The 7 unwritten rules of leading through crisis

Crisis response is a team sport, Nolen states. Tools help, but people make or break the outcome. “Give your team clarity,” he observes. “Give them training and, most important, give them the confidence that when they act, leadership will provide support.”

Rule 7: Intelligence is an essential asset under duress

Act with intelligence, not just urgency, advises Jawahar Sivasankaran, president of cybersecurity management service provider Cyware. “This means that decisions made during a crisis must be grounded in real-time contextualized threat intelligence that feeds directly into automated or semi-automated response mechanisms,” he says, by way of example.

Acting without intelligence inevitably leads to missteps — whether it’s activating the wrong response plan or missing key indicators of potential compromises, Sivasankaran says. For example, a threat intelligence management platform, integrated with case management rules, will ensure clarity, precision, and speed, he explains. “It also enables teams to take informed actions that enrich cases with tactical, operational, and strategic intelligence in real-time.”