Speaker 1: Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of
Speaker 1: performance through strong human relations, team building and golachieving. This
Speaker 1: is the seven minute Leadership Podcast with your host Paul
Speaker 1: Fello Aledo.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, and welcome to this seven minute leadership podcast.
Speaker 2: It's episode three eighty four. Here's the question that sparked
Speaker 2: this episode. Our CEOs and boards risk ready in today's
Speaker 2: geopolitical landscape. It's a loaded question and it should be
Speaker 2: because the last five years weren't a wake up call,
Speaker 2: they were a warning shot. COVID nineteen shattered global supply chains,
Speaker 2: multi state protests, redefined workplace safety and crisis communication, and
Speaker 2: ongoing global conflict reminds us that we live in an unpredictable,
Speaker 2: always connected, and highly reactive world. So I'll ask it straight.
Speaker 2: If your company faced another world stopping event tomorrow, are
Speaker 2: you prepared? And I don't mean do you have a
Speaker 2: binder on a shelf labeled emergency plan? I mean can
Speaker 2: your CEO lead with clarity under pressure? Can your board
Speaker 2: make fast decisions without causing internal collapse? Can your team
Speaker 2: continue to operate when the environment shifts overnight? So let's
Speaker 2: break this down into four quick leadership checkpoints. Number one,
Speaker 2: Crisis readiness is a daily discipline, not an annual drill.
Speaker 2: Too many organizations treat crisis prep like a fire extinguisher.
Speaker 2: Nice to have, hope we don't need it, But leadership
Speaker 2: today isn't about hoping, it's about knowing. Ask yourself, when's
Speaker 2: the last time your board reviewed a crisis scenario that
Speaker 2: wasn't financial in nature? And have you run exercises on
Speaker 2: political unrest, social movements, cyber attacks or biological threats. If
Speaker 2: your boardroom is only comfortable talking about quarterly earnings and
Speaker 2: not rapid disruption, you've got a risk gap. Number two.
Speaker 2: Visibility into the world means visibility into the business. Geopolitical
Speaker 2: awareness is no longer a foreign policy issue. It's a
Speaker 2: business leadership requirement. What happens in Taiwan, Ukraine, the Red Sea,
Speaker 2: or even downtown Chicago effects supply chains, investor confidence, employee safety,
Speaker 2: customer expectations. Boards and CEOs must integrate geopolitical forecasting into
Speaker 2: business strategy. That doesn't mean hiring spies. It means understanding trends, threats,
Speaker 2: and triggers. If your business doesn't track world affairs, it's
Speaker 2: driving with a blindfold. Number three leadership must be crisis capable,
Speaker 2: not just crisis aware. It's easy to talk about risk,
Speaker 2: it's harder to lead through it. Boards often default to
Speaker 2: legal NPR guidance. CEO's default to wait and see. That's
Speaker 2: a problem. In a crisis, you don't rise to the occasion.
Speaker 2: You fall to your level of training. Your team doesn't
Speaker 2: need a polished memo. They need a voice of calm
Speaker 2: and a path forward. And you can't google your way
Speaker 2: out of a multi state protest or a cyber breach.
Speaker 2: Boards need to evaluate the emotional intelligence, communication skills, and
Speaker 2: decisiveness of their leadership before the crisis, not during it.
Speaker 2: In the last one, risk ready cultures start at the top.
Speaker 2: If the CEO shrug at risk, so will everyone else.
Speaker 2: If the board only acts after the headline's break, the
Speaker 2: culture becomes reactive. True risk readiness means leadership at every
Speaker 2: level is comfortable saying what if this happens, and what
Speaker 2: will we do about it. This isn't just about having
Speaker 2: a plan. It's about running simulations, updating policies to reflect
Speaker 2: today's climate, knowing who's in charge when normal vanishes, and
Speaker 2: having pre approved frameworks for decisions when time is tight.
Speaker 2: You don't need to predict the next crisis, but you
Speaker 2: do need to be ready for it, and readiness is
Speaker 2: a leadership strategy, not an emergency reaction. CEOs ask yourself,
Speaker 2: could I confidently lead my people through a month of
Speaker 2: uncertainty starting tomorrow? Boards ask yourselves or are we supporting
Speaker 2: a CEO who is decisive under pressure or one who
Speaker 2: will freeze when the stakes rise? And companies understand this
Speaker 2: resilience is no longer optional. It's your competitive edge. This
Speaker 2: has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank
Speaker 2: you for listening.
Speaker 1: For more, Paul Fell of Alito Podcasts, visit paulfellowalito dot
Speaker 1: com