What is Authors in the Field?

The Authors In the Field Series is a monthly gathering that shines a spotlight on emerging voices in the coaching arena. At Hudson, we nurture our curiosity and foster dialogues with authors who enrich the coaching profession, providing invaluable resources for our community.

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What do a counterterrorism unit, a bankrupt manufacturing company, and a supermarket chain during COVID have in common? According to Henry Evans, author of the new book Bombs, Bacon, Bankruptcy, they all followed the same rules of crisis leadership. Henry joined Michael Hudson this week for a wide-ranging conversation on what it actually takes to lead — and coach — through a crisis, drawing on 22 years of experience on classified counterterrorism teams and over 16,000 hours coaching at the C-level.

Three takeaways from the conversation

1. Get grounded before you try to lead others

Henry’s central idea is what he calls Speed to Objectivity (STO): how quickly a leader can move past their own emotional, limbic response before asking their team to do the same. “Get your own ship together before you try to lead others,” he said. “Leading other people through crisis is a right that you have to earn.” Culture follows the behavior of leaders, so if the person at the front of the room hasn’t grounded themselves first, that dysregulation spreads to everyone they’re leading.

2. Great coaches don’t opt out of hard conversations

Asked how he balances challenge and support with clients, Henry didn’t hesitate: “A leader may opt out of having difficult conversations sometimes, but a coach can’t.” He pointed to his martial arts coach, Greg Jackson, who never criticized directly — instead reminding Henry of moments he’d already performed with excellence (“I saw you kick higher last Tuesday”), which pushed him to improve while making clear he believed he could. “That mastery,” Henry said, “is what coaching is about.” His practical opener for a hard conversation: ask permission and let the client choose the timing.

3. You win in the gym, not in the ring

Borrowing a line from Muhammad Ali, Henry pointed out that elite operators train at a ratio of thousands of hours to minutes of actual use. You don’t build crisis capacity during the crisis — you build it beforehand, in the small, low-stakes moments that annoy you every day: a comment in a meeting, a delayed flight, a colleague you can’t stand. Practicing your speed to objectivity there, he said, is what makes it available when it actually counts.

Listen to the full conversation

These three ideas are just the surface. Listen below for Henry’s story of leading a supermarket chain through COVID, his concept of the “Empathy Touch and Go,” and his live answers to audience questions on leading through overlapping crises.