The Calm Under Fire Protocol

Many leaders are often confused when I tell them that their team doesn't follow their strategy. They follow your nervous system. For example, in normal times, teams focus on the plan, but in times of uncertainty, they look to their leader.

During moments of crisis, your team will take emotional cues from you, and spreading calm is just as easy as panic. In my years of coaching leaders and running my own successful business, I always tell leaders that while they can’t eliminate a crisis, they can create clarity inside them. 

In this guide, I’ve drawn on my years of experience as a war officer in the Gulf War and as a business leader to bring you a simple 5-step script you can use to communicate during a crisis. 

Why Teams Panic When Leaders Panic

One of the most important traits that a leader can have in 2026 is courage. Whether in the boardroom or the battlefield, there’s no way to avoid crises, so a strong leader needs to be able to move into the unknown with a “level head,” ready to make tough decisions under pressure. During times of crisis, I remind leaders to trust their training, maintain a calm presence, and persist even when it’s unpopular or comes with great personal risk. 

When leaders panic, this spreads to the team. When leaders appear emotional, reactive, and unclear, it leaves the team no choice but to begin creating their own narratives, which results in a breakdown of trust between leadership and team members. The problem with this happening is that it creates rumors to spread and drops productivity. Because people are operating in panic mode, logical decision-making slows, and people spend more time focusing on survival instead of solutions. 

What Military Leadership Understands About Crisis Communication

Military leadership understands that people can handle bad news but struggle with uncertainty and that leaders have a key role in this regard. My time as a war officer in the Gulf War taught me this lesson first-hand. In combat, there was incomplete information, high stress, and rapidly changing conditions. Waiting for the perfect moment or conditions was impossible. As a leader, I needed to stay calm, communicate clearly, and focus on what mattered most in that moment. 

During moments of high stress and danger, of course, I felt stressed. But it was crucial that I did not allow this panic to show externally. I needed to project calm confidence when making decisions so that my team would follow my lead. Part of being a strong leader is acting and looking like a leader.

Everything from your posture and grooming to clothing matters. You want to own the room simply with your presence. During moments of crisis, don’t forget about voice control. Remember to speak calmly, clearly, and assertively. Panicking helps no one, whether it’s in the boardroom or on the battlefield. 

The Cost of Poor Crisis Communication

Communication during a crisis is critical, but when that doesn’t happen, the cost can be high. When communication breaks down, people will attempt to fill the information gaps themselves, and assumptions replace facts. When this happens, small problems can suddenly become larger problems.  

Leaders who find themselves fielding repeated questions, conflicting actions, decision paralysis, and increasing anxiety should take this as a sign to improve communication. Strong leaders in 2026 need to be master communicators. They should be able to speak truthfully and clearly about their goals, expectations, and outline what success looks like. Often, I’ve noticed that many leaders forget that good communication also includes being able to listen to their team's concerns and help them. 

The Calm Under Fire Protocol: A Five-Step Framework

There’s no way to avoid uncertainty or crises, but you can control how you respond to the problem. Here’s a 5-step protocol that you can use during moments of crisis. 

Step 1: Facts

Take some time to slow down and establish the facts first. Ask your team, “What do we know right now?” By finding out the facts, you’ll be able to reduce speculation and knee-jerk reactions while creating a shared reality. Having integrity as a leader means making decisions based on values and not emotions. 

Step 2: Priority

Once you have all the facts and fully understand the heart of the crisis, it’s time to identify the best path forward and what matters the most right now. Leaders can focus on using wording like “our immediate priority is…” 

By using language like this, you’ll be able to focus attention on the matter at hand and prevent overwhelm. I always remind leaders of the importance of being able to clearly outline their visions and goals, as well as the steps to get there. 

Step 3: Owner

The next step is to establish responsibility, starting with themselves. Remember, your team follows your actions, so if you’re avoiding responsibility, they will too. To create an environment of accountability, you need to hold yourself to the same standards you set for your team and own up to mistakes when they happen. Strong leaders will apologize openly, fix problems, and learn from the lesson. When team members see their leader doing this, they’ll follow suit.    

Step 4: Next Step

Once you have identified the problem and assigned responsibility, it’s time to outline the steps of what happens next. It’s key to outline all steps and responsibilities clearly so there is no room for confusion. Being clear in your directions will prevent task execution from slowing down. 

Step 5: Next Check-In

Crisis management is not a one-time meeting, and everything is fixed. No, it requires a check-in to eliminate information vacuums and remove uncertainty. 

Why This Protocol Works

The reason why this protocol works so well is that it answers all the questions that team members ask during moments of uncertainty, like: 

• What’s happening? 

• What’s important? 

• Who is handling this? 

• What’s next? 

• When will I know more? 

I emphasize in my leadership coaching that people don’t need leaders to predict the future. Your team needs a leader who can lead during the chaos and organize reality. Remember that clarity reduces chaos!  

The Leadership Behaviors That Strengthen the Protocol

My five-step protocol can be strengthened by certain leadership behaviors, such as consistency. I always tell leaders to avoid changing messages too often and be honest about uncertainty. Again, communication is vital. Remember to speak calmly, because your tone matters as much as your words. Some leaders think that over-explaining helps, but in reality, clarity beats volume.

Another important thing a leader can do to strengthen the protocol is to build and maintain trust with their team. When there is high trust, teams will ask questions earlier, share information faster, stay focused longer, and solve problems sooner.  

Calm Is a Leadership Discipline

In today’s leadership, the goal isn’t to avoid fear and crises. The goal is to be a leader who can create clarity that people can act on, even during moments of crisis. As a leader, your people will look to you as an example and will remember how you behave. 

If I can leave you with one more piece of advice, it’s this: the best leaders don’t eliminate uncertainty, but rather, they know how to organize it.