Leading Through Crisis with Céline Williams

What does it take to lead when the unimaginable happens? In this episode of Leading Through Crisis, I talk with Helen Hynson Vettori – former paramedic, senior medical intelligence officer, and emergency manager who spent from 2005 until her retirement planning and preparing the federal government for biological threats, including pandemics (long before COVID-19 made its mark).Helen traces her unlikely path from a childhood fascination with first responders to working an active shooter scene as a paramedic, to a career in the Department of Defense's Protective Medicine Branch, to becoming the internationally award-winning author of the Black Swan thriller trilogy. We dig into what real leadership looks like in a crisis: why humility and honest communication matter more than authority, how ordinary people become leaders for themselves in moments of chaos, and why community – not individualism – is what actually gets people through disasters.The conversation also covers practical emergency preparedness and how Helen turned her professional frustrations into fiction.This episode is incredibly fascinating for leaders and readers alike; a must-listen for anyone drawn to entertaining stories with practical takeaways! —Helen Hynson Vettori was born in Washington, DC, and has always lived and worked in the National Capital Region. Her knowledge and experiences gained as an EMT / commended paramedic in the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad and Employee of the Year emergency manager in the Department of Homeland Security enable her to write books with credible and thrilling Black Swan plots. A Black Swan event is a catastrophic incident that no one could have foreseen or imagined because of its unprecedented impact. The first two books in her Black Swan Trilogy Thriller Novel Series, Black Swan Impact and Black Swan Shock, won the speculative fiction category from the International Impact Book Awards in 2025 and 2026, respectively, and Black Swan Impact won the Publishers Weekly choice for its 2026 fiction category. Both may be found worldwide. The third novel, Black Swan Terror, is in the editing process. Vettori lives in Leesburg, VA, with her husband.Learn more about Helen and her books at helenhynsonvettori.com. Or connect with her on Instagram (@helenhvettori).

Most leaders try to manage a crisis with logic; it rarely works. In this episode of Leading Through Crisis, host Céline Williams sits down with Doug Noll — a former trial lawyer, peacemaker, and author of De-Escalate — who spent over a decade teaching maximum-security inmates how to stop fights before they start. Doug breaks down the neuroscience of conflict: why 95% of the brain is emotional (not rational), why the prefrontal cortex shuts down under threat, and why leading through logic during a crisis is fighting biology itself.  He introduces a simple, research-backed technique called affect labeling (saying "you feel" and naming someone's emotion) that can calm a nervous system in under two minutes, whether you're in a boardroom, a family crisis, or a prison yard. Along the way, Doug shares one of the most powerful stories from his 10 years working in California and Connecticut prisons: a woman serving a 25-to-life sentence who used this exact skill to reconnect with the son she had relinquished 18 years earlier. If you're a business owner, executive, or leader who wants practical tools for leading through change, conflict, and crisis — not just theory — this conversation will change how you show up in every hard conversation you have next. — Douglas E. Noll, JD, MA, is a lawyer-turned-peacemaker. He is an award-winning author, teacher, trainer, and highly experienced mediator. Doug’s work carries him from international work to helping people resolve deep interpersonal and ideological conflicts. His training has included everything from teaching life inmates to be peacemakers and mediators in maximum-security prisons to training analysts at the Congressional Budget Office how to de-escalate members of Congress and staff. You can learn more at https://dougnoll.com. The special site with resources for our listeners, https://dougnoll.co/crisis, goes live August 17th. You can also connect with Doug on... LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dougnoll/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/DouglasNoll Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/douglasenoll/ Or subscribe to his YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtAHXdBT1Y0Pl7SGrM_HcFw Doug's new book, Empathy Leadership, comes out at the beginning of September. Pre-order here: https://dougnoll.com/books/empathy-leadership

Leadership advisor and DEI expert Stacey Gordon returns to Leading Through Crisis to explain why diversity, equity, and inclusion should never be treated as a bolt-on "initiative," and why that mistake is exactly why so many companies have abandoned their DEI programs.  Stacey and host Céline Williams dig into why so many leaders struggle with flexibility and self-awareness, how communication breakdowns between managers and teams happen even when everyone has the best intentions, and why "inclusive leadership" is really just... good leadership.  They also unpack the biases quietly shaping hiring decisions, why leaders rarely get real feedback about how their teams actually experience them, and Stacey's free Leadership Reality Check quiz for anyone ready to find out the gap between how they think they lead and how their team sees them.  This conversation might just challenge how you think about communication, feedback, and what DEI actually means. — Stacey Gordon is a globally recognized keynote speaker, leadership advisor, and workplace culture strategist who helps organizations build inclusive, high-performing workplaces as they navigate today’s evolving legal, social, and business landscape.  As the founder of Rework Work, Stacey partners with executive leaders, people managers, and HR and legal teams to strengthen talent systems, leadership capability, and workplace culture— relying on a foundation of legally sound, people-first approaches. Her work focuses on debiasing systems, developing inclusive leadership behaviors, and creating cultures of fairness, belonging, and accountability that benefit everyone.  Stacey is a frequent keynote speaker at HR, talent, and leadership conferences worldwide and has served as an adjunct professor at several universities. She is also a trusted voice in the broader business conversation, having provided subject matter expertise to Harvard Business Review, SHRM, Fast Company, Forbes, NPR, and BBC Radio.  She is the author of UNBIAS, a widely used resource for leaders globally, and the creator of the unconscious bias course on LinkedIn Learning, which was the #1 most-watched course on the platform in 2021, has been translated into multiple languages and has reached nearly two million learners worldwide. You can learn more about Stacey and her work and grab the Leadership Reality Check assessment at reworkwork.com. You can also find her on Substack (https://reworkwork.substack.com/), LinkedIn (Linkedin.com/in/staceygordon), and Instagram (@ReworkWork).  See also CDO Action coalition at https://cdoaction.com.

