For James Lee Witt, the man who rebuilt America’s emergency response system, the most inspiring and effective lessons-about personal responsibility, team building, planning, and taking action-have guided real-life heroes through extraordinary situations and can pull you and your business through the pressures you face each week or once in a career.

Drawing on his experiences handling disasters such as the Mississippi River floods and the Oklahoma City bombing, Witt identifies the tools leaders need to motivate others and triumph over adversity:

- prepare with triage plans and early warning systems

- prevent recurring and avoidable crises

- respond with teamwork, confidence, and customization

- recover by delegating leadership and mining successes and failures

To bring the lessons home, he shares examples and strategies from corporations-from Malden Mills and Intel to Swissair and Kmart-who have overcome crisis by applying the same principles to their businesses, every day.