The Leading in a Crisis Podcast
What really happens when a crisis hits an organization—and how technology is influencing decisions and reputation impacts. Come hear what happened when experienced leaders were actually in the middle of a crisis—and capture the lessons before it happens to you. Email the show at Tom@leadinginacrisis.com.
Your host, Tom Mueller, is a veteran crisis manager and trainer with more than 30 years in the corporate communications and crisis fields. Tom currently works as an executive coach and crisis trainer with WPNT Communications, and as a contract public information officer and trainer through his personal company, Tom Mueller Communications LLC.
Our goal is to help you grow your knowledge and awareness so you can be better prepared to lead should a major crisis threaten your organization.
Music credit: Special thanks to Nick Longoria from Austin, Texas for creating the theme music for the podcast.
#crisis #crisismanagement #crisiscomms #crisiscommunications
#BusinessContinuity #LeadingThroughCrisis
#CrisisResponse #management #leadership
Episodes
99 episodes
NYPD detective shares his experiences from the 911 attacks and leading through chaos
The fastest way to lose trust in a crisis is to pretend you know what you do not know. We sit down with Sal Lifrieri, a retired NYPD detective and member of an elite hostage rescue team who later worked in New York City emergency management and...
Attacked by media, politicians, and activists: policing through civil unrest and disinformation
Minneapolis didn’t need another spark, but leadership rarely gets to choose the timing of the next crisis. We sit down with former Minneapolis police chief Brian O’Hara to unpack what it’s like to lead when unrest feels one headline away, when ...
Minneapolis police under fire! Leadership lessons after the George Floyd riots
Minneapolis became a global symbol of crisis, and Brian O’Hara walked straight into it. Right after George Floyd, the city faced deep community mistrust, protests, and an intense spotlight on policing. At the same time, violence surged and offi...
Leading under pressure - lessons in leadership and humility, with Jeff Johnson
On this episode, we revisit our interview with Jeff Johnson, a longtime maritime leader and incident commander, and president of the Cook Inlet Tug and Barge Company. This episode originally aired in 2023.Jeff has sailed on tankers, work...
EP93 Targeting the LLMs and AI - your website should feed the monster
You can’t rely on “I’ll believe it when I see it” anymore, and that single shift changes everything about crisis communication. When AI can generate convincing text, images, and video in minutes, your website stops being a nice-to-have and beco...
EP92 Persuasion that works: the power of storytelling with Josh Bandoch
Your smartest plan can still fail if people don’t feel seen first. We sit down with persuasion expert and author Josh Bandoch to unpack what actually moves human beings to action, especially when emotions are running hot and the pressure is rea...
EP91 Stranded in Antarctica - a medevac crisis, reintegration blues
A doctor walks into the station leader’s office in Antarctica and asks a question no one wants to answer during a pandemic: “How would we evacuate someone right now?” With flights effectively off the table, scarce ships in the region, and weath...
EP90 Stranded in Antarctica - a leadership test, with David Knoff
When COVID hit, David Knoff was leading Australia’s Davis Station in Antarctica, expecting a one-year rotation with a predictable route home. What he got instead was a blunt message from headquarters: the mission is extended, the logistics are ...
EP89 Feeding the political and media machines during a crisis, with Chief Craig Covey
When 50,000 people are evacuated, the emergency is only half the fight, the other half is the information. We pick up our conversation with Orange County Fire Authority Division Chief Craig Covey, a veteran incident commander, to unpack what re...
EP88 Leadership, humility and tough decision making in a crisis, with Chief Craig Covey
One call can reshape an entire weekend, a city’s sense of safety, and the credibility of the people in charge. I’m joined by Orange County Fire Authority Division 1 Chief Craig Covey, a veteran incident commander with 32 years in the fire servi...
EP87 Prioritizing video and social media - Orange County incident comms, Part 3
When tens of thousands of people have to leave home over a chemical incident, the hardest part isn’t just operations, it’s keeping the public confidently informed while the story explodes across the news. We pick up our conversation with Greg B...
EP86 Orange County black swan incident with PIO Greg Barta, Part 2
When a chemical incident triggers the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents, communications stops being a “nice to have” and becomes operational. We’re back with Greg Barta, Public Information Officer for the Orange County Fire Authority...
EP85 50,000 evacuated: Inside the Orange County crisis, with PIO Greg Barta.
Imagine being PIO for an incident that includes the evacuation of 50,000 local residents and and a real threat of major explosion or chemical release that could cause massive damage to homes and businesses. That' black swan scenario is what PIO...
EP84 Using AI to prepare for crisis, with Clearline Crisis
Most companies don’t fail a crisis because they lack smart people. They fail because the “plan” is a dusty document, the spokesperson is untested, and the first real coordination happens at 11:30 on a Sunday night. We sit down with Mitch Cohen,...
EP83 Volunteer Turns Chaos Into Clarity With A Community Crisis Website
Fifty thousand people evacuate, rumors fly, and the search for the latest information becomes frantic. During the Memorial Day weekend chemical incident in Orange County, California, residents in Garden Grove and Anaheim needed more than breaki...
EP82 A Journalist's View - high stakes chemical leak and evacuation in Orange County, CA
On this episode, we continue our review of the high-stakes incident and evacuation in Orange County, CA over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Some 50,000 residents were forced to flee their homes as a runaway thermal reaction built pressure an...
EP81 Hot take: Orange County chemical incident - crisis communications review
A storage tank starts heating up, pressure builds, and suddenly Orange County is staring down a worst-case scenario: a thermal runaway that could end in a catastrophic explosion or a dangerous vapor release. Over Memorial Day weekend, that risk...
EP80 Dude! Where's my stuff? Managing Iran war supply chain disruptions
As impacts from the war with Iran become more evident around the world, and more serious, we dive into how one highly experienced supply chain manager is managing the disruption. Hint, planning is key, but existing relationships (or lack thereo...
Supply chain disruption: leadership insights from XOM alum Jeff Zudock
Supply chain disruptions, like those we're seeing now around energy supplies from the Persian Gulf, can cause long-term business and profitability impacts. Leadership skills in those tense situations can make or break a company's response to th...
EP79 The Great Kitkat Heist - using memes in a crisis, with Natalee Gibson
Twelve tons of Kit Kat bars get stolen, and suddenly the internet is doing what it does best: turning a real-world incident into a meme factory. We dig into why that kind of viral corporate humor can be a smart PR play in the right context, and...
EP78 Crisis Comms at NASA, part 4: Crisis Exercises, the media landscape and deepfakes
A deepfake can hit your audience before your first internal briefing ends and the most “engaging” version of events is often the least true. That’s the reality we dig into with James Hartsfield, former director of communications at NASA’s Johns...
EP77 Crisis Comms at NASA, part 3: The Columbia response and investigation
A shuttle breaks apart on re-entry, the world demands answers, and the people closest to the story have to decide what transparency actually looks like when an investigation is just getting started. We pick back up with James Hartsfield, former...
EP76 NASA crisis communications: What Columbia taught us about transparency
Columbia didn’t arrive when it was supposed to, and the whole world felt the silence. We sit down again with James Hartsfield, recently retired as director of communications at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, to walk through the most difficult min...
EP75 The day Columbia disappeared: inside NASA's crisis communications
The most frightening part of a space flight crisis is how fast it rewrites reality. One minute the plan is a routine landing and a little live education for viewers. The next, you’re choosing words that millions will remember forever.We...
From the archive: Bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in England - lessons learned from the police response
On today's episode we're revisiting the story of the terrorist bombing at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England in 2017. A suicide bomber detonated a backpack bomb loaded with nails just after the concert ended, killing 22 concertgoe...