When the World’s on Fire, and You Still Have a Team Meeting

What do you do when the headlines are burning?

When a war breaks out. When a city falls. When entire communities are holding their breath. When your team shows up to work, distracted, grief-stricken, or just exhausted from scrolling through the news, but the calendar still says “standup at 10:00”?

This isn’t a post about geopolitics. It’s about the quiet burden of leadership in times of unrest.

Because you can’t fix the crisis. You can’t mute the headlines. You can’t offer certainty in the face of global chaos.

But you can shape how your team feels during it. You can set the tone. You can lower the temperature. You can lead with steadiness, not spin.

This is about how to do that with clarity, with care, and without making it about you.

PandaDoc: Leading a Global Team Through War (Ukraine, 2022)

Context: When war broke out in Ukraine, PandaDoc, with employees (“Pandas”) in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and elsewhere, had to support staff scattered across a conflict zone and beyond. The HR and leadership team mobilized to keep everyone safe, informed, and psychologically supported during an unpredictable crisis.

• They told the truth, often. “We don’t know yet” became a safe, honest phrase, not a failure of leadership. All-hands meetings doubled down on transparency, not on false optimism.

• They built safe spaces fast. They launched a Ukrainian Emergency Knowledge Base with everything from safety guidance to visa support. More than logistics, it was a source of psychological comfort. No one felt left alone with their fear.

• They backed up care with money. An emergency budget was set up for relocation, therapy, and even pet evacuation. Recorded and live sessions with trauma counselors were made available. Projects were paused. Mental health became the roadmap.

• They empowered managers instead of hoarding control. HR ran sessions to help managers understand what they could and couldn’t do. Managers got answers before announcements went live, so they could show up calm, informed, and human.

The outcome? Morale dropped (obviously), but so did attrition. Sentiment scores on leadership went up by 14%. Because when people felt seen, they stayed.

Takeaway: Communicate frequently and transparently, even if you don’t have all the answers. Create channels for support and information. Provide tangible help (mental health resources, relocation aid) to back up your words. Train and trust your managers to lead with empathy. In a crisis, your team’s well-being is the mission.

Marriott: Guiding Employees Through a Global Pandemic (2020)

Remember that Arne Sorenson video?

Bald from chemo, holding back tears, and still showing up for his 150,000 employees with a single, clear message: I can’t fix this, but I’m here with you.

• He didn’t spin. He told them the pandemic was worse than 9/11 and the 2008 crash combined. He gave numbers. Real ones. So people could plan their lives.

• He led from the front. He cut his own salary to zero. Executive team pay was slashed by 50%. People saw it and said, “Yeah, I’ll follow that man through hell.”

• He balanced realism with hope. He pointed to recovery signs in China, not as a promise, but as a possibility. That delicate optimism gave people something to hold onto.

That video became legendary not because it was flashy, but because it was real. And in a crisis, that’s what people remember.

Takeaway: Prioritize clarity and honesty, even when the news is dire. By being transparent and factual, you build trust. Maintain humanity- show vulnerability, empathy, and solidarity with your team. Lead by example through your actions. And even in dark times, point to hope or a path forward, so people feel the struggle is purposeful and temporary.

Zomato: Responding to a National Crisis with Empathy and Speed (India, 2020)

Context: In early 2020, as COVID-19 cases surged across India, the hospitality and delivery sectors were among the worst hit. Zomato, one of India’s largest food delivery platforms, faced a triple challenge: protecting its frontline delivery workers, adapting to strict lockdowns, and reassuring a deeply anxious team and customer base. The company had to act fast, not just to survive, but to lead responsibly through uncertainty and fear.

• They went public with their plan. Founder Deepinder Goyal posted regular blog updates detailing exactly what the company was doing—safety protocols, delivery adjustments, worker funds. No jargon. No drama. Just facts, fast.

• They didn’t wait for permission. Zomato created a COVID-19 fund for delivery partners, handed out PPE before it was mandated, and restructured teams to focus only on mission-critical work.

• They gave managers autonomy. Instead of tracking every hour, managers were asked to monitor emotional bandwidth. Weekly check-ins were built around humanity, not hustle.

Result? Zomato became a reference point for how to do the hard stuff with grace. Their team stuck around. Their customers trusted them more. Their mission felt real.

Takeaway:
Act quickly, and act with heart. Anchor every decision, whether it’s launching a fund or cancelling a feature rollout, in human safety and dignity. Communicate proactively, even when answers are incomplete. Empower your people to lead with context, not control. In national crises, your business becomes part of the social fabric, and how you show up will be remembered far beyond the balance sheet.

