Crisis-ready Leadership: Building Resilient Organizations and Communities provides the knowledge and skills necessary to make timely and effective decisions while managing a large-scale incident. Codifying the best practices from the successful FEMA-certified course On-Scene Crisis Leadership and Decision Making for HazMat Incidents, this comprehensive volume provides systematic guidance on best practices for improving situational awareness, adapting leadership styles, implementing incident command systems across political and organizational boundaries, and more.

Throughout the book, readers gain an in-depth understanding of crucial leadership and decision-making skills through examination of real-world case studies based on interviews, reports, and testimonies of experienced crisis leaders within government and the private sector. Organized around five key topics, each detailed chapter helps crisis leaders fully comprehend a particular problem, its associated challenges, and the lessons learned. Presenting operationally relevant issues and solutions supported by sound theory, this invaluable resource:

• Presents leading models, theories, and frameworks for situational awareness and decision making, including FEMA Community Lifelines
• Highlights complex challenges in different operating contexts and complicating factors such as stress and diversity, equity, and inclusion of stakeholders
• Emphasizes engaging the whole community to enhance preparedness and facilitate the decision-making process to chart a clear path to recovery
• Contains practical exercises designed to strengthen crisis leadership and decision-making skills
• Includes numerous case studies and example strategies, objectives, and scenarios

Crisis-ready Leadership: Building Resilient Organizations and Communities is required reading for all those with leadership and decision-making responsibilities before, during, and after crisis events, including emergency managers, police and fire department leaders, C-suite executives, government agency and military leaders, public health directors, and industrial facility health, safety, security, and environmental directors.