Navigating Turbulent Waters: Crisis Leadership in Sports

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overview of crisis leadership by discussing conceptual and empirical research, as well as practical suggestions. As such in this chapter, we offer a conceptual classification of crises, definitions of crisis leadership, indicative empirical studies conducted in sport, and recommendations of how sport leaders (e.g., coaches, performance directors, team leaders) can deal with crisis events. Moreover, we highlight that there is a great deal of scope for empirical research to grow the knowledge-base of leadership crisis in sport. The generated knowledge would aim to support sport leaders to better prepare for, deal with, and even benefit from crisis events.