The Leading in a Crisis Podcast
Interviews, stories and lessons learned from experienced crisis leaders. Being an effective leader in a corporate or public crisis situation requires knowledge, tenacity, and influencing skills. Unfortunately, most of us don't get much training or real experience dealing with crisis situations. On this podcast, we will talk with people who have lived through major crisis events and we will tap their experience and stories from the front lines of crisis management. Your host, Tom Mueller, is a veteran crisis manager and trainer with more than 30 years in the corporate communications and crisis fields. Tom currently works as an executive coach and crisis trainer with WPNT Communications, and as a contract public information officer and trainer through his personal company, Tom Mueller Communications LLC. Your co-host, Marc Mullen, has over 20 years of experience as a communication strategist. He provides subject matter expertise in a number of communication specializations, including crisis communication plan development, response and recovery communications, emergency notifications and communications, organizational reviews, and after-action reports. He blogs at Blog | Marc Mullen Our goal is to help you grow your knowledge and awareness so you can be better prepared to lead should a major crisis threaten your organization. Music credit: Special thanks to Nick Longoria from Austin, Texas for creating the theme music for the podcast.
Episodes
On this episode, we continue our conversation with Will Fitzgerald and Celina Cardenas from Occidental Petroleum recounting their first time serving in leadership roles for a major crisis exercise.
Ever wondered how leaders maintain composure and maneuver through the chaos of a crisis? That's exactly what we uncover with Will and Celina as they recount their experiences at the helm during a hi...
On this episode, two first time leaders in a major oil spill response drill share their experiences, thoughts, and insights into leading during a major crisis. Occidental Petroleum tapped Will Fitzgerald and Celina Cardenas to serve as public information officer and deputy PIO for a recent drill, giving them their first taste of leading the team in a crisis. They recount for us their pulse-quickening experien...
Unlock the secrets of crisis leadership with the wisdom of corporate communication maestro, John Breed, manager of community and external affairs at ChampionX. We think John wins the award for working with most CEOs in a career, and he shares some of his tips for managing those relationships, particularly in a crisis. Our conversation traverses the essential traits that make or break leaders during turbulent...
Emergency situations don't come with a playbook, but when they strike, it's leaders like incident commander Dan Smiley who orchestrate the chaos into coherence. In our latest episode, Dan reveals the behind-the-scenes drama when multiple agencies, such as the EPA and Coast Guard, must unite under the banner of Unified Command. He gives a gripping account of a vessel grounding off the coast of Califo...
Prepare to navigate the stormy seas of crisis management as we welcome the unparalleled expertise of Dan Smiley, whose storied career has taken him from the decks of the Coast Guard to the forefront of oil spill response. Now, as a consultant and podcast voice on crisis leadership, Dan steps aboard our show to chart the integration of AI into the realm of incident command. With anecdotes from the field and an...
On this episode, Tom and Marc review the communications coming out from the various parties involved in the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore.
This is a complex response involving numerous federal, state, and local agencies, with communications coming from several different groups. Tom and Marc parse through the communications and offer insights for crisis communicators monitoring this l...
Steer clear of the political quagmire and keep your brand afloat during election season! Join host Tom Mueller and guest Kathy Leach from Brand Insights as we traverse the complex terrain of brand risk management amidst the uproar of political campaigns. Discover essential strategies for maintaining your company's integrity without becoming collateral damage in political warfare. We're getting down ...
Join us for an engaging conversation around risk communication - not the same as crisis communication - with Ann Hayward Walker, a seasoned scientific advisor who has worked major incidents including Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez. Ann has spent many years exploring how people process perceived risk and how an incident management team can effectively communicate around risk issues. How does she recommend...
Unlock the secrets to building unshakeable trust between companies and communities with our expert guest, Mary Sue Knowles. With over two decades of expertise, Mary Sue unravels the significance of community advisory panels (CAPs) for effective crisis management and the cultivation of long-term relationships. This episode is a goldmine for anyone looking to understand the sheer power of open dialogue and genu...
