Crisis ready: Why calm is a leadership skill (and how to train for it)

Every CEO, executive team, and cybersecurity leader knows they should have a crisis management plan, and many even have one buried in a shared drive somewhere. But when a real cyber incident hits - ransomware, data breach, or collateral damage like NotPetya - the plan often crumbles.

The big question is why? And it’s because crisis management isn’t just about the plan. It’s about people under pressure, and pressure reveals whether your leadership, team dynamics, and decision-making frameworks are actually fit for purpose.

In this session, we’ll shift the spotlight away from the usual checklist of what your plan should include, and instead focus on how you lead when the plan isn’t enough. We’ll explore real lessons from major cyber crises, like Maersk’s under-appreciated recovery after NotPetya, or even some of the less laudable examples, and break down how calm, imagination, and executive alignment matter more than technical fixes when you’re in the eye of the storm.

You’ll learn why most crisis simulations fall flat (hint: they lack emotional realism), how CISOs often default to technician mode when they need to step up into the leadership realm, and why most executive teams just aren’t ready. Not because they don’t care, they care deeply, but because no one has prepared them for this particular kind of decision-making.

We’ll walk through a practical model you can use to lead through chaos, even if your hands aren’t on the keyboard. You’ll also leave with clear steps for designing more realistic, emotionally immersive simulations that help your teams and executives actually feel what a crisis is like, so they can learn before it happens.

This isn’t going to be theory. It’s a practical approach to building your own field guide to staying calm, leading up, and helping your organisation earn the right to call itself ‘resilient.’