We often feel leaders must be detached and aloof, but Sasha Chanoff explains how he became a better leader--and saved lives--when he chose empathy and altruism. Through his extraordinary story and the stories of other brave leaders, Sasha inspires all leaders to be guided by their deepest moral values.


We may never know when or where our calling as leaders will be revealed and put to the test. The decisions we make when faced with a crisis may shape our purpose for the rest of our lives. Sasha Chanoff here expands on his own story, first recounted on The Moth podcast as 'An Impossible Choice.' Charged with evacuating a specific number of refugees, Sasha and his colleague find a group of widows and orphans not on the rescue list. Leaving them behind will mean their death. But attempting to take them will jeopardize the lives of all those on the list.

Sasha and David have gathered other stories of crisis and decision, and have drawn out six principles for confronting critical decisions. They reveal the opportunities present in the hardest decisions. From Crisis to Calling is about recognizing your moral center, acting on it, and using it to shape and guide your life and the life of your organization. It's about how preparing for hard decisions can transform you into an inspiring, trusted and ethical leader. It celebrates the power of altruism, which is too often unappreciated in the leadership toolkit.