The Ripple Effect: Distant Crises and Team Mental Health

Even when a crisis is geographically distant, its shockwaves can be felt by employees around the world, especially in remote and distributed teams. Research shows that global events and regional conflicts significantly impact employee mental health and focus.

• Heightened Stress and Low Mood: A 2025 survey of U.S. employees found that 75% reported experiencing a persistently low mood due to politics and current events. Worries about wars, social unrest, or other turmoil can weigh on employees’ minds just as much as personal stressors. In fact, current events topped the list of negative mental health drivers, outranking even concerns like crime or finances.

• Burnout and Culture Impacts: 71% of workers believe political tensions make it harder to maintain a positive workplace culture, and 74% say political uncertainty contributes to greater burnout at work. Team members may feel distracted, pessimistic, or emotionally exhausted by news from afar, which can erode team cohesion and engagement if not addressed.

• Ubiquitous Exposure: In our connected world, nearly everyone follows major crises in the news. 96% of workers report following at least one recent news story about global political or economic turmoil that harmed their mental well-being. That means even if a crisis isn’t happening to your company or in your country, your team is likely reading about it, worrying about it, or perhaps has family and friends affected by it.

Remote Teams Feel it Too: Distributed teams often have members in many regions, so a “distant” crisis might directly impact one colleague while rattling others indirectly. For example, an engineer in one country may be safe from a conflict, while another teammate is in a war zone or has loved ones there – the whole team will share the anxiety and human concern. Studies after global incidents have noted a “spillover” effect on productivity and morale: people struggle to concentrate when wondering if others are safe. Without support, this can lead to disengagement or mental health struggles across the team.

Leaders should recognize that distant crises are not truly distant in a human sense. A war or disaster on the news can infiltrate your virtual workplace via stress and distraction. Acknowledging this reality is the first step – it’s okay if people are not 100% focused during such times. Proactively offering support (like counseling resources or simply checking in on how folks are doing) can help mitigate the mental health toll and prevent a drop in team cohesion.

Leadership When the World Is on Fire (And You Can’t Hold the Hose)

There are crises you can solve with a long night and a whiteboard. This isn’t one of them.

This is about the other kind—the big, chaotic, soul-crushing kind. The ones that remind you just how small you are. War. Political unrest. Natural disaster. Or, honestly, even just a news cycle that makes your team’s stomach drop.

As a leader, your job isn’t to play savior. It’s to be a steady hand in a choppy sea. To say, “I don’t have control, but I do have you.”

Here’s how.

1. Say It Like It Is (No PowerPoints, No Pretending)

You cannot lie your way through a crisis. People always know. They sniff it out in your tone, your timing, your vague replies, your all-hands energy. So when it hits the fan, open your mouth and tell the truth.

Tell your team what you know. Tell them what you don’t. Tell them what’s happening now, and what might happen next, and what the plan is, even if the plan is “we’re figuring it out in real time.”

It’s okay to say “we don’t know yet.” It’s infinitely better than fake clarity.

You don’t need perfect words. You need clean, calm truth.

2. Safety Over Everything (And Yes, That Means Cancelling the Party)

Your people’s physical and emotional safety is not negotiable. Not “important.” Not “on the radar.” It is the top priority. Full stop.

So cancel the offsite. Shut the office. Pause the launch. Push the deadline.

If a region is at risk, get people out. If a teammate is shaken, let them take a beat. Build flexibility into every part of your system: schedules, locations, workloads.

Even tiny signals matter. A “you don’t have to respond today” on Slack. A “your deadline is moved” without anyone needing to ask. A “log off if the news is too much” in a team huddle.

Create stability wherever you can. And make it loud. People need something solid to hold onto—and when the world isn’t giving it to them, you need to.

3. Be Human First, Boss Second

This one sounds obvious. But you’d be shocked how many people abandon their humanness the minute a crisis starts. They get robotic. Efficient. A little too polished.

Please don’t be that person.

Your team doesn’t need a motivational speech or a crisis comms template. They need a human being.

That means saying, “I know this is terrifying.” That means letting your voice shake. That means starting a meeting with, “How are you really doing today?” and meaning it.

Grief, anxiety, numbness, dread, all of it deserves space. A day off. A pause in the calendar. A dedicated Zoom room just to cry or vent. Whatever it takes.

This is leadership in crisis: the willingness to sit with discomfort instead of running from it.

4. Don’t Micromanage, Empower (Or You’ll Create Two Crises Instead of One)

In chaos, your first instinct might be to grab the wheel tighter. To control, correct, and cascade.

Don’t.

