The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before

Saying a book is too short shouldn’t be considered criticism, but that is the biggest complaint I have with this book. Erika and Lynn provide an excellent book on leadership that business managers and aspiring leaders should have at their disposal. The authors provide an excellent framework and points that we all will be better served with in future crises.I wish the authors provided more examples than referring to the NBA Commissioner, Adam Silver, and the NBA’s response to the COVID-19 crisis. While Adam Silver provides a great example of having a diverse network and is a model for building and maintaining ties to those outside your field, the industry and situation the NBA faced were different from a majority of the workforce. What I mean by this is concerning business risk. NBA may have lost revenue shutting down but the risk they faced was not the same as your mom-and-pop store. In March 2020, what was the worst thing that could happen to the NBA? How easy is it to form another major basketball league in that environment and what was the competition they faced? Compare that to the mom-and-pop store that depends on its revenue to live. For a vast majority of business managers and business owners, the risks and threats were not the same compared to the NBA. The book would be more helpful if the authors could substantiate their framework with more relatable examples from small to mid-size companies.The other complaint I have with the book is when the authors fail to mention or not consider some situations from an economic supply and demand lens and echoes judgement from the public on the response some companies took during the pandemic based on a HR perspective. This is regarding some companies trying to address the supply chain shortage during the pandemic. The supply chain issue is still a challenge and business managers trying to move workers to address that problem should be considered with compassion just as much as workers should receive. Based on what I take from this book, the safest response for a major company to take during the pandemic is to allow paid leave or telework if possible. While these are great benefits for employees of these companies, from which I have benefited, the actual problems are left unaddressed, and the effects of the supply chain are just being shifted. I do not know the solution to all these problems, and I do agree with the framework and lessons the authors provide. I just feel that the book would be better if the authors brought in other examples, provided greater context, and reserved judgment in some cases, and this would make it more helpful to its readers as well.