{"id":20835,"date":"2026-04-03T11:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T08:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/blog\/who-are-you-as-a-leader-when-your-company-is-in-crisis\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T12:58:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:58:49","slug":"who-are-you-as-a-leader-when-your-company-is-in-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/blog\/who-are-you-as-a-leader-when-your-company-is-in-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Who are you as a leader when your company is in crisis?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Companies are going through tense times, the market is moving chaotically, the impact of geopolitical risks is seen in the price of fuel, the political battles seem to be ignoring the economic agenda: <strong>we have small political agendas instead of big economic agendas<\/strong>. You get the feeling that nothing can be predicted, controlled or brought into a more or less predictable zone.<\/p>\n<p>Who feels this tension the most? <strong>People who lead organizations, people who lead teams<\/strong>! Whether you are a CEO, general manager, production manager, sales manager, department or directorate manager, team leader or project coordinator, in private or public companies, institutions active in administration or public services, you are expected to come up with the most <strong>strategic <\/strong> <strong>ideas and<\/strong> <strong>actions <\/strong>.  <\/p>\n<p>From the perspective of my expertise as an <strong>organizational psychologist<\/strong>, I see <strong>two scenarios as reactions<\/strong>, and the second one is the one that pays off <strong>in times of crisis<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li> <strong> First: daily operational transition<\/strong>, &#8220;fire-fighting&#8221;, emotional overload that gives authoritarian tendencies, increasingly sketchy organizational communication, identifying mistakes and dealing with them, often associated with blaming people in the team. We can call it <strong>the &#8220;survival&#8221; scenario.<\/strong> <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>How does it feel in the company? <\/strong>Employees adopt a <strong>culture of organizational silence<\/strong>. They hide mistakes or communicate them by naming the &#8216;at fault&#8217; colleague. <strong>Psychological safety disappears<\/strong> (Amy Edmondson, 2002) people stop reporting mistakes, manager tends to <strong>attribute failures to people&#8217;s character<\/strong> (they are &#8220;lazy&#8221; or &#8220;incompetent&#8221;) while employees <strong>attribute failures to context<\/strong> (lack of resources, short time). <strong>A massive perception breakdown occurs<\/strong>, the team feels that the manager is &#8220;unfair&#8221; and &#8220;disconnected from reality&#8221;, with a direct effect on their loyalty and commitment. <\/li>\n<li>Problems are solved on the surface, root causes are not addressed. We have current error correction, i.e. <strong>single-loop<\/strong> learning, no move to <strong>double-loop learning<\/strong> (questioning the rules and rules applied) (Argyris &amp; Schon), no talk of <strong>triple loop learning<\/strong> &#8211; i.e. changing the paradigm of action. <\/li>\n<li><strong>Emotional overload<\/strong>, manifested by anxiety and anger, in crisis situations, <strong>passes from manager to team within minutes<\/strong>. This is what Sigal Barsade (2002) calls <strong>the emotional contagion effect<\/strong> &#8211; a CEO walks into a meeting about declining sales visibly anxious, with sudden movements and a cutting voice &#8211; without realizing it, team members <strong>switch from solution-finding to defense. <\/strong>Creativity &#8220;freezes,&#8221; the team looks for culprits instead of strategies because the brain has detected a danger (the CEO&#8217;s condition) and has gone into survival mode. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In other words, when market pressure turns into internal fear, <strong>the first casualty <\/strong>is not the profit, but <strong>the courage to try,<\/strong> the initiative and the team&#8217;s solutions; enthusiasm dies out, <strong>employees choose to protect themselves through passivity<\/strong>, and the organization loses its reflexes: we no longer have a team that builds, but a group of people who just &#8220;survive&#8221; the work schedule.<\/p>\n<ol start=\"2\">\n<li>If the first scenario is about survival<strong>, the second is about mission impact. <\/strong>The leader anchors pragmatism in the reality of his people, and the determining factor is the consistency between his words and deeds.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Communication becomes essential<\/strong>. Not only its content, but also its frequency, the expressions used, the moments chosen, all become elements that build the lived reality of employees. <\/li>\n<li>Communication has a well-defined frequency, it is characterized by a sometimes <strong>brutal transparency<\/strong>, but it is carried out with humanity. The speed and accuracy with which situations are recognized (e.g. &#8220;we have cash-flow problems, we are cashing in with increasing delays&#8221;), even if, as a manager, you do not have all the answers to resolve them, eliminates the possible speculation that can turn into coffee debates on the topic &#8220;are we going bankrupt?&#8221;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>But what is the difference between a team struggling to survive and a team with a mission? What are the messages and actions of the leader\/manager that make the difference. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The manager&#8217;s most important communication at such times is the <strong>communication of meaning and direction<\/strong>. Of <strong>meaning<\/strong>: why must it hold? Why does this collective effort matter? Of <strong>direction<\/strong>: what is the picture of the future, even if blurred? Where is this road taking us? What are the limits &#8211; <strong>what are we NOT DOING despite the difficulties<\/strong>? Even if it&#8217;s foggy, the headlights you turn on can give you a 20-meter visibility. You don&#8217;t need to see the whole highway to drive to your destination; you just need enough clarity to keep the car moving. If you stay put, the fog stays just as dense.        <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Such <a href=\"https:\/\/economedia.ro\/tolerarea-neperformantei-inseamna-pedepsirea-omului-performant-organizatia-ca-o-casa-veche-de-ce-trebuie-sa-demolam-ca-sa-putem-reconstrui-performanta.html\">times of crisis<\/a> are a <strong>good opportunity to create a superordinate meaning and identity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Meaning has several levels: <strong>immediate meaning<\/strong> &#8211; Why am I doing this now, today? <strong>Intermediate meaning<\/strong> &#8211; Why do I have this career\/relationship\/project? And <strong>superordinate meaning, the vault<\/strong> that holds it all together. Why do I exist? Who are we? What is it all leading towards?    <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>When you have superordinate meaning 3 things happen for you as a manager and your team:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Organization and hierarchy are well defined when you have <\/strong>a clear overriding sense<strong>: you know what is important and what is not<\/strong>. You can sacrifice an immediate meaning (comfort, difficult conversations) for an intermediate one (my team) precisely because there is a higher direction above them that justifies both. <\/li>\n<li><strong>It absorbs suffering, it becomes bearable<\/strong> because it is placed in a larger framework: <a href=\"https:\/\/economedia.ro\/decizii-dificile-ghid-practic-pentru-procesele-de-concediere.html\">firing<\/a> good people, sacrificing one&#8217;s personal life, losing an important client are sometimes painful decisions.&#8221; He who has a why can endure almost anything how&#8221; &#8211; Nietzsche quoted by Victor Frankl.<\/li>\n<li><strong>provides identity continuity &#8211;<\/strong> even if circumstances around us change dramatically, the superordinate meaning provides a narrative thread for the team and the organization. <strong>Who are we when nothing we&#8217;ve built works?<\/strong> <strong>What are we unwilling to sacrifice even for survival?<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>And then&#8230; in times of crisis, when the <strong>tools fall apart<\/strong> &#8211; budgets are cut, structures are reorganized, processes fall, the manager who has the <strong>team<\/strong> as his <strong>intermediate meaning<\/strong>, expresses &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what the organizational chart will look like next month, but I know that my responsibility to these people is not negotiable&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>If <strong>the moment of crisis has eroded not only the tools but also the intermediate level of meaning<\/strong>, all that remains is immediate survival, without architecture: &#8216;There&#8217;s no point investing in people, we don&#8217;t know what&#8217;s going on anyway&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>In periods of stability, rigid structures, designed as precision machines, seem invincible. But when a crisis hits, this &#8220;fine-tuned machine&#8221; collapses. Why?    <strong>They were designed for mechanical efficiency not human resilience.  <\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Human resilience is the ability of a human to remain functional<\/strong> &#8211; makes decisions, can collaborate, is not paralyzed &#8211; <strong>to have direction<\/strong> &#8211; knows where they are going, even if they don&#8217;t know how, doesn&#8217;t know the immediate operational &#8211; and <strong>is capable of coherent action<\/strong> &#8211; decisions are consistent with meaning and direction, not just panic reactions. All at a time when external market conditions are destabilizing the structures, certainties and routines of the organization of which he is a part. <\/p>\n<p>The human resilience of the manager and his team, you see it in their statements: &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what will be and I can operate with this not knowing&#8221;, &#8220;Fear tells me there is danger, it doesn&#8217;t tell me what to do&#8221;, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know what I am doing concretely tomorrow, but I know why I am doing it and what I am doing it for&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>It is not forced optimism, it is <strong>inner continuity in outer discontinuity.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Leaders who choose meaning over survival don&#8217;t wait for the horizon &#8211; they build it, team by team, decision by decision. Let us be more and more! <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Article published in Economedia, you can find it <a href=\"https:\/\/economedia.ro\/cine-esti-tu-ca-lider-cand-compania-ta-e-in-criza.html\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong> <\/strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/ph-d-claudia-indreica-4b95a348\/\"><strong>Dr. Claudia Indreica <\/strong><\/a>  is an organizational psychologist, <a href=\"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/services\/\">CEO of Psihoselect<\/a> and one of the most active strategic content architects in the Romanian business environment. With more than 25 years of experience in <a href=\"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/service\/individual-and-team-psychological-profiling\/\">leadership profiling<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/service\/headhunting-and-executive-search\/\">executive search<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/service\/workshops\/\">organizational transformation<\/a>, with a full academic background, she works where psychology meets the strategic agenda of companies building with meaning. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Leader of the Labor Market Task Force<\/strong> in <strong>Romanian Business Leaders, <\/strong>Claudia actively contributes to projects shaping Romania&#8217;s economic competitiveness. On the <strong>Board of DWNT<\/strong>, she supports the dialog between the German and Romanian business environment. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As a <strong>Strategic Content Architect, moderator and speaker<\/strong>, he brings to public debate the issues that matter: leadership, labor market, economic transformation &#8211; at the intersection of business, public policy and civil society.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Companies are going through tense times, the market is moving chaotically, the impact of geopolitical risks is seen in the price of fuel, the political battles seem to be ignoring the economic agenda: we have small political agendas instead of big economic agendas. You get the feeling that nothing can be predicted, controlled or brought [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":19331,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[216],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20888,"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20835\/revisions\/20888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psihoselect.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}