Crisis Leadership — Leading Before, During, and After the Storm (with Dr. Paul Turgeon)

Crisis doesn't create leadership; it reveals it.

In this episode, Dr. JBT interviews Dr. Paul Turgeon about what it truly means to lead when stakes are high and uncertainty is real. Early in the conversation, Paul defines crisis, distinguishing it from normal operational stress. A crisis is a disruptive event that threatens the safety, stability, reputation, or viability of an organization and requires immediate, coordinated response.

This episode centers on what leaders must build before disruption ever occurs.

Dr. Paul Turgeon is a crisis leadership and business continuity expert with extensive experience helping organizations anticipate, prepare for, and respond to high-impact disruptions. His work focuses on crisis prevention, risk mitigation, leadership visibility, and building organizational resilience so teams can respond with clarity and confidence when pressure rises.

1. Expect Crisis Crisis is not an "if," but a "when." Leaders must anticipate risk, assess vulnerabilities, and prepare to avert or mitigate impact.

2. Be Visible Silence fuels anxiety. During crises, leaders must increase visibility, communicate consistently, and model calm resolve.

3. Build Trust Early Credibility cannot be improvised mid-crisis. Trust built over time becomes the foundation teams rely on when pressure rises.

4. Crisis Requires Different Skills Leading in volatility demands rapid decisions, clear prioritization, emotional regulation, and steady communication — competencies distinct from routine operations.

5. Develop Crisis Competency Prepared organizations identify warning signals, clarify roles in advance, and build a response culture before disruption hits.

Paul recommends Blindsided by Bruce T. Blythe.

In Blindsided, Blythe explores how leaders often miss early warning signs and provides practical frameworks for crisis prevention, response planning, and communication when the stakes are highest.

Crises are inevitable. The real question is whether you're prepared when they arrive.

In this episode of Leadership & Learning with Dr. JBT, Dr. Jamie Brownlee-Turgeon explores what it means to lead through disruption — not with heroics, but with discipline.

Drawing on the research of Dr. James and Dr. Wooten, authors of Leading Under Pressure: From Surviving to Thriving Before, During, and After a Crisis, this episode walks through the five stages of crisis leadership:

• Signal Detection – noticing early warning signs

• Preparation and Prevention – building resilience before impact

• Damage Containment – leading with clarity during chaos

• Business Recovery – bouncing forward, not just back

• Reflection and Learning – turning disruption into growth

Crisis leadership isn't developed in the middle of chaos. It's built in the quiet through awareness, preparation, communication, and intentional learning.

This episode sets the foundation for a deeper conversation next week with a leader who lives this work every day.

📚 Referenced: James, E. H., & Wooten, L. P. (2010). Leading Under Pressure.

Reflection Question: If disruption hit tomorrow, what leadership habits have you already built, and what would you wish you had?

In this episode of Leadership & Learning with Dr. JBT, Dr. Jamie Brownlee-Turgeon reflects on an early leadership experience that reshaped how she understands change.

What began as a seemingly simple workflow adjustment—changing how a team managed a shared email inbox—quickly unraveled into confusion, frustration, and resistance. The logic of the change was sound, but the outcome was not.

Why?

Because change doesn't fail at implementation. It fails when leaders underestimate readiness.

Drawing on the Anatomy of Change model, this episode explores the human side of change leadership and why even small shifts can provoke big emotional responses. Listeners are guided through five foundational conditions that must be present for change to succeed—not as a checklist, but as lived experiences that shape how people respond to uncertainty.

• Why all change, big or small, creates emotional disruption

• How confusion, anxiety, frustration, and false starts signal missing readiness

• The five conditions people need to move through change successfully:

  • A clear sense of direction

  • Confidence in their ability to succeed

  • Understanding the personal benefits of the change

  • Adequate support and resources

  • A clear, shared path forward

• Why readiness is relational, not procedural

• How leaders can prepare people for change rather than pushing change onto them

Successful change is not something leaders announce. It's something they prepare people for—intentionally, patiently, and humanely.

This episode is a follow-up to conversations on leading change and offers a critical reminder: the pace of change is set not by strategy, but by people.

Before launching your next change initiative, ask yourself: Am I assuming readiness because I feel ready or have I truly prepared my people for what's coming?

