Holding the Line as Part of the Senior Leadership Team
When trading weakens, pressure doesn’t only land at the top of the house. It cascades. Boards intensify scrutiny. Funders start circling. And inside the business, it is often the senior leadership team that takes the heaviest hit.
The CEO or MD carries the weight of ultimate accountability. But the SLT carries the reality of delivery. You are asked to keep your own function steady, absorb board pressure, protect your teams, and somehow stay aligned with peers who may be facing entirely different pressures. It’s a unique position: you have accountability without final authority, responsibility without the same level of control.
And yet, this is where a strong SLT proves its worth. Not in stable periods where growth is straightforward, but when conditions tighten and the wheels threaten to come off.
Set the Tone in Your Own Function
Every function has its own culture, and in pressured times, tone spreads fast. If you look panicked, your team will too. If you pretend nothing is wrong, they’ll lose trust.
Your role is to frame reality clearly but constructively. Be honest about the seriousness of the situation. Then show how the team’s work links to the immediate priorities of the business. People don’t need blind optimism; they need context and confidence that their efforts still matter.
Align with Your Peers
When stress hits, silos harden. Finance protects cash. Sales push volume at any cost. Operations pull levers to cut spend. Marketing shouts for budget to protect pipeline. It’s natural, but it is also fatal.
The CEO cannot fight six different battles at once. They need one senior leadership team pulling in the same direction. That doesn’t mean you’ll always agree. It does mean you settle the disputes privately and bring a united position into the room.
Alignment is not about silencing debate. It’s about ensuring the business isn’t pulled apart by competing agendas.
Balance Loyalty with Challenge
Your CEO is under extraordinary pressure. They are fielding funders, managing the board, and watching cash every day. Blind loyalty won’t help them, but neither will dissent that fractures trust.
The right stance is supportive in public, honest in private. Test assumptions. Raise concerns. Offer alternatives. But do it in a way that strengthens, not destabilises. A CEO under fire doesn’t need an SLT of silent bystanders. They need sparring partners who sharpen their thinking without undermining their authority.
Bring Clarity, Not Noise
In a crisis, information multiplies. Reports lengthen. Data becomes noise. The easiest mistake an SLT can make is to pass that noise upward.
Your job is to filter. When asked for an update, discipline yourself to provide decision-ready input:
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What’s happening
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Why it matters
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What options exist
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What you recommend
That discipline serves two purposes. It helps your CEO and board make faster decisions. And it models clarity for your own teams, who will follow your lead.
Protect Morale Downstream
Your teams are watching closely. Most will never have worked through a downturn like this. Anxiety will show up as distraction, gossip, or hesitancy to act.
Your role is to steady them. Shield them from unnecessary noise. Keep communication regular, simple, and constructive. Show them that their work has purpose, even if the mission has narrowed to survival.
Morale is a fragile currency. Protect it.
Share the Weight, Don’t Add to It
Too often, SLTs increase the CEO’s burden without meaning to. They flood them with detail, escalate problems without solutions, or protect their own turf at the expense of the whole.
Understand this: your CEO is already carrying more than you think. They have the board’s scrutiny, the funder’s demands, the legal duties, and the fate of the business all on their shoulders. The last thing they need is an SLT that adds more noise.
The value of a strong SLT is in lightening that load. Bring clarity. Take ownership. Offer solutions, not just problems. Share the weight.
Manage Sideways Pressure
Senior leaders don’t just manage downwards. They manage sideways. Your peers may be under just as much pressure as you are — and sometimes they’ll look to shift that weight your way.
Resist the instinct to protect only your own patch. Step into gaps where you can, even if they’re outside your function. Offer help. Check in informally. Sideways support is what keeps the team coherent. Without it, stress fractures multiply.
Watch Your Energy
Crises stretch capacity. The instinct is to push harder, speak louder, and carry more. But exhausted leaders make poor decisions — and your team will mirror your behaviour, not your words.
Model discipline. Prioritise ruthlessly. Keep some pace in reserve. Sustainable leadership is more credible than heroics that burn out in weeks.
Collective Resilience is the Difference
In good times, an SLT can operate as a collection of competent individuals. In tough times, that approach fails. Collective resilience is what holds the business together.
That means proactive information-sharing, informal check-ins, and visible unity. It means showing the wider organisation that leadership is steady, aligned, and present — even if debate behind closed doors is fierce.
Final Thought: This Is When Senior Leaders Prove Their Worth
It is easy to look capable in fair weather. It is harder, and more valuable, to prove your worth when the wheels threaten to come off.
For senior leaders, this is the test. Not just how well you run your function, but how well you support the CEO, align with your peers, protect your teams, and share the weight of leadership.
The CEO cannot carry the load alone. A strong SLT gives them the breathing space to lead at the level only they can. A weak one leaves them isolated, and the business exposed.
If you want to show your value as a senior leader, this is your moment. Hold the line. Share the weight. And prove you can be trusted when it matters most.
