Three Leaders, One Crisis: A November Story
Three leaders received the same email on the same Monday morning in early November. The numbers were in. Q4 was tracking 18% behind target with eight weeks to close the gap.
What happened next tells you everything you need to know about leadership.
Lucy: The Optimist
Lucy read the email twice, felt her stomach drop, then closed her laptop. "We've been behind before," she thought. "We always pull it out."
In Monday's team meeting, she was all energy. "Right, team. Big push for Q4. I know we can do this. Let's get creative, stay positive and finish strong."
Her team nodded. They'd heard this before.
By mid-November, Lucy was in back-to-back meetings, chasing every possible deal, pushing every project forward. When her best account manager mentioned he was struggling with the workload, Lucy said, "I know, mate - just a few more weeks. We'll sort it out in January."
The account manager smiled, said nothing and updated his CV that evening.
By late November, three people had handed in their notice. Two projects had missed critical deadlines. And Lucy was still in meetings, still optimistic, still convinced they could turn it around.
She couldn't understand why everyone seemed so flat.
Marcus: The Controller
Marcus read the email and immediately opened his project management software. If they were 18% behind, he needed visibility. He needed control.
He called an emergency leadership meeting. "Right, I want daily stand-ups from every team. I want to see every deal in the pipeline - nothing moves without my sign-off. We're going to manage our way out of this."
His team groaned inwardly but complied. Daily stand-ups became daily interrogations. "Why is this taking so long?"... "What's the blocker here?"... "This should have been done by now."
Marcus was already spending 23 hours a week in meetings, and 71% of them were unproductive. Now he added eight more hours of status updates to his calendar.
His team started working late - not because there was more work but because they needed time without Marcus looking over their shoulders to actually get anything done.
By late November, his top performer came to him. "Marcus, I need to talk to you about my workload." Marcus didn't look up from his spreadsheet. "We're all stretched right now, I just need you to push through till year-end."
She didn't push through. She pushed out: two weeks' notice, effective immediately.
Marcus genuinely couldn't understand it. He'd been so hands-on, so involved. How could she leave at a time like this?
Priya: The One With Support
Priya read the email, closed her eyes, and thought, "Right. Here we go."
Her first instinct was the same as always - panic, overcorrect, take control, fix everything herself. She'd done it a hundred times before. But then she remembered something her LEAD™ coach had said six months ago: "Your first response under pressure is usually your worst response. Learn to pause."
She didn't call a meeting immediately. Instead, she messaged her LEAD™ action learning set - five other leaders from different industries who'd been through the programme together.
"18% behind target. 8 weeks left. Team's exhausted. Board's going to lose it. What would you do?"
The responses came back within an hour. Not platitudes. Real talk.
"Been there. Don't chase everything. You'll lose everything."
"Get brutally honest about what's actually achievable. Board can handle bad news better than December surprises."
"Protect your team's capacity. You need them in January too."
And from her coach: "Remember week 4? This is your moment to practice radical honesty. Call me if you need to talk it through before the board conversation."
That evening, Priya spent 30 minutes on a call with her coach, working through exactly what she was going to say to her leadership team and then to the board. Not scripting it, but getting clear on the difficult truths she needed to voice.
The next afternoon, she called her leadership team together. Not for a pep talk, for honesty.
"We're 18% behind. We've got eight weeks. We're not going to make the original target. We need to decide what we can actually deliver and do it well, rather than chasing everything and delivering nothing."
The room went quiet; nobody normally says this type of thing out loud.
"I need your help," Priya continued. "What are the three things that genuinely matter? What can we park until Q1? And what do we need to kill entirely?"
It was uncomfortable. People pushed back. "But we promised the board..."... "But the customer is expecting..."
"I know," Priya said. "And I'll handle those conversations. But I need to know what's real. I can't protect you from panic if I don't know the truth."
This was pure LEAD™ - the skill they'd practised over and over in the programme. Having the difficult conversation before it becomes a crisis. Creating psychological safety even when the news is bad. Leading from honesty, not heroics.
They spent three hours working through it. It was hard. People had to admit their projects weren't going to land; some had to acknowledge they'd over-committed; but by the end, they had a plan that was actually achievable.
The next morning, Priya had the board call. Before dialling in, she re-read her notes from the LEAD™ session on managing up: "Give them the problem, your recommendation and your confidence level."
"We're not going to hit the original target. Here's what we are going to deliver, and here's why I'm confident we can do it well."
The conversation was difficult, but she'd rather have it in November than December. And because she'd practised this exact scenario in her LEAD™ action learning, it didn't feel like jumping off a cliff. It felt hard, but doable.
Then she called a team meeting. "Right. Here's what we're focusing on. Everything else is parked. I know you're tired, but I'm not asking you to work harder, I'm asking you to work smarter. And I'm going to protect your time so you can actually do it."
She cancelled three standing meetings, something she'd learned from another LEAD™ delegate who'd done the same thing with remarkable results. She told her leadership team they were not to schedule anything after 5pm unless it was genuinely urgent and she started doing skip-levels with front-line team members to understand where the real blockers were.
When her best account manager came to her two weeks later looking stressed, Priya didn't brush him off. She'd learned that lesson. "Tell me what's going on. Not what you think I want to hear, what's actually happening."
He told her, they worked through it together, he didn't quit.
By late November, whilst 40% of stressed leaders were considering quitting, Priya's team looked different. Still under pressure, but not drowning. They were delivering the things that mattered. Two people had actually thanked her for being honest about priorities.
When she checked in with her LEAD™ Cohort at the end of November, she was honest: "It's still hard and I still don't sleep great, but I'm not doing it alone and I'm not making it up as I go. That makes all the difference."
One of her peers replied, "This is what Q4 looks like when you've got the tools and the support. Imagine doing it like we used to."
Priya couldn't imagine going back.
The Difference
Three leaders. Same crisis. Completely different outcomes.
Lucy believed positivity would fix everything. Her team just felt gaslit.
Marcus believed control would fix everything. His team just felt suffocated.
Priya had been trained for this. She had tools and she had a peer network who'd been through it. She had a coach she could call when she doubted herself. And she had QuoLux™ in her corner, helping her navigate the hardest conversations of her career.
Here's what the research tells us that these three leaders learned the hard way: trust in managers has plummeted to just 29%. When leaders pretend everything's fine or try to control everything, they're not building trust - they're destroying what little is left.
The difference isn't personality and it's not about being naturally calm or confident. It's about learned behaviour and about having the courage to face reality and the skill to navigate it without breaking your team.
This is what real leadership development addresses - not theory and not frameworks but the actual behaviours that separate leaders who survive pressure from leaders who thrive under it.
Which Leader Are You?
To be honest, most of us are a bit of all three. We oscillate between false optimism, desperate control and uncomfortable honesty depending on the day.
The question isn't whether you've been Lucy or Marcus. The question is whether you're willing to become more like Priya.
That doesn't happen by accident. It happens through deliberate practice, honest feedback and the kind of structured development that changes behaviour, not just awareness.
You've still got time to change how you finish this year.
But only if you're honest about where you're starting.
Want to discuss what real leadership development looks like - the kind that changes behaviour under pressure, not just knowledge? Let's talk.
Keep up-to-date on the latest leadership and management tips by signing up to our weekly blog here