ABSTRACT
Leaders are quite accustomed to handling organizational crises but may be ill-prepared to handle one in their personal lives. This chapter focuses on the leader as “person-in-crisis.” We review the types of life crises that leaders identified (i.e., the leader’s own physical or psychological illness or injury, physical or psychological illness or injury of a family member, death of a family member, and divorce or a relationship breakup), the duration of their crisis, and the deeply personal ways in which the crisis affected them. Throughout the chapter, research studies on each crisis type provide insight into what leaders, like other individuals, experience when stressful life events suddenly disrupt their daily lives.
