In a Public Crisis, Knowing What to Prioritize (and Ignore) Is What Separates Leaders Who Execute From Those Who Stall

Chaos has a sound: the Slack thread that won’t stop, reporters asking for comment, the board demanding answers for a headline that appeared overnight.

In that moment, everyone wants your attention — and everyone thinks they matter. Your job isn’t to respond to everything. It’s to decide what counts.

Without a system, you react. You give equal weight to voices that don’t shape the outcome, while the ones who do are left waiting. People say leaders need thick skin. What they actually need is clarity — clarity on who they’re accountable to, and the discipline to treat everyone else accordingly. That discipline is what holds under pressure.

When Microsoft moved to acquire Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, opposition was loud — competitors, politicians, media. They ignored most of it and focused on the only stakeholders who could stop the deal: regulators in the US, UK and EU. They didn’t chase every narrative. The deal closed. The noise was real. It just wasn’t relevant.

The current environment makes this harder. AI can generate a credible CEO statement before legal picks up the phone. Internal emails can reach reporters in minutes. Social platforms can turn a trivial moment into a full-blown story before you’ve decided if it matters.

Earlier this year, McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski posted a video tasting the new Big Arch burger. The internet piled on. Rivals and comedians amplified it to tens of millions of views. McDonald’s didn’t panic. They recognized it wasn’t a stakeholder crisis.

Their brand account posted a single winking Instagram image: “Take a bite of our new product. Can’t believe this got approved.” Then they moved on. A spokesperson noted they were glad the Big Arch had everyone’s attention. Early sales beat expectations. The reaction was loud. It just didn’t matter.

Step 1: Allocate attention with the 70/25/5 rule

When something breaks into the public eye, leaders treat every critic like a stakeholder. That’s how you end up distracted, defensive and exhausted — without moving anything that actually matters.

Use a simple model:

• 70%: People who can directly impact your license to operate in the near term — regulators, your board, key investors, critical customers and the parts of your workforce you can’t afford to lose.
• 25%: People who influence those stakeholders — analysts, industry experts, trade press.
• 5%: Everyone else — the noise.

Most leaders invert this.

Step 2: Get specific about who matters

“Investors matter” isn’t a strategy. Which investors? Why are they invested? What do they expect?

A long-term value investor wants to know you won’t overreact. A short-term growth investor wants to know how quickly you can contain the issue. Same situation, completely different expectations. The same applies to employees. You’re not leading “the workforce.” You’re leading distinct groups with different stakes in the outcome.

Identify who you need to carry the business forward. Build simple personas:

• Where do they get information?
• What do they fear?
• What earns their trust?

Then communicate accordingly — not to whoever is loudest that day.

Step 3: Don’t go silent — but don’t speculate

If you don’t speak, people will decide what happened without you. That doesn’t mean rushing out half-truths or making promises you can’t keep. It means sharing the most complete picture you can, and being explicit about what comes next.

Cadence matters as much as content. Regular updates prevent a vacuum and preserve credibility.

Step 4: Lead with tradeoffs, not conclusions

There are no perfect decisions in volatile conditions — only tradeoffs.Leaders lose trust when they pretend otherwise. When they present decisions as obvious or cost-free, people can see the gap immediately.

Instead, show the math:

• What you chose
• What you gave up
• What you need from people now

For example: We prioritized protecting our workforce over responding to every external critic. That means we won’t engage with every narrative — and we need the team focused on execution, not the noise.

Use the same structure every time so people can follow the logic, not just the outcome.

Step 5: Curate the counsel that sustains your judgment

Thick skin is easier when you’re not alone — but who you listen to matters.

Challenge without support creates paralysis.
Support without challenge creates delusion.

You need both:

• Someone who will tell you what’s wrong with your thinking
• Someone who will lock arms with you once the decision is made

Those rarely come from the same person.

And when the noise peaks, go back to why you took the job. Not the title or the comp — the thing you set out to do.

That’s what keeps you from getting pulled in every direction.