Today's conversation is part 2 with Sharon Ayala, a leader who doesn't shy away from the real work of leading change. Sharon has stepped into complex environments where expectations are high, priorities are competing, and the pace is relentless. And she's honest about what that actually feels like.

In this conversation, Sharon shares openly about the challenges leaders face when everything feels urgent, and everyone needs something. She talks about how she thinks through priorities, how she makes tough decisions without losing sight of the people doing the work, and how she stays grounded when change is constant.

What stood out most to me is this: no matter how intense the pressure, Sharon refuses to sacrifice psychological safety. She believes trust isn't a "nice to have" during change; it's the foundation that makes change possible.

If you're leading in a season change, this conversation offers grounded insight into how to move forward without losing your people.

Leading Change Through Listening: Building Trust, Buy-In, and Collaboration Special Guest: Sharon Ayala, Vice President for Marketing, Abilene Christian University

Change rarely fails because of strategy. It fails because of misalignment, lack of trust, and leaders moving too fast without truly listening.

In this episode of Leadership & Learning, Dr. JBT sits down with Sharon Ayala, Vice President for Marketing at Abilene Christian University, to explore what it really takes to lead meaningful change, especially when that change extends beyond your own department.

Sharon brings deep experience leading teams through disruption and transformation, reimagining marketing not simply as a service function, but as a driver of institutional momentum, influence, and growth. Throughout the conversation, she shares how clarity of vision, intentional listening, and cross-functional collaboration become essential leadership tools when the path forward is still emerging.

Together, they unpack what it looks like to:

• Gain buy-in from stakeholders outside your direct authority by building shared understanding rather than pushing agendas

• Create a collaborative mindset across departments with competing priorities

• Build trust with your own team by listening deeply both to what is said and what remains unspoken

• Identify the root problem before jumping to solutions, especially in moments of tension or resistance

• Lead change with confidence, even when outcomes are not yet fully defined

This episode is a powerful reminder that listening is not passive; it is one of the most strategic acts of leadership. When leaders slow down to listen well, they create clarity, alignment, and the conditions for others to move forward with confidence.

Whether you are leading a department, stepping into a new role, or navigating institutional change that requires influence across boundaries, this conversation offers practical insight and grounded wisdom for leading change that lasts.

🎧 Listen in and reflect: How often do you pause to truly listen before you lead?

In this episode of Leadership & Learning with Dr. JBT, I explore key insights from What Got You Here Won't Get You There by Marshall Goldsmith—a powerful reminder that the behaviors that helped us rise as leaders can quietly limit our impact at the next level.

Rather than focusing on competence or credentials, this conversation centers on behavioral awareness, relational impact, and the discipline of leadership growth.

Below highlights a few of the 20 behaviors that frequently surface at senior levels:

• Winning too much – when collaboration turns into competition

• Adding too much value – unintentionally shutting down others by always jumping in first

• Failing to listen – listening to respond instead of listening to understand

• Withholding recognition – assuming appreciation is implied rather than expressed

• Refusing to apologize – protecting ego at the expense of trust

These behaviors are rarely intentional—and often invisible to the leader—but they have a cumulative effect on culture, engagement, and trust.

Awareness alone is not enough. In this episode, I introduce a practical framework leaders can use to move from insight to action:

1. Notice the pattern – identify when and where the behavior shows up

2. Understand the cost – shift from intent to impact

3. Choose one behavior to work on – focus creates momentum

4. Replace, don't just remove – intentionally practice a new behavior

Leadership growth at this level is not about adding more skills; it's about letting go of habits that no longer serve.

What is one behavior that once helped you succeed but may now be limiting your leadership impact?

As leaders, we often measure growth by outcomes - titles, achievements, and wins we can point to. But real leadership growth rarely feels linear. More often, it happens in the uncomfortable space between who we were and who we are becoming.

In this reflective year-end episode, Dr. JBT introduces the practice of reflecting forward—looking back with honesty, not to dwell, but to learn and lead with greater intention. Drawing from a year shaped by personal loss, professional headwinds, and meaningful leadership lessons, she explores how vulnerability, trust, and discomfort can become catalysts for growth rather than signs of failure.

