Building Resilience Through a Crisis Code
On the evening of Friday, March 14, 2025, the White House issued an executive order targeting the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI) for elimination to the fullest extent allowed by law. As the CEO of B:Side Capital, a Small Business Administration (SBA) lender and certified community development financial institution, I found myself thrust into an immediate leadership challenge. My phone buzzed incessantly, and my inbox flooded with urgent messages. By Monday morning, I needed a clear, actionable plan to guide my team and board through the uncertainty.
This unexpected move by the newly-formed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) caught many off guard. While mission-based lenders anticipated scrutiny, few predicted the dramatic targeting of the CDFI fund. As such, no comprehensive plan existed for navigating this crisis. Yet, what I did have was a code—a set of clear, written commitments established long before the storm. This code transformed a chaotic weekend into a series of deliberate decisions, enabling our team to face the challenge with clarity and purpose.
From my experience teaching leadership at Arizona State University and leading in the boardroom, one lesson is unmistakable: When pressure hits, vague values fall short. Words like “Integrity” or “People First” are too ambiguous to guide specific, difficult decisions such as staff reductions or public disclosures. These broad concepts often coexist with conflicting choices, causing leaders who rely on them to drift from their true principles over time. This phenomenon underscores the vital importance of a well-defined moral architecture.
Write a Line Specific Enough to Violate
The foundation of an effective leadership code is specificity. Rather than vague platitudes, leaders must articulate concrete behaviors they will never compromise, regardless of the cost. For example, simply stating “I will not compromise my integrity” is ineffective because it allows for rationalization in nearly any scenario. Instead, a line like “I will not tell my team the business is fine when I know it is not” draws a clear boundary. This type of commitment can be objectively upheld or violated, providing a meaningful ethical compass in times of stress.
When the executive order arrived, my personal line was already written and clear: I would not soften the truth to placate my team. I recorded a candid video explaining the existential threat to our business and reassured them that we would confront it methodically, preserving our culture throughout. Though uncomfortable, this honesty fostered trust and accelerated problem-solving. Leaders should test their own lines against the toughest decisions they’ve faced recently; if the line doesn’t produce a decisive answer, it needs refinement.
Build the Restraint Before the Offer Arrives
History offers profound examples of restraint under pressure. Former President George Washington’s refusal to seize power he was not legally entitled to is often cited as his most enduring legacy. Crucially, Washington made this decision long before temptation presented itself, illustrating that moral principles must be established well in advance.
The moment a crisis arrives is the worst time to define your principles. Temptations come cloaked in persuasive arguments, making justifications easy. After the executive order, there was significant pressure within our industry to publicly lash out, framing the situation as a battle of good versus evil. While tempting, our team’s culture of restraint, cultivated beforehand, guided us away from emotional reactions. Instead, we engaged constructively through established channels in Washington to advocate for the program’s value.
Leaders can emulate this by documenting their non-negotiables before pressure mounts and sharing them with a trusted accountability partner. A restraint kept private is merely a preference; public commitment builds the discipline needed to maintain integrity under fire.
Test Your Values Every Quarter
Leadership failures rarely occur in a single dramatic moment. Instead, they tend to arise from a series of small compromises that gradually erode character and core beliefs. Seneca, the Stoic philosopher, serves as a cautionary example: despite his intelligence, he rationalized the injustices of Nero’s court, demonstrating that intellect alone cannot prevent moral drift.
To guard against this, leaders should regularly test their values. Identify someone whose moral judgment you trust implicitly—someone who will challenge your narratives and hold you accountable. Present your toughest current decision to them, either verbally or in writing, and seek out any weak points where your logic may falter or depend on their silence. These vulnerabilities reveal where drift occurs and where your character may be at risk.
Conduct this evaluation quarterly, without exception. The process is especially important when decisions feel comfortable, as these are often the moments when erosion happens unnoticed.
There are additional elements to the full leadership framework, including cultivating a growth edge and establishing a transmission plan, both of which contribute to sustained resilience. However, the three steps outlined above — writing a specific line, building restraint early, and regularly testing values — form the core foundation that can carry you through sudden shocks like the one experienced on that March Friday night.
Ultimately, no one can predict the next black swan event that will impact your business. What you can do is accept that such a crisis will come and prepare by defining who you will be when it does. Set aside time this week to write your code in clear, testable language, and entrust a copy to someone who will hold you accountable. When the crisis demands a code from you — and it will — the question will be whether you wrote it before the pressure arrived.
Key Takeaways
- When institutions wobble, vague values collapse. A written code makes your hardest decisions before the pressure arrives.
- You cannot predict which crisis will hit your business next. All you can do is know that it will come someday, so prepare yourself by deciding who you will be when it does now.
Read more about navigating leadership challenges and crisis management Here.
