If you know you are going to be in a crisis, a plan will help you get through it.  This means leaders need to prepare.  You can start this by brainstorming with your team about what your next crisis might look like.  Visualize yourself leading with these three steps.  Plan your actions and then rehearse what you can because winging it is not a good crisis management strategy.

We need good leaders, especially in crises.  We need leaders who embrace the discomfort of crises while guiding others to a new reality. We need leaders who care for their people even while making tough decisions about those very people.  And, we need leaders who can find opportunity and hope even in the most desperate situations.

In the end, the Sadr City attack injured 15 soldiers, and no one was killed.

You can affect your environment in a crisis.  You and your team aren’t simply along for the ride.  Your actions can make the situation more survivable, especially if you get those first few minutes right.

There’s a crisis out there waiting for you.

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Please read my books:

1. “55 Rules for a Good Life,” on Amazon (link here).
2. “Our Longest Year in Iraq,” on Amazon (link here).