This episode invites you to pause, reflect, and consider how the experiences of the past year are shaping the leader you are becoming next.

Use these questions to guide your own year-end reflection or to prompt conversation with your team:

• Who was I as a leader at the beginning of this year?

• What strengths did I rely on the most?

• What moments stretched me the most—and what did they reveal about my leadership?

• Where did discomfort signal growth rather than failure?

• What leadership habits or instincts no longer serve me?

• Who am I becoming as a leader—and what behaviors must align with that future?

Whether you're closing out a challenging year or preparing for a season of change ahead, this episode will help you reflect with purpose and move forward with clarity.

Who are you becoming as a leader and are your daily choices aligned with that future?

In this episode of Leadership & Learning with Dr. JBT, we unpack one of the four "I's" of transformational leadership: Intellectual Stimulation. This practice isn't about proving you're the smartest person in the room; it's about creating the environment where the best thinking can emerge.

When leaders dominate conversations or rush to provide answers, teams quickly retreat. Ideas fade. Innovation slows. And people stop taking ownership because they assume the leader already has the "right" solution. But when leaders shift from "I must know" to "We will figure this out together," everything changes: engagement rises, confidence grows, and teams begin to think more boldly.

In this episode, we explore what it looks like to cultivate curiosity, welcome experimentation, and normalize learning through trial and error. You'll hear real stories of team members developing their own solutions, discovering better processes, and gaining clarity not because they were told what to do but because they were empowered to think.

• Ask better questions that unlock deeper thinking

• Invite ideas early, rather than after decisions are made

• Celebrate effort and experimentation, not just perfect outcomes

• Model curiosity by admitting you don't have all the answers

• Respond to new ideas in ways that encourage more of them

These small shifts create psychological safety and help build a culture where people are willing to try, refine, and grow. Intellectual Stimulation isn't about expertise — it's about empowerment. It's about strengthening the thinkers on your team, not just the doers.

When was the last time you said, "That's a great idea — let's try it"? If it's been a while, this episode will help you reignite curiosity and multiply the intelligence around you.

If today's message resonated, share the episode with a colleague or someone you mentor. Let's keep building leaders who create environments where curiosity thrives and excellence follows.

Leadership & Learning with Dr. JBT

In this episode of Leadership & Learning with Dr. JBT, we explore one of the most powerful frameworks for elevating leadership beyond task management — The Four I's of Transformational Leadership:

Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized Consideration.

If you've ever wondered how to inspire deeper commitment, strengthen culture, or fuel real change, these Four I's offer a practical roadmap for doing just that.

• How Idealized Influence helps leaders model the behaviors they want to see

• Why Inspirational Motivation connects everyday work to purpose, hope, and shared vision

• How Intellectual Stimulation builds a culture of curiosity, innovation, and safe experimentation

• Why Individualized Consideration is essential for coaching, developing, and caring for people as individuals

Transformational leadership isn't about doing more; it's about leading with intention. When leaders model their values, share the "why," encourage new ideas, and invest in people, they create meaningful culture shifts that last.

Choose one of the Four I's to intentionally practice: Model → Inspire → Stretch → Care

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a colleague or someone you mentor. Let's keep growing leaders who lead with purpose and create impact that endures.

Subscribe, review, and stay connected — Leadership & Learning with Dr. JBT.

In this episode of Leadership & Learning with Dr. JBT, we explore a question every leader should ask:

What legacy am I building...today?

Inspired by the retirement celebration of John, a colleague and friend whose leadership has exemplified humility, consistency, and deeply lived values, this episode examines how the small choices we make each day shape the way people experience us, and ultimately, how they will remember us.

Legacy isn't formed at the end of a career. Legacy is created in real time. And whether we recognize it or not, we're writing our legacy in every meeting, every decision, every conversation, every moment of pressure, and every act of grace.

• How retirement celebrations reveal the true legacy a leader leaves behind

• Why daily decisions matter more than major accomplishments

• The difference between claiming values and living values

• A powerful reflection question: If your retirement party were today, what would you want people to say about you?

You don't build a legacy at the end. You build it every day. In the quiet choices no one sees, and in the consistent behaviors everyone feels.

Take five minutes today to reflect on the legacy you want to leave, and one step you can take right now to move toward the leader you want to become.