When the Wheels Fall Off: A Manager's Guide to Leading Through Crisis

The photocopier's jammed, your biggest client just pulled out, and someone's crying in the break room. Again.

If you've been managing people for more than five minutes, you've been there. That moment when everything goes pear-shaped and suddenly everyone's looking at you like you've got all the answers. Spoiler alert: you don't. But after fifteen years of watching managers either rise to the occasion or completely lose their marbles, I've picked up a thing or two about steering the ship when the waters get choppy.

Here's what most leadership books won't tell you – stress is contagious. Properly contagious. Like when one person starts yawning in a meeting and suddenly half the room's doing it, except instead of yawns, it's panic attacks and resignation letters.

The Ripple Effect Nobody Talks About

I learnt this the hard way during the 2008 financial crisis. I was managing a team of twelve in Melbourne, and when the first redundancy rumours started circulating, I made the classic mistake of trying to keep everything "business as usual." Biggest load of rubbish I've ever attempted.

Within a week, productivity had dropped by what felt like 40%, people were having hushed conversations by the water cooler, and my top performer had started taking mysterious "doctor's appointments" every Tuesday (spoiler: she was job hunting).

The thing about stressful situations is they don't just affect the obvious stuff. Sure, your team might miss deadlines or make more mistakes, but the real damage happens in the spaces between – the lost trust, the sideways glances, the way people suddenly start cc'ing everyone on emails because they're covering their backsides.

And here's where most managers get it spectacularly wrong. They think they need to have a solution for everything immediately. They go into what I call "superhero mode" – cape fluttering, trying to fix every single problem whilst maintaining this ridiculous façade that everything's under control.

The Counter-Intuitive Truth About Leadership During Crisis

The best managers I've worked with – and I mean the ones whose teams would follow them into a burning building – do something completely different. They get vulnerable. Not inappropriately vulnerable (nobody needs to hear about your mortgage stress), but professionally honest.

"Look, I don't know what's going to happen with the restructure, but here's what I do know..."

"This situation is pretty shit, and I wish I had better news..."

"I'm feeling the pressure too, but we're going to figure this out together..."

It sounds risky, doesn't it? Admitting you don't have all the answers. But here's the thing – your team already knows you don't have all the answers. Pretending otherwise just makes you look out of touch.

I remember working with a manager in Brisbane who, during a particularly nasty client dispute that threatened half the team's jobs, started every morning meeting with a brutally honest update. No corporate spin, no false optimism. Just facts, feelings, and a clear plan for the day ahead. Her team didn't just survive that crisis; they came out stronger and more unified than before.

The Communication Tightrope

But there's a fine line between honest communication and creating more panic. I've seen managers overshare to the point where they become part of the problem rather than the solution.

The trick is to focus on what people can control. Yes, the company might be downsizing, but your team can still deliver excellent work. Yes, the project timeline's been moved up, but here's how we're going to tackle it.

Give people agency wherever possible. Even small decisions can make a massive difference to how empowered someone feels during uncertain times.

The Practical Stuff That Actually Works

Right, enough theory. Here's what actually moves the needle when your team's stressed:

Increase check-ins without being overbearing. I'm talking about proper check-ins, not just "how are you going?" whilst rushing past someone's desk. Sit down. Ask specific questions. Listen to the answers.

Be ridiculously clear about priorities. When people are stressed, their ability to read between the lines disappears. Spell everything out. What's urgent, what can wait, what's no longer relevant.

Create small wins wherever possible. Celebrate the stuff that's working. Order pizza for no reason. Acknowledge effort, not just results.

Protect your team from unnecessary stress. This is where you earn your manager stripes. Shield them from the corporate chaos above. Deal with the difficult stakeholders yourself. Let them focus on what they do best.

Address the elephant in the room. If redundancies are happening, people know. If the company's struggling, they can feel it. Don't insult their intelligence by pretending everything's fine.

For more insights on leadership skills for supervisors, there are excellent resources that dive deeper into these concepts.

When Your Own Stress Becomes the Problem

Here's something nobody prepared me for – sometimes you're the one who needs managing through the stressful situation. I've had moments where I've been so wound up about a crisis that I've become part of the problem.

Three years ago, during a particularly messy merger, I realised I was checking emails at 2am and snapping at my team over minor issues. My stress was radiating outward, making everyone else more anxious.

The solution wasn't pretty – I had to take a step back, delegate more than I was comfortable with, and actually practice some of that work-life balance nonsense I'd been preaching to others.

The Things That Don't Work (But Everyone Tries Anyway)

Let me save you some time. These approaches are about as useful as a chocolate teapot:

Pretending everything's normal. Your team has eyes and ears. They know when something's up.

Overloading people with work to "keep them distracted." Stress plus extra workload equals burnout, not productivity.

Avoiding difficult conversations. Problems don't age like wine. They age like milk.

Assuming everyone's handling stress the same way. Some people need more information, others need space. Some want to talk it through, others prefer clear action plans.

The workplace abuse training sessions I've attended have really highlighted how differently people respond to workplace stress and pressure.

The Long Game

Here's what most managers miss – how you handle stressful situations defines your leadership brand forever. Your team will remember how you showed up when things got tough long after they've forgotten the details of the crisis itself.

I still get messages from people I managed years ago, thanking me for how I handled various workplace dramas. Not because I had all the answers, but because I didn't pretend to.

The managers who try to maintain this perfect, unflappable image during crises often find their teams don't trust them when the next challenge hits. And there's always a next challenge.

The Uncomfortable Reality

Managing people through stressful situations is exhausting. It requires emotional intelligence, constant communication, and the ability to make decisions with incomplete information. Some days you'll get it right, other days you'll wonder why you ever thought management was a good idea.

But here's the thing – your team doesn't need you to be perfect. They need you to be present, honest, and committed to figuring it out together.

The photocopier will get fixed eventually. The crying colleague might just need someone to listen. And that client who pulled out? There'll be others.

What matters is how you show up in those moments when everything feels like it's falling apart. Because that's when real leadership happens – not in the boardroom presentations or the strategy meetings, but in the messy, uncertain, very human moments when your team needs you most.

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Related Resources:

• Employee Supervision Training
• Business Supervising Skills