{"id":10710,"date":"2026-04-14T06:31:40","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=10710"},"modified":"2026-04-14T06:31:40","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T06:31:40","slug":"in-a-public-crisis-what-you-prioritize-determines-whether-you-execute-or-stall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/?p=10710","title":{"rendered":"In a Public Crisis, What You Prioritize Determines Whether You Execute or Stall"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tOpinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.\t<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"tw:border-b tw:border-slate-200 tw:pb-4\">\n<h2 class=\"tw:mt-0 tw:mb-1 tw:text-2xl tw:font-heading\">Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"tw:font-normal tw:font-serif tw:text-base tw:marker:text-slate-400\">\n<li>In a crisis, every voice gets louder \u2014 but not every voice matters.<\/li>\n<li>Most leaders don\u2019t realize their mistake until they\u2019ve already lost control of the moment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chaos has a sound: the Slack thread that won\u2019t stop, reporters asking for comment, the board demanding answers for a headline that appeared overnight.<\/p>\n<p>In that moment, everyone wants your attention \u2014 and everyone thinks they matter. Your job isn\u2019t to respond to everything. It\u2019s to decide what counts.<\/p>\n<p>Without a system, you react. You give equal weight to voices that don\u2019t shape the outcome, while the ones who do are left waiting. People say leaders need thick skin. What they actually need is clarity \u2014 clarity on who they\u2019re accountable to, and the discipline to treat everyone else accordingly. That discipline is what holds under pressure.<\/p>\n<p>When Microsoft moved to acquire <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/business\/story\/2023-10-13\/microsoft-activision-blizzard-acquisition-deal\">Activision Blizzard for $69 billion,<\/a> opposition was loud \u2014 competitors, politicians, media. They ignored most of it and focused on the only stakeholders who could stop the deal: regulators in the US, UK and EU. They didn\u2019t chase every narrative. The deal closed. The noise was real. It just wasn\u2019t relevant.<\/p>\n<p>The current environment makes this harder. AI can generate a credible CEO statement before legal picks up the phone. Internal emails can reach reporters in minutes. Social platforms can turn a trivial moment into a full-blown story before you\u2019ve decided if it matters.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, McDonald\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=W6QFxgS8fSA\">CEO Chris Kempczinski posted a video<\/a> tasting the new Big Arch burger. The internet piled on. Rivals and comedians amplified it to tens of millions of views. McDonald\u2019s didn\u2019t panic. They recognized it wasn\u2019t a stakeholder crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Their brand account posted a single winking Instagram image: \u201cTake a bite of our new product. Can\u2019t believe this got approved.\u201d Then they moved on. A spokesperson noted they were glad the Big Arch had everyone\u2019s attention. Early sales beat expectations. The reaction was loud. It just didn\u2019t matter.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 1: Allocate attention with the 70\/25\/5 rule<\/h3>\n<p>When something breaks into the public eye, leaders treat every critic like a stakeholder. That\u2019s how you end up distracted, defensive and exhausted \u2014 without moving anything that actually matters.<\/p>\n<p>Use a simple model:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><b>70%<\/b>: People who can directly impact your license to operate in the near term \u2014 regulators, your board, key investors, critical customers and the parts of your workforce you can\u2019t afford to lose.<\/li>\n<li><b>25%<\/b>: People who influence those stakeholders \u2014 analysts, industry experts, trade press.<\/li>\n<li><b>5%<\/b>: Everyone else \u2014 the noise.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most leaders invert this.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 2: Get specific about who matters<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cInvestors matter\u201d isn\u2019t a strategy. Which investors? Why are they invested? What do they expect?<\/p>\n<p>A long-term value investor wants to know you won\u2019t overreact. A short-term growth investor wants to know how quickly you can contain the issue. Same situation, completely different expectations. The same applies to employees. You\u2019re not leading \u201cthe workforce.\u201d You\u2019re leading distinct groups with different stakes in the outcome.<\/p>\n<p>Identify who you need to carry the business forward. Build simple personas:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Where do they get information?<\/li>\n<li>What do they fear?<\/li>\n<li>What earns their trust?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Then communicate accordingly \u2014 not to whoever is loudest that day.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 3: Don\u2019t go silent \u2014 but don\u2019t speculate<\/h3>\n<p>If you don\u2019t speak, people will decide what happened without you. That doesn\u2019t mean rushing out half-truths or making promises you can\u2019t keep. It means sharing the most complete picture you can, and being explicit about what comes next.<\/p>\n<p>Cadence matters as much as content. Regular updates prevent a vacuum and preserve credibility.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 4: Lead with tradeoffs, not conclusions<\/h3>\n<p>There are no perfect decisions in volatile conditions \u2014 only tradeoffs.Leaders lose trust when they pretend otherwise. When they present decisions as obvious or cost-free, people can see the gap immediately.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, show the math:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What you chose<\/li>\n<li>What you gave up<\/li>\n<li>What you need from people now<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For example: We prioritized protecting our workforce over responding to every external critic. That means we won\u2019t engage with every narrative \u2014 and we need the team focused on execution, not the noise.<\/p>\n<p>Use the same structure every time so people can follow the logic, not just the outcome.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" aria-hidden=\"true\"\/>\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Step 5: Curate the counsel that sustains your judgment<\/h3>\n<p>Thick skin is easier when you\u2019re not alone \u2014 but who you listen to matters.<\/p>\n<p>Challenge without support creates paralysis.<br \/>Support without challenge creates delusion.<\/p>\n<p>You need both:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Someone who will tell you what\u2019s wrong with your thinking<\/li>\n<li>Someone who will lock arms with you once the decision is made<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Those rarely come from the same person.<\/p>\n<p>And when the noise peaks, go back to why you took the job. Not the title or the comp \u2014 the thing you set out to do.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s what keeps you from getting pulled in every direction.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"tw:border-b tw:border-slate-200 tw:pb-4\">\n<h2 class=\"tw:mt-0 tw:mb-1 tw:text-2xl tw:font-heading\">Key Takeaways<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"tw:font-normal tw:font-serif tw:text-base tw:marker:text-slate-400\">\n<li>In a crisis, every voice gets louder \u2014 but not every voice matters.<\/li>\n<li>Most leaders don\u2019t realize their mistake until they\u2019ve already lost control of the moment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>Chaos has a sound: the Slack thread that won\u2019t stop, reporters asking for comment, the board demanding answers for a headline that appeared overnight.<\/p>\n<p>In that moment, everyone wants your attention \u2014 and everyone thinks they matter. Your job isn\u2019t to respond to everything. It\u2019s to decide what counts.<\/p>\n<p>Without a system, you react. You give equal weight to voices that don\u2019t shape the outcome, while the ones who do are left waiting. People say leaders need thick skin. What they actually need is clarity \u2014 clarity on who they\u2019re accountable to, and the discipline to treat everyone else accordingly. That discipline is what holds under pressure.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/leadership\/in-a-public-crisis-what-you-prioritize-determines-whether\/503629\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own. Key Takeaways In a crisis, every voice gets louder \u2014 but not every voice matters. Most leaders don\u2019t realize their mistake until they\u2019ve already lost control of the moment. Chaos has a sound: the Slack thread that won\u2019t stop, reporters asking for comment, the board demanding answers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10711,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10710","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-green-brands"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10710"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10710\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10711"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wildgreenquest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}