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Crisis Leadership Podcast: Decision-Making Under Extreme Pressure

Explore how leaders can recognise and regulate stress responses to navigate crisis situations, protect their business, and sustain performance.

19/02/2026 · 2 minute read

Explore how leaders can recognise and regulate stress responses to navigate crisis situations, protect their business, and sustain performance.

About This Episode

Ailsa King sits down with Roger of Famn to explore how critically stress responses shape leadership effectiveness and decision-making during crises. Drawing on decades of experience coaching leadership roles across industries, Roger shares how biological stress responses can impact decision-making, organisational culture, and even career trajectories.

Listeners will learn:

  • The science behind the stress response and its impact on leadership style.
  • How stress contagion affects teams, culture, and performance during high impact events
  • The difference between erupting crisis events (like cyberattacks) and accumulating crises (such as consistent declining Market Share).
  • Practical strategies for effective leaders to spot and regulate their stress responses, before they impair judgement.
  • The importance of transparent communication and culture in crisis management. 
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Key takeaways

Recognise stress triggers to protect judgement and effectiveness

Leaders who identify their own stress signals early can prevent impaired decision-making during challenging times. This awareness helps maintain focus and commitment despite time pressures. And that enables leaders to uphold their core values and lead their employees when crises happen quickly.

Lead with empathy to sustain trust and performance in difficult circumstances

Empathy strengthens team resilience and trust during high impact events, e.g. a global pandemic or natural disasters. By understanding and addressing emotional responses, effective crisis leadership fosters a supportive culture that improves performance and morale in times of crisis. 

Build a crisis action plan to manage crises effectively

A clear, well-communicated response plan  and/or crisis action plan enables organisations to respond swiftly to unexpected events, as well as low probability but high-impact risks. This structured process helps crisis leaders anticipate possible consequences and take decisive actions to protect the business, its future, and its reputation. This includes recognising the cognitive and emotional load placed on leaders and ensuring appropriate support structures are in place.

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Why should leaders listen?

In today’s fast-paced and unpredictable world, most leaders face unprecedented pressures that can impact their decision-making and organisational health. This episode offers a rare glimpse into the psychological and physiological challenges leaders face and provides actionable insights to help leaders make clear, defensible decisions under pressure –  even under extreme stress caused by unexpected events such as a global pandemic or natural disasters.

Whether you’re a senior executive, HR professional, risk manager, or aspiring leader, this podcast equips you with the knowledge to:

  • Recognise your own stress triggers and understand precisely what causes them.
  • Foster healthier leadership cultures that build a strong sense of accountability, responsibility and vision.
  • Navigate crisis based challenges with resilience and empathy.
  • Protect your organisation’s reputation through effective public relations and decisive actions.
  • Understand the possible consequences of poor stress management and lost faith in leadership.

About our speakers

Roger Taylor

Lead Coach & Co-founder, Famn

  • United Kingdom

Ailsa King

Ailsa King

Chief Commercial Officer, Marsh McLennan, UK

  • United Kingdom

Have questions or want to learn more?

If you have questions about good crisis leadership or want to explore how Marsh and Famn can support your organisation, please contact your Marsh representative. We’re here to help you build stronger, more resilient leadership teams ready to face crisis situations with a clear process and responsibilities.

Contact us

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