You’re not the hero. You’re the one holding the flashlight while your team finds the path.

Push decision-making to the people closest to the problem. Your managers. Your pod leads. Your ops team. Equip them. Trust them. And back off.

Micromanaging in a crisis doesn’t create safety. It creates noise. And it tells your team you don’t trust them. That kind of control can backfire fast. People shut down, and now you’re dealing with morale and the original crisis.

So instead of control, focus on alignment. Make sure your values are clear. Make sure your intent is clear. And let the people who know the ground best make the calls.

5. If You Talk the Talk, You Better Back It Up (With Resources, Not Just Reassurance)

Saying “I care” is easy. Proving it costs time and money.

In a crisis, people need tangible help. Not just Slack check-ins.

• Pay for therapy or counseling.

• Set up an emergency fund.

• Give people paid time off without the paperwork war.

• Make relocation easy.

• Send care packages or tech stipends.

• Hire trauma experts to host support sessions.

Basically: Make support easy to access and hard to miss.

Don’t assume people will raise their hands. They won’t. They’re scared. They think it’ll cost them something. So normalise the ask. Repeat the link. Surface the resource. Fund the thing.

Gartner found that when companies pair supportive language with real action, employee satisfaction jumps by up to 40%.

Because love isn’t just language. It’s logistics.

6. Remind People Why This Still Matters (Even If It Feels Like Nothing Matters)

In a crisis, everything can feel pointless. Your team might wonder, “Why are we even doing this?” And if you don’t give them an answer, that question can erode everything- morale, retention, motivation.

But purpose isn’t about platitudes. It’s not about “changing the world” when the world is actively falling apart.

It’s about saying: “This team matters. Our values matter. The way we show up for each other matters.”

So celebrate the small wins. Call out the kind gestures. Let people feel proud of how they’re moving through the fog.

And when you can, help them see the other side. Not in a cheesy “better days ahead” way, but in a grounded “this isn’t forever” kind of way.

Talk about what rebuilding looks like. Talk about what strength can look like. Talk about what it means to come through something hard and still care for each other.

That perspective, that sense of a future, it gives people something no budget line ever could.

How to Raise Your Hand When It Feels Like Everything’s On Fire

When you're on the team, not leading it, but you're still deeply affected by a crisis, it can feel hard to speak up. You don’t want to seem like a burden. You don’t want to sound like you’re slacking. But staying silent often makes things worse, inside your head and within your work. Here's a clear framework for how to communicate concerns with honesty, professionalism, and self-respect:

• Start with Context, Not Apology: You don’t need to apologize for being affected by a crisis. Instead of softening or downplaying how you feel, provide context.
  Say: “I’m feeling impacted by what’s happening, and it’s starting to affect how I show up at work. I thought it was important to share that early.”
  Clear context helps your manager understand where you're coming from—and it builds trust, not guilt.

• Name the Emotion and Its Impact: Be specific about what you’re feeling and how it’s showing up in your work.
  Say: “I’m experiencing a lot of anxiety, and it’s making it harder for me to concentrate or meet tight timelines.”
  This helps your manager know whether to adjust deadlines, redistribute work, or just give you a listening ear.

• Make a Concrete Ask: It’s easier for leaders to respond when you tell them what support might help.
  Say: “Would it be possible to shift some meetings to later in the day so I can focus in the mornings?”
  You're not asking for an exception, you’re asking for a plan that helps you stay present and productive.

• Flag Patterns, Not Just Moments: Instead of waiting until you’re overwhelmed, surface issues early.
  Say: “Over the last few days, I’ve noticed I’m not operating at my usual pace. I’m managing for now, but I’d love to touch base before this starts affecting others.”
  This shows foresight and maturity, and often prevents a small issue from becoming a major one.

• Offer Visibility and Collaboration: Let your manager know you're still engaged and willing to work together on a solution.
  Say: “I’ll keep you updated if anything changes, and I’m happy to check in mid-week to reassess.”
  This positions you as responsible, not retreating, and it makes future adjustments easier.

• Be Honest, Even if It Feels Vulnerable: Sometimes, all you need to say is: “I don’t feel okay today.” That’s enough. You don’t need a five-paragraph essay or perfect language. Trust that expressing the truth, early and calmly, is better than bottling it up until burnout hits.

Bottom line: Your leaders can’t support what they don’t know. And in a crisis, honesty is not just welcome, it’s necessary. You’re not weak for saying something. You’re strong for trusting your team enough to be real with them.

