Leadership Slideshow: Crisis Survival Guide: How to Lead in Tough Times

Toyota. BP. Goldman Sachs. All three are huge, traditionally respected brands that have undergone significant crises. Many companies that suffer a devastating turn of fortune don't survive, according to Priscilla Nelson and Ed Cohen, authors of the new book, Riding the Tiger: Leading Through Learning in Turbulent Times (ASTD Press/now available). In the book, Nelson and Cohen provide CIOs and other senior executives with a step-by-step process for getting through a storm with the corporate ship intact. It isn't about "battening down the hatches," as some leaders instinctively would do. Instead, it's about opening up lines of communications - even more so than when business is going well. The authors speak from experience: both worked for Satyam Computer Services, a company that found itself in the midst of a major accounting-fraud scandal in 2009. At the time, Nelson was global director of people leadership and Cohen was chief learning officer.