Article:

Leading when the sky isn’t quiet: leadership under real-world pressure

Written by Massimo Brebbia CMgr FCMI Friday 06 March 2026

Poignant thoughts, reflections and insights from CMI Middle East Advisory Committee Member, Massimo Brebbia CMgr FCMI

Over the past few days I have received messages from colleagues, friends and professional contacts from all over the world asking the same question: “Are you safe?”

The concern is genuine and deeply appreciated. Moments like these remind you how connected our professional and personal worlds really are. At the same time, they expose something that leadership books rarely describe with complete honesty: the strange duality leaders experience when uncertainty suddenly becomes real.

On one side there is the responsibility towards the organisation, the teams, the operations that must continue to function, and the people who inevitably look to leadership for reassurance and direction. On the other side there is the personal dimension. I am not only responsible for an organisation operating across the Middle East; I am also a father, a family member, and someone living under the same sky as everyone else, hearing the same alerts and instinctively thinking about the safety of the people closest to me.

Leadership during moments like this stops being theoretical. It becomes very personal.

In the early hours of the 3rd March, around 1am, I woke up to the sound of multiple explosions. It is the kind of sound that immediately tells you something serious is happening. At the same moment my three dogs, Akira, Loki and Picane, started crying and panicking. Animals sense danger long before we fully process it ourselves.

For a few seconds I simply stood there, trying to understand what was happening around me.

In that moment I was not thinking as a regional director. I was simply a man trying to understand whether the night would become more dangerous.

At 4am when the explosions ceased, sitting on the couch I realised: this is probably exactly what my employees are feeling right now.

The same uncertainty. The same instinct to protect their families. The same questions about what is happening and what comes next.

That moment crystallised something very important for me.

How do you reassure people when you are experiencing the same uncertainty yourself?

For years we attend leadership courses, read management books and participate in training programmes about crisis management. The frameworks are well presented, the models convincing, the case studies polished and reassuring. But reality has a way of separating what looks good in a training brochure from what actually works when pressure becomes real.

The past few days have offered one of those rare moments where theory meets reality.

Some of the lessons hold true. Clear communication matters enormously. Structure matters. People need reliable information rather than rumours amplified by social media. They need to feel that someone is maintaining situational awareness and that decisions are being taken calmly and deliberately.

But something else becomes equally evident: leadership during uncertain moments is less about strategy and much more about psychological stability.

People watch leaders very carefully when situations become unclear. Not necessarily because they expect perfect answers, but because they look for signals. They listen to tone, they observe reactions, and they try to understand whether the situation is being managed.

Silence creates anxiety. Overreaction creates fear. Leadership lives somewhere between those two extremes.

Another aspect that becomes obvious very quickly is how uncertainty affects performance. When external events create stress, people’s attention fragments and cognitive bandwidth shrinks. Even highly experienced professionals may find it harder to concentrate. This is not a lack of professionalism; it is simply human nature.

Yet organisations often respond by repeating the familiar phrase: business as usual.

In reality there is no such thing as business as usual during moments like these. What leaders must create instead is operational stability despite uncertainty.

In our organisation the first priorities were straightforward: account for every person, activate safety protocols, maintain communication, and provide the flexibility people needed to manage both professional responsibilities and family concerns. Only once those foundations are secured can operational continuity truly follow.

For me personally, these days have also been a powerful reminder that leadership credibility is rarely built during comfortable periods.

It is built when people observe how you behave under pressure.

You realise that leadership is not only about procedures or frameworks. It is about emotional control, responsibility and the ability to remain composed even when you are managing your own concerns at the same time.

That is the reality of leadership in moments like this: you lead others while navigating the same uncertainty they are experiencing.

Interestingly, when leadership manages to provide clarity and calm, teams often demonstrate remarkable resilience. Once communication becomes stable and routines are re-established, people adapt far more quickly than we sometimes expect.

Trust becomes the invisible structure that allows organisations to continue functioning.

Looking back at these days, one thought stays with me more than any other: leadership is not truly tested when everything goes according to plan. Leadership reveals itself when people look to you not only for direction, but for reassurance.

And when the sky isn’t quiet, people listen very carefully to the tone of leadership.

Massimo Brebbia CMgr FCMI

CMI Middle East Advisory Committee Member