Your Team Needs You. Not Solutions, Just You

When an employee shares that they’re struggling, especially during a crisis you can’t control, your response matters. A lot. It can either deepen trust or shut down communication for good. The goal isn’t to have all the answers. It’s to create enough psychological safety that people feel seen, supported, and steady.

Here’s how to do that well:

• Listen Without Defensiveness or Dismissal: When someone shares that they’re not okay, don’t jump to solutions or minimize their feelings.
  Avoid: “Everyone’s dealing with something right now.”
  Say instead: “Thank you for sharing that with me. I’m really glad you did.”
  This sets the tone that emotional honesty is not a liability; it’s part of being a whole person at work.

• Acknowledge the Feeling Before the Fix: You don’t need to diagnose or debate what they’re experiencing. Just name it.
  Say: “It makes total sense that you’d be feeling this way given everything that’s happening.”
  This helps de-escalate shame and anxiety, and shows you’re human before you’re a boss.

• Ask Clarifying Questions Gently: Instead of interrogating (“What exactly is the problem?”), try open, supportive phrasing.
  Say: “What’s been feeling hardest to manage right now?”
  or
  “Would it help if we brainstormed some ways to take the pressure off?”
  This invites collaboration without pressure or urgency.

• Offer Flexibility Proactively: Don’t wait for the perfect ask. You can model support.
  Say: “Would adjusting your schedule this week help?”
  or
  “If there are projects you’d rather pause or reshuffle, let’s work through it together.”
  Even small accommodations can go a long way in preventing burnout.

• Reaffirm Trust and Reassure Continuity: The fear behind fear is often: “Will I be seen as unreliable now?”
  So say it directly: “You’re a valued part of this team. This doesn’t change that.”
  That one line can change everything about how safe an employee feels coming to you again.

• Close the Loop—But Don’t Crowd: Follow up with a short check-in later: “Hey, just wanted to see how you’ve been feeling since we last spoke.”
  It signals care, without surveillance. But also don’t over-monitor or constantly bring it up. Let them set the pace.

Your job as a leader is not to fix feelings. It’s to make space for them without judgment. And to protect the humans behind the performance. Especially when the world outside is unstable, you are the stability your team needs.

Hold the Line, Even If Your Hands Are Shaking

Leading through an uncontrollable crisis isn’t about having the answers.

It’s about asking better questions:

• Are my people safe?

• Do they feel seen?

• Is there anything I can shift to lighten the load, even just a little?

You can’t fix war. You can’t erase fear. You can’t mute the news.
But you can say: “I’m here. I care. Let’s make this easier, together.”

What the stories of PandaDoc, Marriott, Zomato and so many others show us is this:
Crisis leadership isn’t about grand gestures. It’s about consistency.
It’s about protecting humanity in systems that often reward detachment.
And sometimes, it’s about saying: “Pause. I’ll cover for you.”

So yes:
Lead with clarity.
Be honest when it’s hard.
Say “we don’t know yet” when you don’t.
Cancel the offsite if the energy’s off.
Push the deadline when the team is drowning.
Let people cry, rage, or go quiet without punishment.

Create a workplace where people don’t have to collapse to get help.
Because in a crisis, leadership isn’t about performance.
It’s about protection.

And if you're reading this as a founder, a manager, a team lead, anyone holding even a shard of responsibility, here’s your reminder:

You don’t have to be everything to everyone.
But you do have to be someone your team can count on.

And if you’re the one who’s not okay, reading this with a tight chest, blurry focus, or just a quiet sense of dread, please don’t carry it alone.

Leadership doesn’t mean martyrdom. It means knowing when to tag someone in.

Mental Health Resources

Share them. Bookmark them. Use them.

• iCall (TISS)
  +91 9152987821 | Mon–Sat, 10 AM–8 PM
  Confidential, multilingual psychosocial helpline
  icallhelpline.org

• Vandrevala Foundation
  9999666555 (WhatsApp support available) | 24x7
  vandrevalafoundation.com

• Tele MANAS
  14416 | 24x7

• MPower Minds
  1800-120-820050 | 24x7

• Fortis Mental Health Helpline
  +91 8376804102 | 24x7

• Voice That Cares
  8448-8448-45 | Mon–Sun, 9 AM–9 PM

• More helplines: The Live Love Laugh Foundation – Helpline Directory

You can lead and struggle.
You can be strong and scared.
You can be the one others lean on, and still need someone to lean on yourself.

So be soft. Be serious. Be transparent. Be kind.

Be the person who makes hard days just a little more survivable.

Because long after the dust settles, your team won’t remember the decks or the deadlines.

They’ll remember how you made them feel when everything else was falling apart.

That’s leadership. And it’s more than enough.