On this episode, we discuss the value of using live, interactive social media simulation for a realistic experience during crisis training exercises. We're joined by Geoff Paddock, a journalist-turned-communications expert based in the UK, who brings a wealth of experience in the nuclear and chemical sectors. With Geoff we dissect how digital crisis simulations provide an unparalleled level of realism a...
Crisis strikes without warning, and the mettle of non-profits is tested in the heat of the moment. This is part 2 of our sit down with Randy Sumner, the seasoned crisis management expert with a wealth of experience from his days as a television news journalist to his current role as an executive coach and crisis trainer at WPNT Communications. We dissect the critical strategies that non-profits and NGOs must ...
Discover the crucial elements of crisis management for nonprofits as Randy Sumner of WPNT Communications joins us to unravel the complexities these organizations encounter during turbulent times. Our enlightening discussion ventures into the necessity of meticulous preparation and the adoption of transparent practices to safeguard public trust and ensure financial vitality. Randy, drawing from a wealth of exp...
Join the conversation with Tom Mueller and Mark Mullen as we dissect the high-stakes world of crisis management, offering a rare glimpse into Boeing's strategic playbook during the Alaska Airlines incident. Through the lens of crisis communication experts, we unravel the complexities of swift, competing responses amidst public scrutiny and the 'fog of war' that often clouds crisis situations.
This week Marc and Tom review a case study Tom prepared around the recent Alaska Airlines in-flight emergency involving a suddenly missing door plug on the aircraft.
Tom pulled together a case study around early phase crisis communications and he and Marc review and discuss how the three companies involved communicated to their stakeholders and customers in the first hours and days following the inci...
We continue our conversation with retired US Ambassador Lewis Lucke around his experiences managing huge crisis responses in Iraq and Haiti.
Find the ambassador's entertaining memoir of his career as a foreign service officer, Duck And Cover, Improbable Tales from a Career in Foreign Service, on Amazon here.
We're privileged to have an engaging conversation with retired US Ambassador Lewis Lucke. Now, he's not just any ambassador. This man is a seasoned crisis leader who has been at the helm of some of the most challenging situations around the world. From the reconstruction of Iraq to the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Ambassador Lucke was right there, making decisions that impacted and saved countless lives. ...
On today's episode we talk about managing a crisis in the form of a unique supply chain disruption and the leadership skills required to deliver fast and effective solutions. Our guest is Jeff Zudock, a 35-year veteran of ExxonMobil and an expert in commercial and supply chain management.
The stakes are high when raw materials go in short supply, and quick action is needed to avert losses that ...
Are you prepared to navigate a supply chain crisis? Will you crack under the pressure, or will you lead like a seasoned captain navigating through a storm? Join us as we share the mic with Jeff Zudock, a supply chain maestro with three decades of experience under his belt at ExxonMobil, now retired.
Jeff gives us a riveting account of managing a supply chain crisis when COVID-induced disruptions thr...
Imagine steering a colossal retail business, like the family-owned Giant Eagle, through the stormy seas of a global pandemic. Our guest, the remarkable Polly Flinn, takes us on that voyage. With her at the helm, they navigated treacherous waters by staying in tune with their customers, using real-time data from weekly polls. That data helped the team adjust their store and pharmacy tactics to provide leading ...
When a company buys another firm, the expectation is for profits and revenues to increase. But what if the opposite occurs? This is what happened after energy giant bp acquired Castrol, the global leader in premium lubricants products. This is a story of a business crisis and how a new management team turned it around.
Our guest, Polly Flinn is a highly experienced chief marketing officer who has ...
Popular Podcasts
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.
Shootings are not unusual in Belize. Shootings of cops are. When a wealthy woman – part of one of the most powerful families in Belize – is found on a pier late at night, next to a body, it becomes the country’s biggest news story in a generation. New episodes every Monday!
A straightforward look at the day's top news in 20 minutes. Powered by ABC News. Hosted by Brad Mielke.