What does trekking 17,000 feet to Everest Base Camp have to do with leading a business or team in today’s world? As it turns out, quite a lot! In this episode, I sit down with Ketul Patel, a supply chain and business transformation expert and author of A Journey of Elevation, to unpack the leadership lessons forged on the trail to Everest Base Camp. Ketul shares how the mountain became a mirror for everything leaders face today: constant crisis, the illusion of control, and the pressure to keep moving when the path forward is anything but clear.  After 30+ years leading organizational transformations and working alongside CEOs and executives navigating relentless change, Ketul found that a 12-day trek through the Himalayas – complete with mudslides, altitude sickness, a failed Plan A, a failed Plan B, and a grueling 19-hour Jeep ride – taught him more about resilient leadership than any boardroom ever could. Whether you're leading a company through uncertainty, managing a team through change, or simply trying to figure out how to keep going when “the weather” won't cooperate, this conversation will challenge you to rethink what leadership really looks like under pressure. And, Ketul leaves listeners with a powerful challenge: find your own Basecamp moment. Because growth, clarity, and self-knowledge don't require a mountain. They just require the courage to step outside your comfort zone. Listen in! — With a master’s degree from the University of Houston, Ketul Patel has made a lasting impact as both a seasoned corporate leader and a Big Four supply chain consultant, transforming global supply chains across retail, wholesale, and manufacturing.  As the founder and president of OMIIA Consulting, he serves as a business turnaround specialist and COO for companies seeking profitable growth and striving to scale toward Fortune 500 performance.  Patel has authored multiple white papers and blogs on supply chain thought leadership and is a speaker at supply chain conferences, known for blending strategic insight with real-world pragmatic execution to drive sustainable business success.  His debut book, A Journey of Elevation: Lessons for Business Transformation from Everest Base Camp, was released in January 2026. Learn more about Ketul, or grab the book at omiiaconsulting.com/books or connect with him on LinkedIn.

What does it actually look like to lead people through a crisis — not just manage operations, but truly show up for the humans involved? In this episode of Leading Through Crisis, host Céline Williams sits down with Tracy Nolan, a Fortune 50 Senior Executive and global Board Leader with deep expertise in regulated industries, including healthcare and telecommunications. Tracy has led through it all: the closure of 27 retail stores as the last executive standing, being on a plane landing at Newark on the morning of 9/11 while working for Verizon, and managing 14,000 Sprint employees through both COVID-19 and a simultaneous merger with T-Mobile. Her philosophy? Jump in (beyond the operational checklist, beyond what the job description says), and treat your people the way you'd want to be treated. In this conversation, Tracy shares: - Why most leaders fail at crisis communication (and what to do instead) - How she ran "no-canned-questions" listening sessions that changed the way her teams trusted her - The "CEO for a day" roundtable method she uses to stay connected to frontline reality - Why feedback is a gift, regardless of your title - A powerful trust exercise every leader should do with their team today If you're a leader, executive, or manager who wants to build an organization that can not only survive a crisis but thrive through one, this episode is essential listening. — Tracy Nolan is a Fortune 50 senior executive and global board leader with deep experience in regulated industries, including healthcare and telecommunications. She has overseen $6B+ in P&L's, led multi-billion dollar revenue transformations, and delivered sustainable value through M&A integrations, operating models redesigns, and risk-managed expansion.  Tracy currently serves as Senior Vice President, where she leads the Insurance sales organization and distribution strategy. Tracy has recently been named to the 50/50 Women to Watch for Boards list and serves as the Board Secretary for Dress for Success Worldwide. She is an advocate dedicated to "Inspiring Leaders to Lift while they Climb." Connect with Tracy: tracynolan.com | LinkedIn: Tracy E. Nolan

The most surprising leadership insights may not be found where you'd expect… In this episode, Céline sits down with Philip Atkinson, an organizational coach and beekeeper who has spent his career helping leaders around the world become better humans with better skills. Philip is also the author of Bee Wise: 12 Leadership Lessons from a Busy Beehive, a beautifully written book structured across the four seasons, blending the science of bees with the very human challenges of leading an organization. Philip and Céline explore why leadership is still so often rooted in command-and-control thinking – a model built for industrial-era machines, not the living, breathing organizations of today. They dig into what it really means to lead without having all the answers, why "busy" has become a dangerous badge of honor, and how slowing down to sense your environment (the way a beekeeper reads a hive before lifting the lid) can change the quality of every conversation and decision you make. They also get into the often-broken world of feedback: why so many leaders give it wrong, why the simple question "is now a good time?" is a game-changer, and how the bees' famous waggle dance is actually a masterclass in clear, consistent, repeated communication inside a noisy system.  If you're navigating constant change, holding your team together, and trying to lead well without pretending you have all the answers, this conversation is for you. Philip's message is simple and grounding: everyone deserves to be led well, and being a good leader starts with being a good human. Bee Wise is available wherever you purchase books, with all proceeds going to Bees for Development, a charity supporting families in developing countries through sustainable beekeeping businesses. Learn more at beewisebook.com. Connect with Philip on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/philipatkinsonhivelogic.